If you were to google blog giveaway rules right now, you’d come up with a ton of results sharing about the same bits of information. My good friend Jenn even wrote a post about it. I started really researching giveaway rules in preparation of a large giveaway I was planning. There are a TON of rules for hosting a giveaway on your blog. Did you know that? If you are saying “no, I didn’t know that” then you are in the big boat of people that aren’t in the know. And it’s really not cool to be in that boat. So let’s fix that, shall we?
Rule #1: Use a widget like Rafflecopter. It makes hosting a giveaway super simple. This isn’t really a rule. It’s just something that will make your life SO.MUCH.EASIER.
Rule #2: Learn what a blogger giveaway really is…3 types of Promotions according to Sara F. Hawkins, Attorney-at-law and all around Blog Goddess.
“Sweepstakes are prize giveaways where the winners are chosen by the luck of the draw. Prizes can be almost anything a blogger can think of from handmade cards to an all expenses-paid trip.
Contests choose a winner based on some merit. The winner is chosen based on some criteria such as best photo, funniest parenting tip, etc.
A Lottery is a prize drawing where people must pay money to buy a chance to win. Lotteries are highly regulated and should not be run without consulting with legal counsel.”
So that makes a blogger giveaway an actual Sweepstakes.
Rule #3: Do not accidentally turn your Giveaway into an Illegal Lottery. (Playing dumb will not work either. These are federal laws!)
A lottery consists of 3 parts: Prize, Chance and Consideration.
You cannot hold a giveaway without offering up something as the prize. No one would enter. And would be a complete waste of time. Can you see…“Come enter my giveaway! I’m giving away nothing.nada.zilch.” Awesome! NOT!
Chance…something of pure luck.
Now the whopper…Consideration (something of value). This element is also what I like to call the silent enemy. Often consideration is money. But it can also be construed as time.
Sara makes another great point
“When it comes to bloggers, there are few things more valuable than followers. As such, requiring someone to ‘like’ you or ‘follow you’ could be construed as consideration. Even more important, asking an entrant to go to a third-party site, navigate to find a product or services and then report back to your site is even more likely to be deemed consideration and thus placing your giveaway into the classification of illegal lottery. Time is exceedingly valuable!”
So don’t ask someone to go to so-and-so’s site and come back and tell me what you’d buy. That can be construed as consideration, turning your giveaway into an illegal lottery.
UPDATE: The element of Consideration only applies to a mandatory entry. Your optional entries can be whatever you want. So make sure you offer a freebie as your mandatory entry and your giveaway won’t ever turn into an illegal lottery.
Rule #4: Your giveaway MUST include a disclosure and policies regarding your giveaway. Here are the elements that have to be included:
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY;
Eligibility requirements, such as age and residence (marketers may want to limit eligibility to U.S. residents, residents of certain states, and adults only, and should be aware of foreign language requirements that may apply depending on the geographic reach of the promotion);
Duration and deadlines;
Instructions on playing (if applicable);
Entry procedures (both online and direct mail procedures, if applicable);
Prize description(s);
Odds of winning;
General disclaimers for lost/delayed mail or e-mail, printing or posting typographical errors, technical failures, etc.;
How and when winners are selected;
Right to obtain winners’ names and how to do so;
Right to publicize winners’ names and likenesses;
Method of distributing prizes not claimed;
Liability release;
Sponsor’s name and contact information; and
VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.
Here is an example of standard terms and conditions for a giveaway from The Adventures of J-Man and MillerBug:
“Giveaway ends July 31st at 11:59 PM EST. Open to Legal Residents (18 years of age or older) of the US only. Prizes cannot be shipped to PO Boxes. Winner will be selected by Random.org and be notified by email. Winner will have 48 hours to respond before a new winner is selected. Please note that BlahBlahBlah Blog is not responsible for sponsors that do not fulfill their prizes. I have represented each sponsor with the expectation they will fulfill their prize and in a timely manner. I will contact the sponsor regarding your prize(s). The sponsors, in most cases, are shipping their items to you directly. I will make every effort to assist you in obtaining your prize. If there is an issue with a sponsor, please notify the blog you won a prize from within 30 days for assistance, after that we may be unable to assist you. The product provided for the review was free of charge from the company. The product offered for the giveaway is free of charge, no purchase necessary. My opinions are my own and were not influenced by any form of compensation. Facebook, Twitter and Google+ are in no way associated with this giveaway. By providing your information in this form, you are providing your information to me and me alone. I do not share or sell information and will use any information only for the purpose of contacting the winner.”
