misosouper, a shopping blog

As I mentioned before, I just finished up a series of three guest posts on the biz side of things, over at Indie Fixx.  A couple of readers have since e-mailed me since with some follow-up questions, and I thought that to give them proper due, I’d turn them into a (somewhat irregular) Friday feature.  On to today’s question!

Lovely Liz writes:  “How do you promote a giveaway?”

I feel relatively equipped to answer this, considering that misosouper’s been doing one giveaway a week for 6 months now.  I like to promote my giveaways through several channels.  After the initial giveaway post goes up, I try to plug it on my site throughout the week, on days when traffic peaks (on misosouper, it’s Wednesdays and Fridays).  Like this:  lookie here!  Sign up for this week’s giveaway!

I always e-mail a link to the person who is offering the goods to giveaway, so she can circulate it through her own channels, post it on her blog, tweet it up, etc.

Speaking of Twitter:  tweet about it!  But not too much, because that’s just annoying.

Finally, I submit the giveaway post to a few giveaway promo sites, like Prizey, free!grechen, Blog Giveaways,  Luck Happens, and Prizeatron.  It takes a bit of time, but this always results in directed traffic that often sticks around and becomes a regular audience on the site.

Voila!  That’s what I do…how do you promote your giveaways?

*For more suggestions on how to start/promote/blog your indie biz, check out these other great resources at Design*Sponge, Modish Biz Tips, and Indie Biz Chicks

photo credit to iheartlinen, who made (and gave away) all this gorgeous stuff

1.  In celebration of Earth Day, Ideeli is giving away an Amazon Kindle–in 5 hours.  Start your engines, and sign up for Ideeli (and the contest) here:  http://www.ideeli.com/invite/misosouper

2.  In other giveaway news, check out vivabox’s Mother’s Day contest; I’m a judge, along with some other fantastic bloggers, like Jolie Nadine, Aly Walansky of SheKnows (among other places), and Andrea Proulx of Mommas Review.  Write an essay for your mama, and you could win a vivabox full of goodies for Mother’s Day AND your mom’s birthday.

3.  Have you entered misosouper’s awesome giveaway from Miss Indie yet?  Do it!

4.  I’ve been writing a series of guest posts for Indie Fixx, and some readers have been e-mailing me/commenting with follow-up questions about working, promoting, and surviving in the biz.  On Friday, I’ll dedicate a post to some proper answers, so if you have anything pressing you want to ask (really…anything!  I can’t guarantee that I’ll answer all the questions, but ask away), e-mail me at anna {at} misosouper.com, or leave a comment on this post.

5.  And finally, before you leave, be sure to update your RSS feed to the new address.  Feedburner is about to burn out, so you certainly don’t want to be misosouper-less.

photo by radio rover, who shares both my aesthetic and sense of humor

Sadly, the boutique Indie Fixx–which is like the lovingly curated Frick Collection next to Etsy’s sprawling Met–is in the process of closing up shop. Their parting gift to us is 10-50% off all merchandise (no coupon necessary), with all orders receiving a sweet Chocolate Bon Bon soap. Here’s what I would–will–buy:  favorite prints from Jess Gonacha and Wolfie and the Sneak, letterpressed cards, and some treats to stash in the closet for future holidays.