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Giveaways - Have Your Say


Hayley

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When I started doing monthly giveaways for supporters I said I would give it a six month trial because I didn't know if it would work. This month is the sixth (how fast has that gone!?) so I want to know how you all feel about the giveaways (and giveaways generally, this is a question for all members, not just supporters) now that trial period is over.

 

If you don't want to post your opinions publicly, just send them to me as a personal message and please be totally honest! I promise I won't be offended if you don't like my ideas or if you'd like things to be done a bit differently. I want the forum to be the best it can be for all of us.

 

Don't feel obliged to answer all of these, but these are the main things I'd really like to know...

  • How do you feel about the items featured in the giveaways? Are they generally things you would like to have? Is there a thing you would like to see more of?
  • Would you like to have giveaways open to all members, not just supporters? Would you enter, if we did have open giveaways? What type of thing would you enter for?
  • If you wouldn't enter a giveaway, why not?
  • Would you prefer giveaways to be less frequent? (For example, they could be seasonal, rather than monthly)
  • Do you have any ideas for the giveaways? Even if you don't think they'd be possible, I'd love to know what you think!
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I think the giveaways have been quite inventive and unusual. Having said that, a book giveaway would excite me the most.

I think it is fair that it is supporters only.

I think monthly is great, but I can understand that may be hard to maintain. Four times a year would not be such hard work?

Anything connected to books and writers would float my boat: plans of authors' houses; postcards and prints of authors or their birthplaces; books of course; tickets to book signings, book readings, and events etc ; pens, notepads, prints of cover art  (this is unlikely, I know). Quirky desktop toys- did you know there is an action figure of Jane Austen? (I have one) 

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Thank you @vodkafan! Those are really great ideas and I didn't know you could get literary action figures! I now really want some quirky desktop toys myself though...

The only one we couldn't really do is tickets to events, because I'd have to make sure there was a suitable event for every supporter and that would be very difficult to organise with members in different countries!

 

I actually really enjoy putting the giveaways together and I've been lucky to speak to some really lovely people in the process, so I don't mind at all doing them every month! I've been getting all our prizes from small business too so it's nice to support them. 

 

I'll definitely put some thought into books we could do :) 

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I can go along with most of what @vodkafan has said. Action figures of authors? Characters maybe, authors? not so sure - Sorry Jane A! 

 

I'm happy for the giveaways to be open to all on a regular basis, but perhaps with supporter only ones on occasions. Just to make us feel special. :D Random giveaways over monthly ones would be great - which ever works best for you! 

 

The giveaways so far have been lovely, and aside from events tickets I would agree that anything bookish or writing 'ish is fab. 

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Thanks @Chrissy, it’s really great to know you’ve liked the giveaways so far :) 

All member giveaways would definitely be as well as, not instead of, supporter ones. I’ve had an idea for an all-member one for a while though so I might put that plan into action soon! 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Quite a late reply from me as I've been off the forums for quite a while.

 

  • I think the items in the giveaways have been really cool with a nice variety of different things.
  • Open to supporters makes sense but I would have no objections to opening them up to all members a few times a year. It would probably be a good idea to get people to make an 'I'm in' reply to a thread to capture everyone who wants to take part.
  • As a supporter I've been automatically entered but if it were the case that the prize was something I already had or something I know I wouldn't read then I would skip it.
  • Any frequency is fine with me, I think it's pretty amazing that you do giveaways at all.
  • Books and quirky stationary items are always welcome.
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Thanks @Brian., I really do appreciate the feedback :) 

 

As a side note to all supporters, if there's ever a giveaway that includes something you already own, or it's something that you just don't really want, feel free to send me a message and ask to be taken out of the draw that month, it's no trouble!  

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  • 2 months later...

Sorry this reply is soooo late!!

 

I think the prizes so far have been great.

 

Personally though, I think I would prefer them to be less frequent. There are only 6 supporters which means by the law of averages we'd be winning something about twice a year. That makes me feel like a decent chunk of my donation is going towards my own prizes, which feels a little odd to me! I'd be happier winning something less often and more of my donation going towards the site. So a seasonal competition would seem preferable to me. Also a prize would feel more special if there's less chance of winning it.

 

Also I'd be happy for the giveaways to be open to non-donors. As others have said maybe there could be a mix of supporter and non-supporter giveaways, (so there is still an incentive to donate).

 

Edited by ~Andrea~
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On 17/07/2019 at 12:43 PM, ~Andrea~ said:

Sorry this reply is soooo late!!

 

I think the prizes so far have been great.

