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Raffles and Giveaways - How to make your thread interesting!

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Sin	12:45pm Jul 13 2015 (last edited on 12:53pm Jul 13 2015)
Normal User Posts: 208	A few people have asked my how I run my raffles and why I run them the way I do...on this thread I'm going to explain how I like to run raffles and giveaways, what I think the most important things are when you're thinking of setting up a raffle or giveaway and also provide a basic rule-set and layout for anyone to use for free. Thread Layout This Post - General Notes (How it Works) Second Post - Free Banner Sets Third Post - Full Layout Examples (rules etc) I'm not going to tell you that your raffle is guaranteed to be successful if you do things the way I do them. When I run a raffle I do it because I enjoy it - it is never my intention to make loads of money (perhaps that's why it works). If you are intending to run a raffle to try and raise a lot of tu then maybe this guide wont be of too much help. But here are some helpful pointers which might make things easier for you and also easier for the people you are wanting to enter your raffle! 1. HAVE AN AWESOME PRIZE! There really is no point in starting a raffle at all unless you have a prize worth raffling. Something that people are going to be prepared to want to spend tu just for the chance of winning! The better your main prize the more people are likely to enter. Remember - more prizes doesn't automatically mean more people will enter, so if you are having multiple prizes make sure they are all interesting. Generally people don't want that random findable pet you've been trying to get rid of in your rancher for the last 2 months. You want 'extra' prizes that are going to entice people to join, not something people are going to go 'meh' over. 2. SET AN ENTRY FEE So, you've found your awesome prize, the thing everyone wants to win! Good for you. Your next step is to choose an entry fee...now this fee is entirely up to you. Some people like to go for small entry fees and some prefer to go for large entry fees. Personally I go for small entry fees because I like my raffles to be accessible to everyone. I want to create something that everyone can join in on no matter whether they're poor or rich! In general entry fees tend to range anywhere from 100k to 1mil. Of course, those of you doing giveaways have no entry fee at all (good for you)! 3. SET AN END DATE A personal bugbear of mine (and others) is when you've entered a raffle and you're really looking forward to finding out who the winner is ... but wait, what's that? There's no set end date??? And you end up waiting months as things drag on and people buy tickets in dribs and drabs until the owner of the raffle decides they've sold enough or there's no more interest and then the raffle gets drawn. I'll be honest with you all - if you set up a raffle and you don't clearly display an end date I'm not interested. It doesn't really matter what kind of timescale you set on your event: a week, a month, two months? Just please, set an end date and stick to it! 4. WRITE YOUR RULES You might think rule writing and reading it boring, and you're right, it is! However rules are there for a reason: they clearly display what you're setting out to do, how much things cost, when things end and what the procedure is for entering. Some people like to set up a form (this is especially helpful with giveaways where there are multiple 'pick your own' prizes). Some people like to keep it plain and simple. Rules are there to cover you if something goes wrong and also to cover your entrants. Write your rules and don't bend them! 4. CANCELLATION POLICIES So lots of people (including myself) state in their rules that they hold the right to cancel their raffle at any time, upon which any money that has already been given for tickets will be returned. This is fine, and a good thing to add to your rules. However, you should never cancel a raffle unless you have a very good reason. Not selling enough tickets is not a good reason. Not only does it annoy people, but it sometimes means that people wont bother to enter your events in the future because they are worried that you will just cancel them a week later. 5. TITLES AND ADVERTISING So you know what you're going to raffle and how you're going about it. What you need now is a catchy punchline which will be your thread ti tle and also help with advertising! You want something fun which stands out, but also something that is related to your raffle so you don't confuse people. I'm afraid you're on your own here! Once you have a catchy ti tle you can write yourself an advertisement which you can use on the shoutbox. Remember you can only advertise once every 30 minutes. So make it count! In an advertisement you should be telling people WHAT you're raffling, WHEN it ends, and HOW MUCH it costs as well as a link to draw people to come and look at your thread. 