Erica Says - Latest Comments in Extending Contest Deadlines – Is It Fair?

Re: Extending Contest Deadlines – Is It Fair?

Erica Mueller — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 13:15:30 -0000

I agree. It really bugs me when I see bloggers extending entry deadlines for anything other than technical reasons.

Re: Extending Contest Deadlines – Is It Fair?

Robert Bravery — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 05:22:43 -0000

I would tend to say that once you make a promise, then keep to it. The rules have been set. Don;t change the ball park. Extending the contest deadline merely makes your contest unreliable and you loose credibility.

If you have entrants, then the competition is on. IF you have less entrants than prizes, just give out less prizes.

I have competitions where no-one entered. So just did not give away prizes. Extending the deadline shows desperation. In that case, might as well just draw names out of a hat and give away prizes.

Re: Extending Contest Deadlines – Is It Fair?

Krsitin T. — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:01:00 -0000

The first contest I had was bad. There were 7 entrants, and I had 3 winners so I really considered extending the deadline. However, I think that if you consider your blog your personal business, and I am trying to, then it is not a good idea.

I expect businesses to have consistency and fairness in their business practices, and if I were promised something within a specified time frame I would expect that business to follow through. It doesn't set the tone for a blog who cares about readers to change the details just to get more traffic. I can understand doing it, especially if you're like me and have very low traffic and need more. Nevertheless, you should keep promises you make. The next giveaway I did, I made sure to have a much longer entry period so that I could promote it more widely and get more traffic. There were more than 6 times the entrants as the first giveaway. That still isnt' much, but it was better than before, and I'm glad I held my stance.