Cheater, Cheater, Pumpkin Eater!

  When I was a kid, cheating could be saying you don't have a card in go fish, or cutting in line. Simple little things that you should not do but they really don't cost anything but your honor. Although I think honor is the most pricey thing there is.


But as an adult what is cheating anyway? It's receiving extra change you are not due and sticking it in your pocket. Driving too fast when you know you shouldn't. And yes, it's saying you did something when you did not.


I am not sure if you know how hard bloggers work to get the reviews and offers we have to giveaway. For those that are not bloggers I wan't to tell you and explain why it is so heartbreaking to us when some of you cheat. And what I consider cheating.


First  in order to tell you why I think someone cheats and why it bothers most blogs I want to tell you what we go through to get these items to give to you. First we have to make sure our blog is marketable, we have to get our stats to a point where we will attract the interest of potential sponsors. Not only do we have to look for and find offers to tell you about. Which takes hours of scouring sites to find offers for you. But we also to find coupons and specials for you, if that is one of the things we offer. We have to write interesting stories, read peoples notes to us, read the comments and sometimes have people we don't know call us bad names. All because we want to blog. Most of us do not make any money doing our blogs, some do and some are quite successful at making money. I have made money on some of my posts or by letting someone post something on my blog. For the most part I get only the sample item as my reward for presenting my opinion of that item. I tell you what I like and don't like because I want to make sure that I am truthful to you it is my integrity, name and honor I am putting out there. I do not want to tell you a lie and have it come back on me.


When I find items I want to present to you, I write to the company telling them why they should allow me to present their products to you. For every offer I get there may be 20 that do not respond or that turn me down. Once I receive items I have to try it out, read it, listen to it or watch it. Then I have to write about it. Sometimes I pay to join bigger events so I can offer you things like computers or Kindle Fires. Most of us would never be able to offer anything so nice without joining together. I can't afford one for myself let alone buy one to give to you. The money comes out of our pockets and I spend a lot on prizes for you.


Then I have to promote the giveaways, I have to post them on various sites and tell you all about them, and I have to tweet about them. I do this because the sponsors expect us to advertise the reviews after all they are giving the items for free. A lot of time, effort and money goes into the review/giveaways.


Once the event is over, I have to draw a name, and per my rules (if you have not read them please do). I verify the entries, I have, to my dismay, drawn names that do not do a single task. They just click the enter button, I consider that cheating and a void entry, they don't get the prize. I have discovered some that like my Facebook page only long enough to enter and then leave, I consider this a void entry as well. I have found some that post comments or giveaways they entered on a different blog, again this is void. Plus a number of other ways people try to not enter correctly. So each time I find someone trying to get around entering my giveaway in the way that they are supposed to, I have to tighten my rules a little more.


Why do we ask you to do some of the things we do to enter the giveaways. We are trying to build our blogs to make them more attractive, so we can get better items to review and giveaway. I do the extra events so I can keep you interested in my blog and get you to come back to it. Sometimes the sponsor asks us to set up the giveaway in a certain way, or to ask you to do certain things in order to offer the giveaway. They are giving the gift for free and is also trying to promote their business and products.Without the followers or the good ratings I would be offering you bubblegum as a gift because that is all I can afford.


The last giveaway I offered, I had to draw 10 winners before I found one that did all their entries correctly. I do verify all my winners entries and if they do not enter correctly, they lose. Sometimes with some of the bigger prizes we have to partner with other blogs in order to be able to give them to you. Therefore my rules were changed on March 10th and all winners are going to have to verify that they are following me and all other sponsors by writing on our blog pages AFTER their names are drawn. IF you have to like our pages in order to write on our walls, your entry will be void because the entry to the giveaway was to like us. If you like us after your name was drawn the entry was not valid in the first place. If you refuse to do this task you will not win the prize because you agreed to these terms when you entered the giveaway (see the rules).

We are only asking you to do for us what you want us to do for you, provide you with a fair giveaway. And we want to give all our followers who are completing the entries correctly the fairest chance to win possible.


To Read the rules check here.