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Should I add this rule to my giveaways?

So there's a person who enters my giveaways who seems to leave an entry for each member of her family. I know this because the emails come in rapid succession, the mandatory entry is always the same, and the email addresses are very similar.

I don't have a rule that states only one person per household can enter, so s/he isn't breaking any rule. But I think that this person has an unfair advantage by submitting an entry for 4 different people at a time. Many other moms and dads out there enter my giveaways, and they don't submit entries on behalf of their children.

Do you think that I should add a rule that states only one person per household can enter? Have you had to deal with this issue before? There may be other people who are doing this on my blog, but if so, they are being much less transparent about it (not entering all the people at one time, and having different email addresses).

Just trying to figure out if the rule is worth adding, or if I should not worry about it. Love to hear your thoughts!

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Permalink Reply by Lexie on June 23, 2010 at 5:27pm

I would say having a rule about one entry per household is perfectly fair, and it sounds like you would feel more comfortable if that was one of your rules. If you have a contest with multiple prizes, a rule like that would make sure the same house doesn't win everything. It is a common rule in lots of contests, so if you want to do it, I say do it.

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Permalink Reply by Maggie McGary on June 25, 2010 at 8:41am

I think one per household is pretty standard; also, I think limiting it to 18 and older is a good idea.

I guess, ultimately, though, I wouldn't sweat it too much--better than nobody wanting to enter, or a billion spammers leaving comments (can you tell my one experience doing a giveaway wasn't positive? ;)

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Permalink Reply by Kathleen on June 25, 2010 at 1:53pm

I have a feeling the same family you are talking about enters my giveaways. I searched the web for the email addresses and they enter giveaways everywhere. Problem is, we don't know if they are all the same house or if one person is entering their family and friends for them by entering their emails. At first I thought maybe one was entering and telling the others to enter but then there would be spacing between the entries.

I haven't added that rule to my giveaways but I think I might. But what if they still enter? Is it wrong to just let one of those email addresses win?

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Permalink Reply by Storm on June 25, 2010 at 2:42pm

I would do it, and make it one entry per household/ip address. It's not fair if they aren't having the other person(s) enter - after all, the whole point that many sponsors are doing giveaways is so that they receive attention to their sites or products. If this person is entering for others, those others are never viewing the information about the sponsors, and the sponsors aren't getting the attention they deserve.

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Permalink Reply by forgetfulone on June 25, 2010 at 3:15pm

One per household would be hard to track, more than likely, but it's not a bad rule. I usually allow multiple entries, though. One per email address might not help as it is easy to set up multiple email addresses and assume different user names. If it bothers you that this person is entering several times, then go ahead and add the rule. I usually only have one prize per giveaway post, so there can only be one winner from one household, so I hadn't thought about this.

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Permalink Reply by Melissa J on June 25, 2010 at 9:32pm

I agree. I think it would be hard to track and I have husband and wives that read my blogs however they have two IP addresses as well...I do use the rule of 18+ however really how are they proving that? Are you using WP?

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Permalink Reply by Robyns Online World on June 26, 2010 at 2:46pm

I have a rule of one entry per household AND that you can't enter on behalf of others or use multiple identities. If I catch them they are banned for life from my giveaways.

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Permalink Reply by Tiffany Merritt on June 27, 2010 at 10:05am

Thanks, everyone for your advice! I agree that it is pretty close to impossible to catch someone who is really sly with how they cheat (using distinctly different accounts, entering at different times, making mandatory entry answers different). I won't be worrying about those folks too much, because I think (and hope) that they are really rare.

After reading your comments, I'm thinking that there's no harm in stating that only one person per household can enter the contest. Storm you raised an excellent point that the sponsors want as much attention as possible for their products, and having the same person enter on behalf of other people doesn't provide those people with exposure to the product, which would make that disappointing. Plus, I just don't want folks who are entering just for themselves to feel frustrated or like they don't have good odds!

So, I'll just add another line to my "rules" section!