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Exploring the Pros and Cons of Utilizing Sweepstakes Sites for your Next Giveaway

By Meagan Kral

Exploring the Pros and Cons of Utilizing Sweepstakes Sites for your Next Giveaway

A giveaway can be an exciting way to engage with customers and draw new visitors to your site. There are tons of benefits associated with hosting this kind of contest. However, once you start a sweepstakes, you may struggle with the best way to promote it. After all, you want to reach as many people as possible to maximize the success of your contest.

Fortunately, there are a ton of great websites out there that can help you to market your giveaway or sweepstakes. Typically, these websites will help you with general consumer product promotion. They are definitely a great option for creating some immediate traffic. If you want to let people know about your giveaway, using these sites will certainly help you alert people to the contest.

When you combine the use of these directories with KickoffLabs actions, it can generate viral sharing, as the audience on these sites will compete for points. They can also be a great resource to help you generate social signals quickly, such as ‘likes’ and ‘follows’ for your brand.

However, these types of sweepstakes directories are not without their own drawbacks. Direct referrals from them can be lower-quality leads. After all, the people that these websites reach are generally just interested in winning free things and may not be inclined to purchase anything. Keep in mind, you may end up giving away prizes to people who aren’t really your customers.

That being said, the advantages and disadvantages will vary depending on your business and your promotion goals. This means that while these types of sites may not work for every brand, for some, a listing may still be worthwhile.

Top Promotion Giveaway Sites

Contestgirl.com

Contest Girl

This site was started in 2006 and continues to be one of the biggest directories of active giveaways and sweepstakes. The listings are first organized by country (only Canadian and US-based contests are included) and then by how many times participants are allowed to enter. The site is designed to help people discover legitimate contests and boost their potential for winning, which makes it one of the more popular sources of promotions for consumers. Those looking to submit a giveaway can do so for free with an account.

Pros: Contestgirl is a trusted and beloved site that should help you create immediate traffic.

Cons: The site interface is a bit outdated, and most of the users are just looking for free things, so you may give products away to people that are not your customers.

Contestchest.com

Contest Chest

This site is updated on a daily basis and is a great place to promote your own contest or sweepstakes. Contestchest will list giveaways that take place all over the world, so it is also a great directory for international contests.

Adding your own sweepstakes to the site is free. However, you will need to make an account first. Additionally, for each submission that you add to the website, you will receive an entry into a monthly giveaway of $300.

Pros: Ideal for international giveaways, and each submission will enter you into a monthly drawing for $300.

Cons: You will need to make an account to add sweepstakes to the site.

Sweepgrab.com

Sweepgrab

If you want to reach a large number of people, sweepgrab is a great place to start. They have more than 30,000 people that actively subscribe to their newsletter, which means that showcasing your contest on this site can really boost participation in your promotion. Plus, they offer both free and paid options, so you can find a plan that suits your specific needs.

Pros: Sweepgrab has a huge subscriber base, so it can help drive traffic and general consumer product promotion. Plus, there are both free and paid options to list giveaways.

Cons: You’ll need to pay $4 to have your contest published within 24 hours.

Theprizefinder.com

The Prize Finder

This site is specific to giveaways and contests available for UK residents. If you are hosting a sweepstakes based in the UK, you can add your competition for free. If you use this option, you will not be able to influence how highly it ranks in the listings. There is also a premium competition listing option that will allow you to promote your giveaway more prominently.

Pros: Specifically tailored to UK residents, so great if you are targeting this demographic.

Cons: If you are running an international campaign, the base will be too limited. Additionally, you will find that you will need to pay for your listing to rank highly.

Truesweepstakes.com

True Sweepstakes

Truesweepstakes has a massive active base (over 25,000) that subscribes to their email newsletters and checks the site regularly. This means that this site is one of the best places to promote your giveaway. It’s free to list a contest on their site, but if you want to boost participation, you can purchase a premium traffic boost package. These start at $29.95 and average over 250 referrals for each promotion.

Pros: Great for driving traffic, and it’s free to list sweepstakes. Plus, the paid plans have hard numbers to support their ROI.

Cons: It’s a very popular site, so if you don’t pay to promote your listing, it may get lost in the shuffle. Additionally, the leads may be lower quality since they are not interested in purchasing products and instead just want to win prizes.

Sweetiessweeps.com

Sweeties Sweeps

This website is all about jackpots and grand prizes. They focus on promoting sweepstakes and giveaways that offer big wins, but any prize over $25 is eligible to be listed. There are some restrictions, however. For instance, they will not list giveaways for Instagram followers or affiliate sweepstakes. There is a $25 basic listing option and a $50 featured listing available for extra promotion.

Pros: If you pay for sweetiessweeps to promote your listing, they will email their subscribers and advertise your giveaway on their social media channels.

Cons: There are lots of restrictions limiting which types of contests are eligible to be listed.

