Before I begin this post I want to say that my intent is not to push any one view or offend anyone. I’m just really curious what everyone’s thoughts are.
Recently I have received a few emails from different people who are promoting their giveaways. They say something along the lines of ‘I saw that you entered the (company name here) giveaway on such-and-such blog, and am now having that giveaway on my blog and thought you might want to enter. And then they provide a link.
My first thought was ‘You searched for this old giveaway, looked in the comments and got my email and then thought it was okay to email me?”. I had won the giveaway, so I wasn’t at all interested and was a bit upset that these people have went to such lengths to get my email. I thought of it as just an unsolicited, spam email.
However, when I mentioned it to Ryan he said ‘well, right you aren’t interested because you won the giveaway, but what if hadn’t won it yet so you would still like to get the item being given away? Wouldn’t you be interested in entering the giveaway?”
I would. But does that make it okay to search the internet for my email and contact me?
I guess my question is, should that matter? I know that I am leaving my email “out there” when I enter giveaways. I leave my email on my blog very publicly,and in the past have left it in blog posts, asking people to email me if they have any questions or have anything to say to me. & I don’t mind ‘random’ emails from readers of my blog at all. Does it make a difference because they are promoting something? Or does it make it different because on my blog I say things like ’email me if you have any problems – my email is…”, so I’m potentially inviting anyone who reads it to email me, where as when I enter giveaways and leave my email I clearly am not asking random people to email me?
I know that I personally would never feel comfortable sending out these unsolicited emails, but I’m curious what everyone’s thoughts are on this. Let me know what you think 🙂
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Hi there! I am Emily Evert, the owner of Emily Reviews. I am 28 and live in a small town in Michigan with my boyfriend Ryan and our two pugs. I have a large family and I adore my nieces and nephews. I love reading memoirs, and learning about child development and psychology. I love watching The Game of Thrones, Teen Mom, Sister Wives and Veep. I like listening to Jason Isbell, John Prine, and other alt-country or Americana music. I created Emily Reviews as a creative outlet to share my life and the products that I love with others.
This post currently has 9 responses.
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Holli Litrenta
I agree with the Stephanie (the commenter above). I personally do not like receiving those emails and refuse to visit those blogs or to enter their giveaways. Actually, I typically email the individual in charge of the initial blog (where the email address was taken from) and let them know that someone is taking emails from their giveaways to solicit new readers for themselves. I do not feel this is right. That is not my reasoning behind placing my email on a giveaway post. Be respectful!
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I’ve received some of them myself, and I don’t appreciate them. It’s spam and I hate spam! I follow a lot of blogs with giveaway linkys. If they used those to advertise more often, they would have better luck with that than spamming people, I’m sure.
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Jackie
I’ve also received the emails. I agree with Cari. I also follow a lot of blogs, and if someone wants to promote a giveaway, the linkys is a great way to do it. I don’t ususally enter a giveaway from one of those emails.
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As you say – you’ve put your details out there for anyone to see. I think we tend to forget that what is on the web is accessible to anyone. And it’s a giveaway, so at least they’re not trying to get you to buy something 🙂
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I have never gotten an actual email like this. I did, however, get a direct message on twitter. That was fine with me, but I wouldn’t want it sent to my main email account. I don’t know, I would never advertise my giveaways like that.
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@Holli – wow what a great point! I hadn’t thought of it from the perspective of the initial blogger. The person who has emailed me this way just told me they saw that I entered “a (company name) giveaway” and didn’t tell me which one, but I’ve netered more than one for the same item. However, if I knew that someone was visiting my blog and taking peoples emails i’d be really upset! It makes me glad that i’ve moved to wordpress and now have the ‘form’ so that you dont have to write out your email in the comment anymore.
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@ cari & jackie – Agreed! There are TONS of linkys, and although I don’t use many of them myself, I do have at least 10 other sites that I know of where I can promote my giveaways. Maybe I’ll do a follow up post on this topic and tell people where I promote my giveaways so in case these people sending out emails just are unaware of other forms of promotion, that they will be informed.
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Michelle Murphy
I usually don’t like this type of marketing either because it’s unsolicited and generally things that are unsolicited turn me off. Part of the fun about giveaways is finding them, and it’s also a little reward for the regular readers of a blog. Plus I agree that linkys are a better approach! As a blogger, I don’t like the idea that people may be taking my readers’ info from comments on my blog either.
I have gotten some of these emails and I have to say, they kind of bother me. I never enter giveaways from those blogs because I just don’t like that marketing style. I know I’ve put my email out there, but my intent is not for random people to use it. I know that’s a risk I run, but I just choose to not visit those blogs that market that way. I feel like there are a lot of other ways to market your blog where you are using information that wasn’t really intended for you to use. Well, that’s just my two cents…