Rule #5: You have to give everyone a free entry. The most simple way to do this in Rafflecopter is choosing the “Create Your Own Option” and simply saying…Here’s your free entry, click the button. You could ask for a blog comment, as for now that still seems to be okay as your entry, but you can’t require someone to answer a specific question. If you want someone to answer the following question in their blog comment “What is your favorite season?” and someone replies back with “Hi thanks for hosting” that phrase “hi thanks for hosting” actually becomes that person’s free entry. And you have to add their info to your list (even if they didn’t officially enter…because it falls under the free entry of “leave a blog comment”) So, just because someone doesn’t answer your question, doesn’t mean you can void their entry. The key phrase here is Everyone must have the opportunity for a free entry.
Rule #6: You cannot make a kajillion entries mandatory. That in and of itself, turns your giveaway into an illegal lottery. The consideration element becomes time. If you want a mandatory entry, make it the free one, and then open up the additional ways to enter.
Rule #7: You cannot use a Facebook Page Like or ask for a comment or a like on a FB post as an entry for your giveaway. Doing so violates Facebook Page TOS. Rafflecopter allows you to add a FB option that simply sends someone to your page. If you opt to add that in, the entry is the fact that someone clicked the button to visit your FB page. They DO NOT have to engage with your page.
Rule #8: Do not ever announce the winner’s name via social media. If you want to make an announcement, display it on the Rafflecopter widget and direct people to go see who won…and then email that person to say they won.
Rule #9: Any giveaway in which the prizes are valued over $600 (in a combined total), must include a 1099 to the giveaway winner. Which means you have to collect their social security number/federal business tax ID to send them an IRS form at the end of the year for tax purposes. So make sure your giveaway items total less than $600.
Rule #10: If you host a giveaway that has multiple prizes coming from multiple people in various states, your giveaway will be liable in each of the states in which you receive an item. That’s a scary thought!
Rule #11: If you want to allow Canadian residents or International residents to participate, you have to make sure your giveaway follows their laws as well. And that’s just a whole ‘nother can of worms. (Sorry Canadian and International friends!)
Rule #12: You cannot ever, and I mean ever, extend the time on your giveaway. Even if you only have 1 entry. That is illegal.
Rule #13: If you have a sponsor who has asked you to host a giveaway and that sponsor is the one providing your prize(s) and that sponsor decided to back out or not send the winner the prize, you are still responsible. You must send the winner the prize(s) regardless (or if you can’t get that same exact prize, something of equal value or send the value in money). Because you were the host and you were the one who entered into the contract with each person who entered.
Read Blog Giveaway Rules Part 2 to this post here.
Whew…..now you are no longer in the boat of “I didn’t know about all these giveaway rules/laws.” Y’all, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) isn’t the only entity governing giveaways. The FCC (Federal Communications Commission), USPS (United States Postal Service) and the DOJ (United States Department of Justice). Oh and don’t forget the State governmental entities. It would behoove you to not be ignorant in this bit of the blogging world. You cannot play dumb. You cannot pretend you didn’t know. That’s like saying you didn’t know what the speed limit was after being pulled over for speeding. Ignorance, my friends, is not bliss when it comes to giveaways.
Or Blog Disclosures for that matter. Read my FTC Guidelines update to get in the know on that bit of blogging information. Another area it would behoove you to not be ignorant. And just because a big-wig company tells you it’s okay to put your blogging disclosure at the bottom of your post, does not mean they are in the “know” about the rules surrounding the FTC and disclosures. They are either “in the know” and are choosing to ignore (which would get them and you in A LOT of trouble) or they really aren’t in the know. So, do your homework. If blogging is what you want to do or what you are doing (meaning this is your business), own up to it. Educate yourself.
