Recently, I was hesitant to use any question with negative connotations – just not to contribute to the “naturally occurring” negativity of these times. But I hope that this topic is light enough not to stir any unpleasant feelings. And I still feel a surge of positivity brought by the last week’s Saturday Question topic – thank you hajusuuri and everybody who participated.
Saturday Question #54:
Which Giveaways Do You Not Participate?
How do you feel about giveaways? Is there any type of giveaways where you do not participate on principle? Or are there any conditions that you wouldn’t want to meet? Why?
My Answer
If you were wondering what brought out this topic, I got annoyed by conditions of a giveaway on one of the makeup-related YouTube channels that I watch. In addition to the regular and expected “to be a subscriber” and “to leave a contact information,” strangely there was a question based on the content of the video. I’m not sure I would have entered this giveaway otherwise, but that now-children-what-is-the-secret-word-type question just completely irked me. It’s not a “who names it first competition.” It’s not a closed submission where each person will submit either the right or the wrong answer. It’s an open public forum where once the first person publishes the answer, whoever is there just to throw the hat in the ring does not need to watch the video to enter the giveaway. And loyal subscribers who usually watch those videos for the content itself should feel quite stupid pretending that they are answering the question on their own without reading the previous 50 answers. At least I would have. So, I didn’t enter the giveaway.
But that prompted my thinking about this topic in general. So, that’s what I came up with:
- I do not participate in draws if I suspect that results will/might be rigged. I won’t name names, but there was a blog that I caught once on falsifying results. I haven’t participated in any giveaways there since.
- I do not participate if I think that the requirements are stupid (as in my example above), “not proportional” to the prize offered (follow me, follow the brand, share on FB or IG story, tag N friends, etc. – and all that to get a sample of perfume you’ve never heard of before from a brand you don’t know) or unreasonable (releasing IP rights to your creation by submitting it as an entry into the competition/giveaway).
- I do not participate if I think that somebody else should get a chance to win (e.g., even if I could use one more free sample of perfume I tried and liked but not ready to commit yet, if it’s a private giveaway by a blogger or perfumer, not by a brand, I wouldn’t try to get it).
- I do not usually go for a giveaway of a full bottle of something I do not like and want already because with the number of perfumes in my collection and the success rate of testing new perfumes, I just don’t have any space for bottles that I won’t use.
Now it’s your turn.
Rusty is not jumping through any whoops…
Undina's Looking Glass 
A friend of mine also found a blog was falsifying giveaway results. Maybe it is the same one. I stopped entering after that.
Generally though my tastes are so narrow and I have such a low strike rate that I wouldn’t enter a blog giveaway for a sample unless I was excited about it.
I don’t enter competitions on Instagram where they routinely ask you to tag 3 friends but my sister and I tag each other if it’s just one.
Forget sharing!
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“Sharing” for me feels like an awful invasion into my space :) It’s enough that I do the “Like” (if we’re talking FB). I’m not sure about IG stories: there people do not need to look at them if they don’t want to; but since I’ve never done any “story,” “reel” or what else is there, I won’t start for the sake of entering a giveaway :)
BTW, you have my blanket permission to tag me on any IG giveaway.
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Great question! I occasionally enter giveaways on Insta and it depends on the conditions. I also used to enter the cafleurbon draws but that required me to change my behavior to check the site almost everyday. The one time I won something, a kind Insta friend DM’d me or I would have missed the deadline to send my acknowledgment.
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While I understand why they do that on Cafleurebon, I can’t be bothered to have such a commitment even if I want something :)
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I won’t enter draws where you have to post/like/share/tag on multiple platforms, ones where you must be a subscribed member and they only announce the winner on their blog so you must check it every day, ones where I don’t care about the item being offered. Basically I enter very few.
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Oh, year, I forgot the multi-platform ones! I never do that, even for extra points: it’s just too much to go to somewhere else and do something there while I’m “here” :)
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Like Tara and Tara C, I don’t enter giveaways for anything that require posting on social media outlets and tagging others or giveaways that require answering a lot of questions – either questions that require a lengthy answer or questions that ask for semi-personal information not related to what’s being given away.
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Yeah, I don’t like those “tell us what you fell when bla-bla-bla..”-type “questions.” An exception would be some type of a competition. But I refuse to spend time on writing anything significant if in the end it’ll still be a random draw.
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I don’t like tagging others and sharing too much information. And I only participate if I am really interested in the item
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I wonder if those giveaways that do attempt to get a lot of information actually use it for anything useful (for them, I mean).
