It occurred to me that maybe people don't understand how to use Rafflecopter. Most comps hosted through RC are easy, some have just one entry, others can have hundreds. But, however many ways, they can help in the way to winning.
So here's my guide to entering Rafflecopter comps!
Using Rafflecopters own giveaway (click "See Rafflecopter in action"), I'll show you how to use it correctly!
- Firstly, you DON'T have to be a Facebook or Twitter user. You can sign up with just your email address. But you may have to have one or the other for a mandatory option (if any) so please remember to check!
- Many have a daily entry, some have a few daily entries - check & bookmark!
- Check to see what options, if any, are mandatory - if it says "you can earn X more entries today, it normally means those showing are mandatory.
- ALWAYS read the T&Cs - obviously this goes for all comps, not just RC - the T&Cs should clear up any queries about daily entries and any mandatory options, as well as inform you about the age / location etc that the entrant must be.
If you go to the Rafflecopter comp - you'll see it asks you to sign in. You can either sign in with Facebook or email.
On this particular comp, there is one mandatory entry - which mean you have to answer that question before you can enter for extra entries. This is a nice simple Rafflecopter comp, but still people get confused. Especially with the Tweet (often daily).
When you click on the button next to "Tweet about the giveaway", it'll come up with a box.
Now, this is where people are missing out. You MUST click the little "Tweet" button in the box - which will bring this up:
Then click on the "Tweet" and wait for the screen to change to this:
Now you can do one of three things.You can click on "View it on Twitter" - this will bring up your tweet in a new page, where you can copy the link. If you're not quick enough, just go to your Twitter profile, find the tweet, right-click the time stamp (where it says "8s ago", "5 mins ago" etc.) and copy that link. Or you can right-click on "View it on Twitter" if you're fast enough, and copy that way. Then all you need to do is paste the link in the Rafflecopter. 
Another big mistake on Rafflecopter is that when it comes to comments on Blog posts, follows on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram - is that people sometimes don't use the same name. Many blogs use different comment options; Disqus, commentluv and the like. Make sure you know your username of which one you used!
Same goes for Twitter and Facebook usernames. They are both so simple to find yet many get it wrong! Go to your homepages on both and you'll be able to find them easily! Twitter is the name that comes up when you tweet or the one that people add when they want to talk to you - mine is @thecrazperfblog for example. Facebook is a little more difficult, go to your homepage and copy the web address - it should look something like www.facebook.com/TheCrazyPerfectBlog or it'll have a series of numbers instead of words .com/xxxxxxxx - if you're having any trouble, give me a shout and I'll help!I've done it, used xxclarexx as a username on something but put my real name in the Rafflecopter form Massive fail on my part because if I was lucky enough to be picked, the promoter wouldn't be able to link my username with my real name. Such a simple mistake but so often done
Don't let the number of entries put you off - at the end of the day, it takes one entry to win. And with some RC comps, there are 100s of entries available for any person, so it doesn't truly reflect the amount of people actually entering!
If you do still struggle, feel free to comment - I'll help whenever I can, or check out Rafflecopter's Support page
Hopefully there'll be less disqualified entries next time
