Blogger blogs have the most issues, but they are fairly easy to resolve.
If a blog is set up so that when I try to comment in order to enter the giveaway and it takes me to an entirely different screen from the original post, chances are the first entry will also be my last. Since I am trying to enter so many I don't really want to spend time hitting the back button each time to see how many entries I get for following, what your twitter id is or whatnot.
Also, I understand spam filters have their place. Please change the settings so that the filter shows up at the same time as my comment. It is very time consuming to send my comment only to see my page load and have to enter a silly word then wait for it to load again. In this situation I'll still stick around to enter but I probably won't take advantage of every single extra entry.
Extra entries - wow! I think it is very generous to offer readers 3 entries for following, 4 for voting for the blog and 10 for blogging. But honestly, one extra entry for each thing suffices and saves me time. I have learned the art of copying and pasting (which on wordpress blogs gives me the warning "slow down, you are going too fast! and cracks me up) but even with copying and pasting I would rather have 1 entry for each extra thing I do.
One thing I won't do as a required entry is sign up for a company's newsletter. I prefer not to receive information I am not interested in, so I just won't enter.
Also, please don't require me to check back on your blog in order to claim my prize. I will leave my email address in the comment. I just can't keep track of all the giveaways I am entering so I won't know to check back to your blog.
I have heard this tip from a few other bloggers: Please make it obvious that the contest is closed by either turning the comments off or posting in bold text at the top "Closed! Congrats to our winner." This saves me time from entering a closed giveaway (that has happened, sorry to say)
The last suggestion I have for running a giveaway is layout. If I can't read the instructions easily I won't stick around. There have been one or two blogs where the words are so close together and lines were squished that I just entered once and left, reading was a headache.
That is all! They are all pretty simple fixes and I hope they help a few other mama bloggers out there!
