Giveaway rant

As a avid blog reader, I am also an avid blog giveaway entrant. I am grateful for these giveaways, as they give me a chance to win something I would not have access to, or could not afford otherwise. HOWEVER, I am so frustrated with the process lately.

Some blogs out there don't make it easy to enter their giveaways. It is a long process of follows on 8 different social networks, comments, and tweets. Then, when the giveaway is over.....nothing. No Winner, for weeks, or even months no winner is listed. There is typically only a 48 hour window after the giveaway ends to claim the prize, and blog owners do not email the winner. So, that means checking every day to see if there is a winner posted, only to find nothing.

I know emergencies happen, and I am not talking about posting a giveaway, then a family emergency comes up and they can't access their blog for weeks or even months. I am referring to people who post a giveaway, then post something else every day or so, and give full attention to their blog. Worse even are blog owners that will announce a winner for a giveaway that ended a week ago that only had 30 entrants, but leave the giveaway that ended 2 months ago open becuase it had 120 entrants.

It seems to me that this is being done to drive blog traffic. The more hits they have on their blog the more their advertisers pay and if they continuosly have people coming back to check on the giveaway they entered more money is being made. I am all for imcome producing blogs. Hey, if you can do it, that's great. However, this method of driving blog traffic may be having an adverse effect, because If I enter a giveaway on a blog, and this waiting game happens ( I am not talking 3 days or even a week, I am talking 30 days or more) then that is it. I am done with that blog, I will not read it, or enter a giveaway there again. Let your posts drive me to your blog, but don't force me to go just to see if day 87 after the giveaway has ended as the day you finally took the 60 seconds it takes to go to Random.org and pick a winner.

I know that it has to take some nerve to complain about something that I may/or may not win for free, but it is readers like me who put money in the pockets of the these blog owners, so I feel like this isn't neccessarily unfounded.

I do really appreciate all of the blog giveaways, and I enter a lot of them. For the most part my experience has been great. Most blogs out there offer great items, are easy to enter, and quick to end.