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On IG – I only enter if I’m actually truly intrigued by the prize and don’t have to tag more than one friend. Since I don’t actually know any of my IG “friends” IRL (no one I know is interested in perfume, and I have a different personal account) I am not super comfortable tagging – although I have tagged hajusuuri before (and vice versa – I feel like we practically know each other!). On YT, I would only enter a giveaway from someone I’m already engaged with. Really dislike those who want to notify in comments b/c YT is notoriously bad with notifications, and I prefer to keep those off anyway, so I don’t enter much. On blogs – have had positive experiences (mostly with Portia at APJ, Perfume Posse) but again, I skip if I’m not interested in the prize. I have won a couple of times ion Cafleurebon in the past but like hajusuuri, I can’t commit to their requirement of checking every. single. day. I’m not as good as I used to be about reading blogs daily.
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Any time you need an extra “friend” to tag, feel free to use my IG handle.
Recently, I participated in a draw where participants had just 30 minutes to respond to a private message about their win (though, it was known in advance what time the winner will be contacted). Interestingly, if I were to win, I wouldn’t be able to get the prize: the prize was a flower bouquet delivered in the city only (I live in a suburb). But I figured that if I would will, I’d send it to one of the friends in the city. I didn’t win. But I did check within the 30 min window :).
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I’ve seldom participated, especially as I’m not on social media. The first one I tried for was right here! 😉 I also entered Dusita’s poetry contest last year as well as a fundraiser for the NHS, where the prize was a crazy bejeweled bottle of Fragrance du Bois. Didn’t win.
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NHS – National Health Service?.. Unexpected :)
Contests are different (if they are true contests). In general, I like participating in those (though, I don’t do it too often).
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Yes (in the UK), and good point. I knew they didn’t feel like the same thing!
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Great topic! I’m pretty much the same as others who have posted earlier. I usually only participate in giveaways on this blog, Chemist in the Bottle, APJ, Bois de Jasmin and the Fragrantica website. I will participate in a social media giveaway if it only requires me to like their Instagram or FB pages or leave a small comment. I don’t like being required to tag other people and I hate it when they ask the reader to re-post on their own IG acct. I did it once I think for Sisley or La Mer, because the item being given away was something I love and normally can’t afford, but that’s the only time.
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I never share/re-post anything for any prize: since I have my own content, for some reason it feels like a “sellout.” But I don’t mind “Likes,” “Following” or comments.
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I don’t think I have any hard fast rules. But my presence on blogs has been so scarce I can’t even remember the last time I saw a draw. APJ was the blog I most participated when it comes to draws but that was unintentionally. I loved commenting for the sake of commenting and engaging in conversations so quite often I would post DNEM. I prefer exchanging with dear friends rather than entering draws.
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I rarely participate in draws on friends’ blogs: I figure usually draws are for attracting new readers/followers, so for me to participate in those draws, I should be very interested in the item, or it should be coming from a brand.
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You’ve been missed!
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My entering is sporadic as I never seem to win. Instagram contests are new to me but it is quickly becoming more trouble than it’s worth with all the requirements. I don’t waste time entering for something I don’t want and if it’s someone giving away their own personal stash, I usually don’t enter as I feel like I have a lot already. But I am so curious as to how you figured out a blog was falsifying their results?! It brings out all my Nancy Drew instincts. Please do tell. Not so much who it is, but how you discovered it.!
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It was many-many-many years ago. I was young(er) and naive; and I wasn’t too familiar with the draws. Since I rarely commented on that blog (I rarely commented back then on any blogs because it felt intimidating ;) ), it felt wrong to participate in draws. And then there was not just a draw but some type of a puzzle that had to be solved in order to be entered in the draw. Since I love puzzles, I spent some time coming up with the solution. And then I was impatiently waiting for the result of the draw: I wasn’t 100% sure my solution was correct, but there were just several people who even attempted to provide a solution, so the odds to get the prize were quite high. Once the winner was announced, I was amazed to read a name of the person who… I don’t remember any more if that character was even present in the comments to that draw post but he/she definitely didn’t provide any solution to the puzzle, right or wrong. As I said, I was very naive, so I contacted a blog owner with a question… And 10 minutes later the announcement was changed, and the winner was… I. Had the owner published the correction stating that they made a mistake, confused two giveaways or something like that, I would have been tempted to accept. But this was such a blatant attempt to… I’m not sure what – to “buy” me? To show that I was weak/corruptible? I don’t know, but I didn’t claim the prize and more or less stopped visiting that blog.
