I recently posted an article titled Blog Giveaways: How They Work. So now that you know how blog giveaways work, let’s talk about why you should be entering them: Because they are incredibly easy to win!
High Odds of Winning
Think about the typical sweepstakes that you see advertised on TV or in magazines. These contests are heavily promoted with a large advertising budget, receiving thousands and thousands of entries. One extreme example of this is the famed Publisher’s Clearing House, which lists the odds of winning their main cash prize as one in 1,750,000,000. Now, let’s take a quick look at an average blog giveaway. It is rare for a blog giveaway to go over a thousand entries – and typically, they range from 100-300 entries, with countless giveaways clocking in at less than a hundred entries. Those are fantastic odds!
Consistency is Key
You don’t have to spend all day entering contests to win. Obviously, the more time you put in, the higher your odds of winning will be; but I honestly think consistency is more important than volume. I don’t spend huge amounts of time entering giveaways, but I win consistently because I enter consistently. If all I have is a few minutes during the week to enter, that’s fine!
Aim low!
Another way that I maximize my odds of winning is by focusing my efforts on giveaways with low entries. The less entries a contest has, the better your odds will be of winning it! When I’m sweeping, I specifically look for blog giveaways that are ending soon and have less than 100 entries.
So How Do You Find Giveaways With Low Entries?
Some sites have weekly round-ups or linky lists specifically for low-entry giveaways, which is a great place to start! Here are a few that I’ve found – list updated as of 12/31/2023:
- Winnable Wednesday – this is Contest Corner’s weekly low-entry giveaway link-up!
- Low Entry Giveaways Facebook Group – this is a Facebook group dedicated to listing low entry giveaways.
- Airplanes and Dragonflies: Last Chance Giveaways – this is an ongoing list of giveaways with 600 entries or less.
- Low Entry Giveaways – Giveaways 4 Mom – giveaways with 500 entries or less.
Do you know of another low-entry giveaway resource not listed here? Email me with the link and I’ll add it to this list!
Personally, I find that giveaway linkies in general – whether they are specifically for low-entry giveaways or not – are a good place to find giveaways that you have high odds of winning. Linkies are often a good resource for finding contests that aren’t getting much exposure elsewhere. Newer blogs tend to have less entries in their giveaways because they haven’t built up a large reader base yet, so I pay extra attention to blogs that are hosting their first giveaway; sometimes this will be mentioned in the giveaway post itself, or I’ll just check out the giveaway because the blog name is unfamiliar to me.
If you want to dig up even more blog giveaways with low entries, try doing a Google search for “Low entry giveaway” and refine the search to results from blogs posted in the last week.
Extra Entries = Higher Odds
You’ll notice that most blogs offer additional entries for performing certain actions, such as subscribing to the blog, following them on Twitter, “Liking” them on Facebook, and so forth. If you find a low entry giveaway that you would really like to win, then make sure you do as many extra entries as you possibly can! Multiple entries will always increase your odds; and if there is a giveaway with 50 entries, and you have 5 of them, who do you think has the best chance of winning?
For example, when I entered Mamanista’s giveaway for a new computer, I fulfilled the mandatory entry of blogging about the contest, and also gained additional entries by posting the contest on Twitter. And I ended up winning a brand new computer!
If you’re not sure how to go about performing these extra entries, don’t worry – I’m going to be posting a number of detailed tutorials in the coming weeks explaining how to enter giveaways on blogs step by step.
Blogs: A Great Way to Increase Your Winnings
Now that you know more about the ins and outs of blog giveaways, you can see why they are my very favorite type of sweepstakes! This doesn’t mean to say that blog giveaways are the only worthwhile thing to enter. I love contests of all kinds, and I’ve won some fabulous prizes from heavily promoted national sweepstakes, such as gift cards and tickets to see my favorite band in concert. I just happen to focus more energy on blog giveaways, because if you want to win frequently, it makes sense to enter giveaways that you have the highest odds of winning!