 

Personally though, I think I would prefer them to be less frequent. There are only 6 supporters which means by the law of averages we'd be winning something about twice a year. That makes me feel like a decent chunk of my donation is going towards my own prizes, which feels a little odd to me! I'd be happier winning something less often and more of my donation going towards the site. So a seasonal competition would seem preferable to me. Also a prize would feel more special if there's less chance of winning it.

 

Also I'd be happy for the giveaways to be open to non-donors. As others have said maybe there could be a mix of supporter and non-supporter giveaways, (so there is still an incentive to donate).

 

That’s ok, this thread is always open to suggestions! 

I think seasonal prizes could be interesting, so there would be four giveaways a year? What does everyone else think about that?  

 

I realise reading your post Andrea that there’s some things I should probably explain about the giveaways and how I organise the forum costs! I don’t usually talk about the cost of running the forum because I feel like that shouldn’t be anybody else’s problem but mine, I knew that running the forum would cost money when I offered to take it on. But, especially for those of you who contribute to the forum

costs with patreon, you should be able to understand how it works. If I explain simply here then just feel free to ask me anything you want to know:

1. The money you all donate through patreon goes towards the hosting cost, which we pay monthly. I would definitely not be able to afford this monthly cost by myself so you really are keeping the forum

running when you contribute to the patreon. 

2. Twice a year we have to pay for the software license. This is where the ads come in. I knew early on that patreon was not going to cover this cost as well. I’m happy to report though that so far this year we’re on track to pay for the software fully with Adsense! So, fingers crossed for that one but it’s looking good. 

3. There are other costs, like renewing the domain, that are smaller and less frequent. I just cover those fully myself.

4. The giveaways. This is where I realised things got confusing. I plan out the money for the forum as shown above, but I don’t include the giveaways in that. I do not use the patreon money for the giveaway prizes, that money is entirely absorbed by the hosting cost, which I also add to. You should know that the prizes are always very low cost. You might have noticed that a lot of the things in the giveaways are from the same shops, which is because those places let me buy things at a discount in return for including a link to their shop on the forum when the giveaways are running. Some of them have even given us things for free. This small cost every month just comes from me and I genuinely don’t mind that. When I search for our giveaway prizes I feel like I’m shopping for presents for a friend. And yes that £5, for example, might be the difference between me buying a book for myself or getting myself a coffee or not but it’s absolutely worth it because it’s the way I feel I can say thank you to you all for keeping the forum going. I know, at the same time, that if I said I really can’t afford even a small extra cost this month, that you’d all understand, because you’re all genuinely lovely people. But while I can I want to do something to say thank you, because if you didn’t support we wouldn’t have a forum any more. 

 

(For the sake of being entirely clear, the book in this month’s giveaway isn’t from one of the usual shops, it’s from one of my favourite independent bookshops in Hay-on-Wye. When I visited there, months ago, they had a stack of them that were very heavily discounted, so I bought one in advance. I was going to keep it until December but then I was too excited to wait that long!)

 

I do have some ideas for open giveaways, for everyone on the forum. I really like one idea in particular but there are still a couple of potential issues I need to work out before I announce it. 

 

But, everyone, do let me know your thoughts on seasonal, rather than monthly, supporter giveaways. 

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You're incredibly generous, Hayley, thank you very much.

I didn't realise there were as few as 6 supporters so I really hope a few more people get on board. Patreon starts at $2 a month which is  peanuts to pay.

I think quarterly prizes are an excellent idea 😊

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Aww, I don't know about that but thank you both :blush:

 

Yes we do have 6 supporters now, and I'm very grateful to all of you! There were more people in the giveaway up until March though (because some peoples year hadn't run out, from when they were supporting with Michelle), so there hasn't always just been 6 people in it. 

 

I'll send a direct message round to the other supporters, just to make sure everyone sees this and gets a say in it but it sounds like a good idea :) 

 

 

 

 

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13 hours ago, Hayley said:

Aww, I don't know about that but thank you both :blush:

 

Yes we do have 6 supporters now, and I'm very grateful to all of you! There were more people in the giveaway up until March though (because some peoples year hadn't run out, from when they were supporting with Michelle), so there hasn't always just been 6 people in it. 

 

I'll send a direct message round to the other supporters, just to make sure everyone sees this and gets a say in it but it sounds like a good idea :) 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you send reminders to people when their support runs out Hayley? Some people may not be aware if you don't. lol Just trying to drum up some more supporters :blush:

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12 hours ago, poppy said:

 

Do you send reminders to people when their support runs out Hayley? Some people may not be aware if you don't. lol Just trying to drum up some more supporters :blush:

Haha, thanks! :lol: I did send reminders but a couple of people who used to support just don't come here any more, sadly. Most of the people who used to be supporters have moved over to patreon though, so it's not all bad! :) 

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  • 1 month later...

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