Do you have a free blog through WordPress? Are you interested in hosting a giveaway, or posting a product review and giveaway? Then you’ll want to be aware of what is and isn’t allowed!
Limitations of a Free WordPress Blog
Many giveaway platforms and apps (like Rafflecopter and Giveaway Tools) rely on Javascript or Flash and these do not meld well with free WordPress. The workaround is very complicated. Why this limitation by Wordpess? The official answer is “all blogs are on the same multi-user blogging platform…that means a single bad script would bring down many blogs.” To put this into simpler terms, it’s for everyone’s security. There is one app you might try, however. Here’s one way to run a giveaway if you have a free WordPress blog.
Alternative Ways to Run a Giveaway
Method #1 Facebook: Use your Facebook fan page to install the Rafflecopter giveaway widget. Or you can try the Contests for Pages Facebook app. Just make sure you state that Facebook is in no way affiliated with your giveaway and clearly post your terms and conditions.
Method #2 Comment Entry: Have readers enter your (self-sponsored) giveaway by leaving a comment (or comments for extra entries) on your blog post. Be sure that you have a method in place for contacting the winner. And once again, clearly state the giveaway terms and conditions. Then use Random.org to choose a winner from among the comments.
Method #3 Just Link to It: Create your giveaway entry form in Gleam, Rafflecopter, Giveaway Tools, etc. and then simply link to it in your post. The widget (actual entry form) will not display on your blog, but readers will be able to click on the link and it will take them directly to the form on the third-party website. You can also share this link in your email newsletter and on social media.
Before Running Your Giveaway…
Some legal requirements:
Be Careful with Affiliates and Ads: WordPress will warn or possibly suspend a site “whose primary purpose is to drive traffic to affiliate storefronts.” You also cannot promote your affiliate links in blog comments. Banner image advertising and advertising networks are prohibited.
Don’t Post Paid or Sponsored Content: Wordpress guidelines allow you to post sponsored or paid content as long as it is your original work. That means it can’t be pre-written stuff, or “content published for the primary purpose of SEO or driving traffic to other websites.”
Oh and don’t forget to promote your giveaway through social media and your email newsletters!
Let me know if you have any questions about running a giveaway on free WordPress, or about migrating to the paid version.
These are great tips! It would be awful for someone to lose their hard work on their blog because of not following TOS.
Great tips for bloggers on free WordPress! Giveaways are great for growth.
Awesome tips, Anne. I know that so many WP free users will truly benefit from this info, so thank you for sharing 🙂
what a great tip thanks for sharing anne.. your blog always makes me smile 🙂
Awesome summary for how to do a giveaway.
I’m considering doing one, but my blog is blogspot so not the same Ts&Cs.
I’m really eager to keep reading your blog posts -this is good material.
You are a God-send! Thank you so much for this information.
I really wanted to do a rafflecopter giveaway and was bummed to find out I couldn’t do one on my free WordPress site. I never thought to host it through Facebook. Thank you!
I notice you no longer use WordPress. Is there a reason that you switched?
Thanks again!
~Jen
You are so welcome, Jen! I had a difficult time finding information about running giveaways on a free WordPress blog and wrote this post for that very reason. I actually still have WordPress and love it. I updated to the paid/self-hosted version of WordPress (with a customized domain name) so I could run giveaways and just generally have more control and more ways to monetize my blog. ~Anne
Thank you for this information. I wish I saw it hours ago! I’m also kind of pumped that I found your blog too! I noticed in a comment above that you switched to a self hosted wordpress site. . .I’m intimidated. . .do you have to know a lot of code/techy stuff? Thanks 🙂
Hi Lauren! Although switching definitely took some time, it didn’t require much technical knowledge. I followed the tutorials posted at WordPress.com and then had the lady who designed my new blog do the install for me. The only coding I had to work on was my sidebar (on the right) buttons. ~Anne
Good article I just have one confusion I’d like clarification on if possible! I run a blog that uses wordpress.com (not ORG). However I am not using the premium trial, so it is a $99/year option – would this support giveaways such as punchtab? Or do I have to use wordpress.org?
Thanks!!
As far as I know you can’t imbed Java or other such scripts on a WordPress.com blog. However, since I’m not familiar with what Punchtab entails, you might try this link for more help. http://feedback.punchtab.com/knowledgebase/articles/587-how-do-i-set-up-punchtab-on-wordpress ~Anne
Hello Anne! Just found your blog. First off, amazing!! I look forward to reading more of your posts. But I do have a question on this one. I was looking into hosting a giveaway on my wordpress.com site until I learned I can’t. I then found your post and was thinking about possibly transferring my blog to a godaddy hosted wordpress.org site. Is this what you did (maybe not necessarily godaddy)? Any info would be great! Thanks!!
Hi Brandy and thanks for the compliments! Yes, I switched from free WordPress to self-hosted WordPress. You can choose any host that you like; I went with Laughing Squid because they were highly recommended by the folks at WordPress, and offer an easy and seamless transition process for a blogger who’s switching. I remember contacting their customer service several times during my transfer and they were super nice and really fast with responses. My hosting since then with Laughing Squid has been completely flawless – no issues at all! Best of luck, whatever you decide to do! ~Anne
Thanks for the tips. I’m looking for things people can do to participate more plus get extra entries. Do you need plugins for this?
Kushal, you can be flexible with your comment entries. For example, have readers interact on your Facebook page and then come back and leave a comment to record this on your giveaway post. Or Tweet about your giveaway and come back to comment/confirm. As far as I know, there are not any approved (free) WordPress giveaway plugins. ~Anne
Thanks for the informative post. I run a frugality blog and wanted to give away a subtraction to Consumer Reports (that I would pay for). Do you have any thoughts on how to make sure you can contact people who post comments on a WordPress post?
The comment form requests their email, and only you (blog admin) will be able to see it and contact them if you need to. ~Anne
Dear Anne I fond your blog when looking for a way to host a giveaway on my wordpress.com blog and thank you for the super useful information.
Would you mind writing a post about switching from the free WordPress.com to the paid self-hosting WordPress.org and how you went about doing that? I’m thinking of doing the same and would love any tips you might have.
Very happy to find your wonderful blog!
Hi! There are a lot of great posts out there about making the switch from a free WordPress blog to self-hosted. That’s what I used when migrating a few years ago. I updated my post today (at the end) to include the basic steps, plus linked to a really helpful tutorial. Thanks for stopping by! ~Anne
My father pointed me to your blog since i’m starting up one of my own. Thanks for the tips about running promos.
Just what I need because I’m not ready to pay for hosting but do want to promote my site with giveaways. Thank you
Just what I needed to run my first promotion!