Do you have any questions that you’d like to see covered in a future article? Let me know in the comments!
Great article. I haven’t entered giveaways in so long, but now that I am lessening my reviews/giveaway I may have some time!
Awesome post. I did a giveaway challenge last year to see how many giveaways I could win in a month. The odds are definitely higher than any sweepstakes!
I need to email this article to one of my coworkers! She always is amazed at all the stuff I win!
Helpful post for people just starting out in entering giveaways. I learned something new – other low-entry giveaway lists….I always check Tightwad in Utah every day.
I LOVE Tight Wad in Utah…just discovered her a few months ago. I am a huge fan of low-entry giveaways too…they are not always things that no one wants. Sometimes I happen upon a giveaway that is perfect for me!!! Thanks for this post. It was really helpful! 🙂
Very good article. I haven’t had the time to actually enter many giveaways recently since I’m usually hosting them but when I get a chance I will remember these strategies. Thanks for sharing.
I’m usually too busy with my own blog to enter giveaways, but did a few this morning…. I’m in the mood & it is nice to get something in the mail that doesn’t come with work attached 🙂
thanks for the links to the low entry linkys, I have a lot on right now that aren’t doing so hot
GREAT article! I am book marking it for later – I am gonna have to check those sites out. I have only entered a handful of blog giveaways, but I have won a few. 🙂
Thank you so much for including me in the list!! Great article!!!
This is such a great list of tips!
I love this series. Would you mind if I did a post on my blog featuring it?
great tips!
Great post! Thanks for the low-entry giveaways list and tips. I love entering giveaways and sweeps. I don’t spend a lot of time doing it, but I try to set aside 1 hour a day to enter.
Thanks for all the nice comments, everyone! Jeana, I would be delighted if you wanted to blog about this series! 🙂
Great article! Thanks for sharing!
WOW…you’ve made me want to spend a little time each day entering blog giveaways! stumbled & retweeted!
Great post! Thank you for the links to sites with low entry giveaways!
I wish that I had more time to enter giveaways, there are some great ones out there!
Consistency is key. It’s not all about luck, but lots of time and effort too. Thanks for the low entry links!
It’s true, I can’t get over how often I win great prizes!!
Great article!
I host giveaways and some of them are low – entry – I appreciate that list!
Thanks for the content. I went through your links and the only useable one now is Tight Wad in Utah, the rest are very outdated.
There’s another Facebook Page with low entry giveaway links that’s pretty active at the moment:
https://www.facebook.com/Low-Entry-Giveaways-1786753584699522/
Thanks so much Danielle, I just updated the list!
Oh HECK YA! I CAN attest to super odds. Instead of fighting 10 Million people in things, like the McDonalds trips they have on now, you have heckuva better, MUCH MOR better odds in momblogs and things like that. I have won several times in these seemingly HIDDEN contests.
I completely agree Jermaine!
Tell me about it again. I DO KNOW the odds are pretty good. I KNOW because of past experience and am getting back into it again. Nationals, I cannot seem to win, but likely a Small fry or coffee in someone like McDonald’s but blogs, I can certainly find myself with mad wins. Have before and will again.
I used to devote an hour to 2 hours just for entering giveaways after the kids went to bed but at Christmas time I find myself up entering them all night and my husband wonders why I do it until I show him what I win it’s nice to get an email pretty much every day or every other day saying you’re a winner but I wouldn’t win nearly as many if I didn’t enter on blogs and look for the ending soon with low entries it really helps me provide gifts for my family that I normally couldn’t last year for my son’s birthday I was able to give him almost $300 in big funko pop figures for his collection that I never would have been able to buy on my own blog giveaways are amazing when it comes to helping with birthdays and holidays and all of that thank you for the great article and I emailed you a website for more low entry giveaways
This is a great, streamlined post for entering giveaways. Also a reminder to clean out my blog’s ongoing giveaway linky — thanks!
Informative article. I’ll look for low entry giveaways now.