What is Rafflecopter?

We’re happy to introduce Rafflecopter!

What is Rafflecopter? Rafflecopter will be an application that will help publishers create, run, and organize giveaways on their blogs. It’s a service that will allow users to place an embeddable widget that displays the specifications and entrants of the giveaway.

When a user of Rafflecopter signs in to their account, they’ll see a dashboard of past, current, and future giveaways. They can create a widget for a new giveaway by entering the giveaway specs: start and end dates, ways to enter, rules, etc. The user will then take the widget embed code and place it on their blog, much like a youtube video.

Publishers will benefit from this in several ways. Rafflecopter’s main objective is to save the publisher’s time by allowing them to manage their giveaways from a single location. We hope to improve the entire flow of the giveaway process, from identifying false entries to selecting and presenting a winner. The widget is also designed to allow the entrants to fill out more entry options by providing them the giveaway options in a format that makes it simple and convenient to enter.

We’ve received a lot of feedback from publishers interested in trying out Rafflecopter, but we’re always looking for more. We’re also completing our hunt for private alpha users, so please feel free to get in touch with us if you’re interested in trying it out! We’re looking to release our first product privately sometime in April 2011. So if you’re interested, feel free to e-mail me at greg@rafflecopter.com.

We look forward to helping you!

– Greg

Sign up to receive updates at Rafflecopter.com

PS Feel free to follow us on Twitter, and connect with us on Facebook.

Related articles

About the author

Greg Goodson

Greg Goodson is the cofounder of Rafflecopter. 25x ultramarathoner, bluegrass guitarist, & weather enthusiast. Owner of one doge.

  • Will this be freemium? (ie. you can run X contests per years for free but if you want to run this many you have to pay)

    • Hey Chance – in case you didn’t see the reply above, the plan right now is to make it absolutely free for bloggers/publishers. We don’t think you should have to pay to give stuff away :)

  • Will this be freemium? (ie. you can run X contests per years for free but if you want to run this many you have to pay)

    • Hey Chance – in case you didn’t see the reply above, the plan right now is to make it absolutely free for bloggers/publishers. We don’t think you should have to pay to give stuff away :)

  • Anonymous

    Hey, Chance. The plan right now is to make it absolutely free for bloggers/publishers. We don’t think you should have to pay to give stuff away :)

    If you’re interested to know more, hop on the waiting list at http://rafflecopter.com and we’ll let you know when we’re ready to open the doors.

  • Anonymous

    Hey, Chance. The plan right now is to make it absolutely free for bloggers/publishers. We don’t think you should have to pay to give stuff away :)

    If you’re interested to know more, hop on the waiting list at http://rafflecopter.com and we’ll let you know when we’re ready to open the doors.

  • David Respaldiza

    Sounds like a great idea!

  • David Respaldiza

    Sounds like a great idea!

  • Pingback: Rafflecopter | A New Way to Enter Giveaways()

  • Pingback: Tales From the Nursery » Help Me Test Rafflecopter! 50 Shutterfly Cards #Giveaway – 6/12()

  • Jennifer Mercurio

    I host a ton of giveaways on my blog. I’d love to demo this if I could, please?!
    twitter – @mommaJWoww19

  • Ohhhfire

    would you consider posting a list of all sites using this so that we can find them easier

    • We don’t have a list readily availabile, but there are some linkys out there that show sites that use Rafflecopter. If you google for “Rafflecopter Linky” you should be able to find them :)

  • Mymcbooks

    This sounds really great. And since I giveaway alot of books this would be a welcome tool. Can’t wait to use this.

  • I have seen rafflecopter used on many of the mom blogs that I frequent.  I can’t wait to try this out on my mom blog, BlogWithMom.com.

  • jr911

    Are there any plans for an automatic linky tool that entrants can visit to see all Rafflecopter giveaways out in the blogosphere?

    • It’s a possibility that we might build something in the future, but nothing in the short term. There are some other linkies out there specifically for Rafflecopter – google for them and you should be able to find them :)

  • Chelseamckell

    I love entering giveaways, and Rafflecopter is a dream come true!!

  • Laura H.