PS….Here is my DISCLAIMER: I am not an attorney. This is not me giving you legal advice. The information provided within this post is not legal advice and is only based upon my own research and experience. None of the above should be considered a substitute for you consulting your own legal counsel who will guide you and your blog/company in how to create and manage giveaways (sweepstakes or contests).
Want some more blogging tips/advice? Take a listen to my Podcast!! Boss Girl Creative
(Where I Party)
…and I thought I knew all I needed to know about giveaways! Thanks girl! I’m glad you wrote this post and I hope a lot of folks listen up! Great job!
XO
For now, I will stick with ponying onto giveaways like yours 🙂 But am bookmarking this for the future!
Wow I had no idea there were restrictions!! Thanks for the heads up….even though I’m not a blogger really.:) Never know when the bug will get you though!
I’m not a blogger, but I follow quite a few blogs and I see giveaways often. I stopped entering most of them because I felt that some bloggers really weren’t being honest with their “random” selection of the winners. I also don’t think that many of them were following the “rules” that you have posted. I know that with Rafflecopter, they can skip over winners with the supposed idea that the person didn’t follow through with what they said they did. I’m hoping that bloggers will read this and start adhering to the rules you have discussed, especially #3, #5 and #7. These all make it much more fair for people who don’t want to like a Facebook page, do a ton of entries or visit other people’s sites. Great information! I hope this post gets the attention it deserves:)
I knew most of these, which is why I hardly EVER host giveaways anymore. It’s just not worth it! Thank you for spreading the word – you did a great job. But one question – why not announce winners on social media?
I was curious about this too.
No Facebook Like entries allowed? Or just not allowed as a mandatory entry? I never do mandatory entries anyway.
Um… HOLY CRAP that’s a LOT of information. I did read through it all and learned some things. Goodness gracious you are SO GOOD to us clueless bloggers! Thank you Taylor!
ok so how is everyone’s giveaway not a lottery then? every single one requires something like liking social media or leaving comments. which to bloggers are important. so that’s consideration. and every single on is an illegal lottery. what am I missing?
Wow, thanks for this! I didn’t know there were so many rules! I knew there had to be some violation with Facebook likes, but I couldn’t figure it out. Hopefully this will spread like wildfire and tons bloggers can benefit from it. I’m sharing. 🙂
These are great tips! Thank you!
So glad I’ve just started and not opened this can of worms. I have noticed that the rules people are posting with their giveaways (which I enter) are getting more legal as time goes on.
Wow, so much info! Thanks!
Soooo, what ARE we allowed to do? 🙂
Thank you SO much for posting this! Every time I see ppl making it mandatory to follow a blog it worries me! This is definitely something I will be coming back to!
I am constantly landing on blogs that do not follow these simple rules. I fight back on saying “ps, it is illegal for you to make me go look at a website and tell you my favorite item to enter your giveaway”.
Wow! I did not know about half of these! Fortunately I have only had one giveaway and it seems I only broke one rule(the Facebook like) but this is something that a lot of bloggers need to know about ASAP. Thanks for posting this!
– Rachel/ With Love, Rachel
Amazing info. Thank you. I am not a blogger but on the other end as a Blog follower/entrant. After doing this for a long time I have seen so many of these rules broken. So much so that I have stopped entering all blog giveaways.
One question I didn’t see the answer to was disqualification of entrants for not completing a “task”. Lets say as additional entries you give 10 entries for subscribing to your newsletter. You check and that person claimed the entries but isn’t a follower. Can they be disqualified? I would hope so.
There is one famous blogger in particular who every single one of her RC giveaways is a mandatory ” Go to this website and tell me ” first entry. I think I am going to keep my mouth shut on confronting these bloggers about the above rules because I like winning and have won several items from her in the past. I bet if you confront any blogger with these rules you won’t ever win from them again 🙂 So i will just go with the flow. Anyone like VEGGIES as much as I do ? 😉
Great post Taylor!
