How to handle a free hardware giveaway

by **erict** » Sat Dec 22, 2012 10:32 am

I recently got some hardware parts for free. It's all brand new stuff and includes some LCDs, project cases and misc parts that would be fun for people creating hardware.

As a way to give back to the OSH/DIY community and for promotional purposes, I was considering doing a weekly giveaway at my site lowvoltagelabs.com.

Now I'm trying to figure out a good way to pick a weekly winner. Should we have people just post a comment to enter then do a random pick? Could be on my blog, Facebook, Twitter, Google plus? Or should there be some sort of tell us about the project you would build with this part?

Any other ideas?
- Eric

by **Alex555** » Sat Dec 22, 2012 12:22 pm

Perhaps your favorite project in the project logs section of the forum gets something?

by **ian** » Tue Dec 25, 2012 4:53 am

I'm a fan of just giving stuff away to commentors. If it's higher value I ask for an idea for the project (rather than a 'me too!') to make it more interesting and give more search mojo. Problem with giveaways that involve judging (or any giveaway I guess) is that someone inevitably feels left out.

by **sqkybeaver** » Tue Dec 25, 2012 8:07 am

a hat with names, get a small child to pull the name.

by **arhi** » Thu Dec 27, 2012 7:47 pm

sqkybeaver wrote:a hat with names, get a small child to pull the name.

++

by **Lgbeno** » Thu Dec 27, 2012 9:07 pm

Have you seen www.rafflecopter.com it's a decent tool for giveaways and contests.

by **erict** » Fri Dec 28, 2012 12:16 am

I like the idea of just making it a random giveaway, I will go with that.

I'd not thought of using a site like rafflecopter, I will check it out. Thanks.
Maybe there is a WordPress contest plugin I could use?