    I’m a blog follower who LOVES Rafflecopter!!  But I have a concern.  How do you delete an entry if you make a mistake on the entry?  For example, one of the blogs I follow allows “enter another giveaway” as an entry which you can do once a day.  I wasn’t paying attention and repeated an entry I had already completed previously.  Does Rafflecopter automatically delete double entries because I don’t want it to appear like I’m “cheating”?

    • Hey Laura :) Nope – we don’t automatically delete entries. The only way an entry can be deleted is if the blogger who is running the giveaway decides to delete it. Mistakes like the one you described happen from time to time. 

      We’re getting close to releasing a new version of the Rafflecopter widget that doesn’t use cookies to track your entries and will also let you edit entries as well :)

      Hope that helps!

  • willitara

    I’m glad to see that you’re working on a version that doesn’t use cookies and will allow us to edit entries.  How about something that will let us know if we have already entered?  When there are dozens of blogs offering many different giveaways I’m finding it hard to keep track.  I would love to see a login requirement that would bring up my entry history.  For example if I go to blog xyz and complete 4 of the entries but I don’t have time to finish, I’d like to be able to sign back in and see what I’ve already done and what I’m still eligible for.  Cookies don’t help when my computer automatically deletes cookies when I run the maintenance (which is almost every day).
    Some of the blog owners are pretty easy about just removing duplicates since we don’t have any way to check them but other bloggers say that a duplicate entry is immediate disqualification.  I hate to put out all that effort just to be disqualified because of a mistake.

    • Hey! Yes, that’s a great idea. I definitely think we’re moving in that direction… I know lots of folks will really enjoy the next release of Rafflecopter as it will address some of the issues you described.

      I’ve made a note – thanks! :)

  • Maryann

    Hello, I use Safari on my IMAC and I was wondering if I clear my Cache will that clear all my contest entries that I entered on Rafflecopter?  If I go back to that contest will it appear as if I did not enter it?  I do think Rafflecopter is great!

    • Hey Maryann – if you clear your cookies, this is what will happen… let me know if that helps!

  • Raj

    This is a wonderful way to get the stuff for FREE..

  • Just heard of it…Look forward to using Rafflecopter…

  • I would love to be able to use this but it is currently set to invite only :-( I hope I get an invitation soon!

  • Tracy @ Ascending Butterfly

    I signed up for an invite, look forward to hearing from you. Does rafflecopter randomize a winner for you too or does the blogger do that themself?

    Tracy @ Ascending Butterfly
    http://www.ascendingbutterfly.com

  • js2222

    I’ve noticed a problem with tweeting using rafflecopter.

    First of all I DO understand that the problem is not rafflecopter.

    I wrote to twitter @support to tell them of the problem. This problem
    never happened until they forced me to switch to the new twitter.

    The problem is that when a rafflecopter entry has a tweet button, I
    right-click my mouse on it, and open it in a new tab(I use firefox, but I
    doubt that the browser is the problem). The tweet text appears in the
    box, and I click on the tweet button.  After it has successfully
    submitted, we then see  View
    it on Twitter – I right-click and copy that url and paste it
    into the rafflecopter entry Extra Info box. Easy enough. Unfortunately, if
    one left-clicks on the View
    it on Twitter one often sees a prior tweet, not the current tweet. This is due to new twitter being so slow, that the View
    it on Twitter url is the one they grabbed from what they think is our last tweet.

    This means that most of the blogs that I tweet for an entry for, I’m pasting in the wrong tweet URL.

    I am hoping that you, and all the blogs that use rafflecopter can put
    some pressure on twitter to bring the old twitter back, or fix the delay
    problem with the new twitter.

    Thanks for listening!

  • So it does not ensure that the publisher give away the gift or does it only picks one of the participants

  • For Me, It Works

    Contemplating my first blog give away. I am researching applications to use, yours is one.

  • Robert Jonathan Chan

    is there a way someone can crack rafflecopter? I’m in the Philippines, since some did not show the actual raffle and in some case some winner has become almost the same person

  • Lisa Fritchey malone

    ???? Not working thru my iPhone for Facebook login?? Is it due to recent iPhone update?