Thank you so much for sharing this! I learned a lot and having just hosted my first giveaway, I will definitely be more aware when I do host my next one. This is definitely something that all bloggers should read.
Wow! I never….I’m pinning this for the day I will host a give away! Thanks for all the great information. I am cohosting a linky party today and would love for you to share this. http://calliescrafts.blogspot.com/2013/06/co-hosting-tgif-link-party-no-2.html
Thank you for so much info!!!! I can’t believe how much I’ve been doing wrong, changing that ASAP!
What happens if you win a blog giveaway but the person donating that prize will not get back to you. The person is ignoring all my emails/tweets. It has been about 4 months since I won and I’m really sad that she won’t send the prize. 🙁
I’m confused about the Facebook rules based on what I’m reading from their terms of service. They say:
iii. You must not condition registration or entry upon the user taking any action using any Facebook features or functionality other than liking a Page, checking in to a Place, or connecting to your app. For example, you must not condition registration or entry upon the user liking a Wall post, or commenting or uploading a photo on a Wall.
iv. You must not use Facebook features or functionality as a promotion’s registration or entry mechanism. For example, the act of liking a Page or checking in to a Place cannot automatically register or enter a promotion participant.
Part iii seems to imply that liking a page is an okay way for people to register or enter a promotion. But Part iv says the opposite. UNLESS, from reading the second sentence in Part iv, the difference is that liking a page cannot AUTOMATICALLY enter someone in your promotion. But the way I’ve seen Rafflecopter giveaways done, liking a page does NOT automatically enter someone, because they have to like the page and then go back to the Rafflecopter to hit that extra button.
Anyway, I’m trying to understand this and if I’m not reading this right, I’d love some clarification!
And here I thought I knew. Thank you!
Thanks for this timely and helpful information. I host giveaways often and thought I had everything covered … BUT I will be changing a few things starting with my very next giveaway.
Wow, informative!
What about rule #13 where it says you are responsible for the prize no matter what, I noticed on the sample disclaimer that it says they will make every effort to assist in getting the winner their prize but that’s about it. No guarantee about the prize. Is it ok as long as you say that?
Thanks so much for this wicked post!
Hi, thanks for this post! Just what I was looking for! Do you know if you need to get particular permission from brands to have a free entry giveaway with the prize being one of their products?
I think I was aware of most of what you shared, but it was nice seeing it in print. I have started hiding in my FB stream businesses that say, “share this on your page” – it’s irritating to say the least. I wasn’t sure I am thankful for the info about illegal lotteries and visits to 3rd party sites. I’m wondering, when using Rafflecopter and their built in disclaimer option (where you add the info about your prize value, etc), does that count?
Thanks for the helpful info! Question (hope it’s not a stupid one): I have heard that a lot of bloggers work with companies that supply the giveaway item, but are bloggers allowed to purchase an item on their own and then list it as a giveaway without needing to get permission from the product’s company?
Well this was enlightening!
WOW… Glad I came a across your post. I have my work cut out for me. I announced a giveaway would start January 1st with rules and more information to follow later. While looking up how to go about this giveaway I stumbled across this post and I am glad I did. OK thank you so so much. Im gonna get to work now.
Just subscribed to your blog. Love it lots!!!
So glad to have found your post! SUPER helpful. Thanks!!!
Awesome post! Definitely glad I saw it. I’m having a giveaway now and update one or two things ;). Also I discovered that a blog I follow and really popular is doing some illegal stuff :/ changing the dates to get more entries. It’s so annoying that I stop participating on the giveaways. 🙁 I should send her this post! xD
These are great rules…thanks so much! Just a heads up though – your social links along the left hand screen is blocking that side of the post so it’s a little hard to read it fully.
never mind that last comment about the social links…I found out someone had messed w/ my settings & had made my page abnormally large lol
I’m doing my second giveaway ever on my blog sponsored by a jewelry company and I’m glad I found these rules. I didn’t know so many of them existed. Thank you for sharing this.