Giveawayfrenzy.com

Giveaway Frenzy

Giveawayfrenzy is a major resource for those looking to discover exciting promotions and sweepstakes. It’s also a great place to promote your own contest because they have many plans that can help you draw in more participants. You can add a listing to this site for free, but for a paid plan, they will showcase your promotion in other ways, including adding it to over 100 other giveaway sites. Plans range rom $25-90.

Pros: If you want to ensure that your listing makes it onto multiple sites, but don’t want to spend the time manually submitting each listing, you can pay for giveawayfrenzy to submit it and promote it for you.

Cons: The valuable features are paid, and prices can be on the high side.

Winasweepstakes.com

Win a Sweepstakes

This site has a huge directory of sweepstakes and giveaways for visitors to explore. But the best part is that if you’re hosting a promotion, it is free to submit your contest on winasweepstakes. Plus, they also have paid options if you’d like to market your listing further.

Pros: Not only will this site help you promote your product and gain web traffic but there are paid plans to promote your listing further, as well as free options.

Cons: You must have an account and be approved as a publisher before you are able to add a listing to the site. Minimum prize value of $25+ required.

Reddit.com

Reddit

Reddit is a social news site that isn’t specifically devoted to giveaways. However, this platform has many online communities centered around just about anything you can think of. This means that there are several subsections devoted just to contests (reddit.com/r/contests and reddit.com/r/sweepstakes). It’s completely free to promote your sweepstakes on this site.

Pros: Completely free, and there are multiple communities where you can promote your giveaways. Plus, there is a large subscriber base, and Reddit is considered to be a fairly trustworthy network for users.

Cons: There are numerous restrictions on what can be posted. Additionally, there is no way to pay to market your listing further.

Giveawaymachine.com

Giveaway Machine

This is one of the better sites for listings of international contests and promotions. If you’re looking to reach a global audience for your sweepstakes or giveaway, you should definitely list your contest here. It’s super simple to submit on giveawaymachine, plus it’s free and does not require an account. If you do want to pay for a boost, plans start fairly cheap at $1.95.

Pros: Great for giveaways that need to reach an international audience. You can also list contests without paying or making an account. Paid plans are also very affordable.

Cons: The website is fairly limited, and like with many other sites, the users tend to be solely after prizes instead of making purchases.

Ilovegiveaways.com

I Love Giveaways

This site is super easy to use and features a clean, minimalist design. There’s no hassle or frills with making a listing on ilovegiveaways.com. You just select “submit giveaway” in the upper right-hand corner. No account or payment is necessary.

Pros: It’s a simple process to make a listing on this site.

Cons: There are no paid options to further market your listing.

Contestlisting.com

Contest Listing

Contestlisting is another site that makes it super easy to both enter giveaways and add your own to the list. There’s no fee for submitting your own sweepstakes to their directory. Their premium Giveaway Promotion Service can be well worth the $14.99, since it will cross-post your contest to various other sites on your behalf.

Pros: You can easily add a listing for free or pay to have your giveaway listed on multiple sites at once.

Cons: The full package for paid promotion is quite expensive ($199.99).

Ultracontest.com

Ultra Contest

This is one of the best sites for high-value sweepstakes and promotions. Everything listed here is carefully reviewed, so only legitimate and trustworthy contests make the cut. The web design is modern and fresh, making it a pleasure to browse as well. If you’d like to be featured on ultracontest, you just need to fill out the “submit a contest” form. Unlike some other sites, there is no guarantee that your promotion will be listed.

Pros: This site is very trustworthy, so it’s more likely to drive some customers to your site.

Cons: You can submit a listing, but it may not be approved and published onto the site.

Sweepstakesbible.com

Sweepstakes Bible

This is another great site for those looking to win big. One of the benefits of this website is that it is easy to explore the listings so that you can see which promotions are expiring soon. If you’d like to promote your own contest here, you can submit it for free. Free submissions may or may not be listed. If you want a guarantee, they offer three plans that start at $69.

Pros: There are multiple paid options as well as a potential for a free listing.

Cons: Free submissions are not always published, so for a sure thing, you’ll need to pay.

Additional Places to Share your Giveaway

Get Started With Your Next Giveaway Today!

In conclusion, using top promotion giveaway sites can be a great way to get your brand in front of a wider audience and boost engagement for your next giveaway. Keep in mind, there are also some potential drawbacks to consider, such as cost and the possibility of attracting low-quality leads. Ultimately, the decision to utilize these sites will depend on your specific goals and resources. By weighing the pros and cons carefully and making, you can set yourself up for your next successful giveaway that generates buzz and drives results for your business!

KickoffLabs offers several templates perfect for a giveaway. Get started for Free today at KickoffLabs.com or email our support team at support@kickofflabs.com.


Read more Running Viral Giveaways with the next chapter:

14. 50 Prize Ideas

Check out our top 50 prize ideas for your next giveaway!

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