TIP TUESDAY #163 AND INTERNATIONAL BE POSITIVE DAY

Tip Tuesday features writers' tips on craft, research, querying, blogging, marketing, inspiration, and more. If you'd like to send in a tip, please e-mail me at agentspotlight(at)gmail(dot)com.

Hi Everyone! Natalie here today. Before I get to our fantastic tip, I want to mention that two of my blogger friends, Robyn Campbell and Sharon Mayhew have declared today International Be Positive Day. It's a day to spread the word through Twitter, Facebook, and however you want by spreading positive and kind thoughts.

It's got me to realize that there's always things in life to be positive and grateful for. Always no matter what challenges you're forced to go through. I'd been a bit blah last week and definitely needed to reconnect with this important point. I have so much to be grateful for--my family, friends,s a job for now where I can help others, this blog, and all my kind, wonderful blogger friends who support me by coming by. Thanks so much for being there for me. I appreciate it.

And of course my heart goes out to everyone in Oklahoma today. I am hoping that everyone there is touched by kindness and help through this challenging time.

So lets all spread some positive and kind thoughts in the universe today.

Today, I’m excited to share a tip by author Maria Dismondy. Her most recent book is THE POTATO CHIMP: DISCOVERING WHY KINDNESS COUNTS. She also shared Tip Tuesday #125. Here’s Maria to share about setting online giveaway contests.

Getting Started with Giveaways

Giveaways online can be a great move for an author of any genre. Just imagine, if your giveaway generates excitement and is shared on a number of blogs, all those blog readers will be exposed to your book! Best yet, giveaways are often shared on social media sites, which means your book and brand is then shared with even more readers. Giveaways allow your book the chance to go viral. Here are some simple tips to help you dive into the world of giveaways with ease.

1. Choose Your Audience
I write children’s books, though children are not my audience when it comes to giveaways - the teachers,

parents and other adult caregivers are. Think about who your audience is and choose a few bloggers that write to your audience to host your giveaway.

2. Free or Paid Giveaways
If you are offering a giveaway on your site, it’s a good idea to purchase a product to giveaway as your prize. For instance, I have given away a Kindle and many gift cards. I view these prize purchases as an investment in advertising, and the larger the prize value, the more attention your giveaway will receive. You can also offer free products, such as your books, which should be no out of pocket expense to you.

3. Time Frame
The ideal timeframe for hosting a giveaway is one to two weeks, though I have seen Pinterest giveaways last up to a month if they are giving away a very large prize. The key is not to let your giveaway go on for too long or participants could feel discouraged and as if its ‘not worth it’ to enter. By keeping the chance to win within reach, it’ll be more enticing to participate and garner more sharing on social media sites.

4. Entry Requirements
Think about what will be required for entry and try to keep it simple. For instance, I skip giveaways that require participants to do a long list of tasks. I like to pick one or two tasks, such as asking contestants to comment on your blog, pin an image on your website or blog, follow you on Twitter, follow you on Facebook or tweet about the giveaway.

Be sure to add contest rules. I usually limit my giveaways to the US for shipping purposes and I keep it to participants that are 18 and older. You can manage a giveaway with an awesome tool called Rafflecopter that keeps track of who entered for you. (https://www.rafflecopter.com)

5. Choose a Winner
You can choose your winner with the tool I mentioned above, Rafflecopter, or another tool called Random Number Generator. (http://www.random.org)

6. Follow up
Once you notify your winner, be sure to get your prize out right away. Track the success of your contest by analyzing the entries as well as hits to your blog/website via Google Analytics.

Maria Dismondy Bio:
Maria Dismondy is an award-winning children’s book author. She is a dynamic speaker who in one month alone, spoke to 10,000 children at local elementary schools and other venues. She speaks on a number of empowering topics such as bullying, building character and reading and writing for young authors. Maria continues to write books and blogs regularly. Find out more about Maria on her website at


www.mariadismondy.com
www.facebook.com/mariadismondy
www.twitter.com/mariadismondy
Blog: Be the Difference www.mariadismondy.com/blog

Here's a blurb on THE POTATO CHIP CHAMP from Goodreads:

Champ and Walter Norbert Whipplemoore are about as different as two kids can bewell, except for their love of baseball and potato chips. Champ had everything, but always wanted more. Walter had very little, but was never seen without a smile on his face. In the end, it is Walter and some crunchy potato chips that teach Champ a lesson about character that can't be taught in school.

Hope to see you tomorrow when interviewing debut author Dorine White about her book, THE EMERALD RING and giving away a copy of it.