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That’s interesting that they thought no one would notice! I don’t blame you for not following the blog any longer!
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I don’t enter anything that requires me to tag others and also have zero time or interest in video blogs. As per the blog that so obviously falsifies results, I stopped participating in that one too, along with most of the long-time followers. I enter giveaways for items only that truly interest me and everything less than a love, along with all samples, gets tossed into a rolling box.
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Video blogs that I follow are of the “right” kind :). I mean, if for any subject, video format is perfect for makeup tutorials and swatches.
I’m getting better at passing on samples that I tried and didn’t like. Though recently I mostly get 1 ml samples, so by the time I finish testing, whether I liked it or not, it’s gone.
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Hey Undina,
I rarely enter giveaways.
It’s like lottery tickets. When I have one I’m sure it will be me winning and I spend hours in spendalicious revery.
If one of my buddies has a giveaway going I’ll pop my name in though to show support. Once I even won a bottle of the Penhaligon’s Juniper Sling from Thomas at Candy Perfume Boy! That was a red letter day!
Portia xx
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I used to win more often in very early days of my perfume hobby: everything was so new that probably I participatied in many more giveaways than I do these days.
Juniper Sling is a good prize to win! (And now I know what a “red letter day” phrase means :) – learn something new every day).
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YAY! for Red Letter Day Undina! I’ve used it for so long and only knew it meant important or memorable. WOW that it has been used on calendars since the Roman Empire to denote auspicious, important or memorial days. I too have learned today.
Do you still read a lot of blogs? I admit that my voraciousness of early years has plummeted to a few buddies. Even them irregularly. The only things I read religiously are the blogs I write for. My world grows smaller and more comfortable each day.
Portia xx
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I read most of the posts from the blogs on my “Reading List” (aka Blogroll), but often I do it days (if not weeks) later. I regularly comment only on friends’ blogs and from time to time on NST.
BTW, I’m surprised you didn’t comment on the Saturday Question before the last. Do you remember how we “met”?
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Pretty much like everyone else, i really don’t enter giveaways ( anymore). IF it’s only a question of liking, and writing something that I find fun, then I might enter, however, these days it’s not really over perfume, for all the reason you state. And if I truly AM bothered, which for me these days would be small and indie perfumers, do I then not want to support the small brand instead? If it were a question of winning something which is actually hard to get, say a US based perfume makes a WW giveaway, that might be different.
Also, not only will I not tag others for these purposes, I don’t tolerate being tagged without being asked first, as I find it incredibly rude.
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I agree with you on both support to small brands that I like and tagging! You get my blanket permission to tag me on IG whenever you need an extra “body” for any entry :)
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I rarely enter any more. It was such fun to win a couple of times when I first went down the rabbit-hole, including once from Portia (!!), and a draw was how I first got to try 4160 Tuesdays and “meet” Sarah McCartney, so I’m grateful for that. BTW, I was so impressed — the blog had said the prize would be a 100 ml bottle because their original plan was to ship from within the US, then that fell through, and then shipping problems from the UK emerged for a bottle that size, so Sarah herself sent me a total of 100 ml by combining a 50 ml bottle of the promised fragrance with several small travel sizes of her other fragrances, with a lovely handwritten note. I’ve been a fan ever since.
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Yes, I remember how exciting it was in the early days when I won some of the hard-to-get samples… Not much excites me these days even to try to get it.
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Like many of you, I don’t enter many giveaways at all any more. I have so many samples now that I need to work my way through those, and to be honest, in today’s economy, there are many fragrance-lovers who will truly benefit from a giveaway of something they couldn’t otherwise afford, so that holds me back too. I don’t do the ones where you have to tag someone else or re-post, and I don’t watch YouTube reviews (I strongly prefer reading blogs). So there you have it! I have taken part in NST’s freebiemeets a few times, both as recipient and as giver, and that was fun.
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For me it is #2, because like Tara, I can’t be doing with sharing things and tagging others and possibly annoying them, whether the prize is proportionate or not. I also steer clear of giveaways where I think participation will unleash a daily torrent of junk mail for evermore.
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As I suggested to several commenters above, feel free to tag me whenever you need a “body” – I do not use my IG account for anything other than sharing a picture once in a while or looking through others’ pictures before I fall asleep, so I do not really care if any of my friend were to tag my IG account.
A couple of days ago I saw an especially outrageous request for the entry: follow the account (well,obvious), tag 2 friends (well… OK, probably you can have “buddies” who do not mind being tagged for giveaways) AND make sure they also follow the account (REALLY?!!).
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