6. MAKE IT LOOK PRETTY That was originally going to be the entire reason for this little guide. Apparently I got a bit carried away! When you're running an event, whether it's a raffle, a giveaway or even just something random - always take that bit of extra time to make your thread look pretty. Black text is boring - inject some colour into your life! (but don't use rainbow text because it's annoying) ♥♥♥ Big blocks of text are boring - tl:dr is a thing of the past. Use banners and pictures to break up large chunks of text! ♥♥♥ All the text the same size is boring - use the different sizes of text to highlight important things! ♥♥♥ If it doesn't need to be there don't put it there - Your main post especially needs to be punchy and to the point but also contain everything people need to know about your event! ♥♥♥ Always centre your text (especially if you're using banners) - because otherwise it just looks plain wonky! ♥♥♥ Make it look like YOU were excited to be holding the raffle - because if you're not excited then why should anyone else be?! So...you need some help to make things look pretty? In the next post I will post sets of banners for your raffle or giveaway. These are FREE to use. ¸.·´.·´¨) ¸.·¨) ¸.·´.·´¨) ¸.·¨)
Sin	12:45pm Jul 13 2015 (last edited on 1:58pm Jul 13 2015)
Normal User Posts: 208	FREE Banner Sets OHMYGOD ORANGE BLIMEY BLUE *PERFECTLY PINK* GLORIOUSLY GREEN REMEMBER-ME RED ¸.·´.·´¨) ¸.·¨) ¸.·´.·´¨) ¸.·¨)
Sin	12:45pm Jul 13 2015 (last edited on 5:13am Jul 15 2015)
Normal User Posts: 208	LAYOUT EXAMPLES Feel free to tweak and use these layouts for yourself, but remember to edit them so they make sense for your raffle! Hot tip: if you highlight the whole layout and copy, then paste it into a new thread the coding should be exactly the same as it is here. No image URLS required! ~~BLUE LAYOUT~~ PUT YOUR THREAD ti tle HERE THEN ADD A PICTURE OF YOUR PRIZE HERE Write a short introduction to your raffle. Just say what you're raffling, and why if you feel the need to! 1. Tickets cost INSERT COST HERE each (ADD IN HERE WHETHER YOU ARE ACCEPTING ITEMS/PETS AND IF SO THEN WHAT THE CONVERSION IS FOR EACH PET COLOUR OR ITEM) 2. You may purchase as many tickets as you like 3. Please post on the thread with the number of tickets you are buying and then send the tu 4. Raffle will end TIME SCALE HERE (1 week, 2 weeks etc) after the start date - DATE AND TIME HERE. 5. No refunds unless the raffle is cancelled 6. Winner will be contacted by rmail and asked to respond to confirm they are an active player before their prize is sent. 7. Please be patient if I don't add your name to the entrants list immediately, however if I haven't added you within a couple of days please feel free to rmail me. This is your cancellation policy. Add or edit as needed. If at any time I have a need to cancel this raffle then I reserve the right to do so without warning. Any tickets purchased will be refunded in full if the raffle is cancelled. There is no 'goal' to be reached before the end date and the raffle will be drawn on that date regardless of how many tickets are sold. The entrants list will be in the second post. Winners will be announced in the third post. Good luck everyone! --- The second post should be reserved by you as soon as you open the thread to contain your entrants list. This doesn't need to be pretty since it's just a list of who has entered and their ticket numbers. 1. Username - ticket numbers 2. Username - ticket numbers 3. Username - ticket numbers And so on... --- The third post should be reserved by you as soon as you open the thread, however it will not be used until the very end of your event. This is where you will announce the winners ^.^ First Prize Winner Ticket number here - USERNAME HERE - prize here Second Prize Winner Ticket number here - USERNAME HERE - prize here and so on... Winners drawn using (TELL PEOPLE HOW RAFFLE WAS DRAWN random.org, out of a hat, by the dog etc.) Congratulations to the winners and thank you to everyone who took part <3 I am sorry I cannot give you all an awesome prize. Please look out for the next raffle or giveaway though! ¸.·´.·´¨) ¸.·¨) ¸.·´.·´¨) ¸.·¨)
Sin	12:45pm Jul 13 2015
Normal User Posts: 208	Saved ¸.·´.·´¨) ¸.·¨) ¸.·´.·´¨) ¸.·¨)
Avo	4:40am Jul 14 2015
Normal User Posts: 1,324	Thank you! :)
Kittykat	10:21pm Jul 14 2015
Normal User Posts: 1,477	This is very nice Sin! c:
Aeliz	8:26pm Jul 17 2015
Normal User Posts: 72	Subbing for future reference. :) Very helpful guide btw!

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