I always wondered about that and haven't got a clear answer.
I know you must have more than 5 people enter, but is there a difference between posting for an hour or a day?
Does it matter if 1000 people would enter or 100?

(Other than getting to larger crowds)

8 years ago

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Not in that regard, no. As you point out, you'll only end up with a larger number of entries. Whether you want that or not is up to you.

8 years ago
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Always wondered about that. If the number matters towards anything. Thanks!!

8 years ago
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Length of your giveaways matters only if you want to give more people a chance, mostly because timezones.
Other than that, no real difference for you as a GA creator if 100 or 1000 people enter your giveaway.

8 years ago
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Thanks. I usually go for a day, but I use level 0-2, so that's a wide audience.

8 years ago
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As a publisher or promoter for something, you'll want to reach a lot of people, so a longer running time can be preferred. I personally prefer entering and giving out games with smaller crowds, so I rarely do public giveaways, instead I solve and make puzzles, where there's bound to be less competition.

8 years ago
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I saw your puzzle today. Was nice!
Must say I don't really get those with the "code" (Random letters for the link).

8 years ago
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Thanks.

The code is generally based on the giveaway address, such as "azlj5" would usually mean http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/azlj5/ (one of your own giveaways in this case). A 8 letter code would normally be inserted into a itstoohard.com url such as http://www.itstoohard.com/puzzle/pOuHVDXa (an old puzzle of mine).

So in puzzles, if you find a 5 letter code, try inserting it into a giveaway url.

8 years ago
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Cool. That's good to know!

8 years ago
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It doesn't count toward anything, but I personally like giving more people a chance to win. It's one of the reasons why my whitelist is so big (compared to most) and why almost all my public- and forum-GAs (aka invite-only ones) are Level 0. With that said, giving to groups (where there are so many generous people) also has in important place, and there the number of entries is always going to be relatively small.

8 years ago
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Good point! I don't do much group GA

8 years ago
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Level 1 is when you gave away one (1) game... No matter of the value. ;)

8 years ago
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I know, but I prefer to do Level 0 giveaways because some people (e.g. kids) can't even give away a single game.

8 years ago
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Most games got cards that you receive by playing or using steam idle master. At https://steamdb.net/sales there are many games for <0,5 €/$. Not important if they are considered bundled (also when >90% discount) or not. That's like 6-7 cards ;)

8 years ago
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I know, I created this thread after all:

http://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/cVY8v/no-more-excuses-getting-to-level-1-without-spending-money-a-short-simple-guide

Still, if you read the replies you'll see things are not always so simple...

8 years ago
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it goes both ways though, because at the same time you give all those people smaller (sometimes much smaller) chance to win too :P

thats why i actually prefer short giveaways, to keep entrants chances of winning at some decent level and my giveaways rarely last for more than 1hr, and even then its normal for a public GA to have like 400 entries in 1hr :P

I dont really feel like entering giveaways that have 3148 entries, and last for 30 days, even if its multiple copies of fallout 7 so i always try to make my public giveaways with a "would i join this one" question in mind, if that makes sense? (: Unless its a small group/wl or forum giveaway because those end up with relatively few entries anyways.

8 years ago
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I don't normally get that many entries. I just checked the number of entries of my last 50 giveaways:

Minimum: 9
Maximum: 133
Average: 76.5
Median: 81

I don't personally hesitate to enter giveaways with that many entries, nor do I feel that my chances are bad.

8 years ago*
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But they are :P and anything with 2k plus entries is getting dangerously close to bingo territory :)

As for your giveaways, yeah thats a very nice amount of entries.

8 years ago
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I guess I won the lottery today, winning a giveaway with exactly 4000 entries (and 2 copies). I don't normally join such giveaways, but it seems it's not completely pointless to do it :-)

8 years ago
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i never said its pointless though :D just like buying a lottery ticket is not entirely pointless, you still might win it and afterall, someone is definitely going to win it but im not much of a gambler, so odds of 1:2000 are just not my thing :=)

i also won a few giveaways of 1k or so, so its not like i never enter those either, but its something you just join and kind of forget about it, without having much (if any?:P) hopes of actually winning it (:

8 years ago
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I just like to give chance for people who are intrested in the game, and not for the ones who are at computer at that time - so I rarely make shorter giveaways than a day, usually rather two. But technically no difference, 6 people gives just as much CV as 6k

8 years ago
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When you create longer giveaway, people who have that game wishlisted will probably see it. Otherwise for shorter giveaways it's more likely to be won by someone who doesn't want it that much.

8 years ago
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public ga gives cv with 1 entry.
invite-only /whitelist /group needs at least 5.

8 years ago
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Has there ever been a public GA with less than 5 entries? I assume doing a Bad Rats GA for Level 10 could end up with very few entries...

8 years ago
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8 years ago
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8 years ago
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Great minds etc... :-)

8 years ago
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8 years ago
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>Does the number of entrants matter?
No
>Should I favor posting longer giveaways?
Favor what you favor, it's purely to your personal tastes.

>I know you must have more than 5 people enter, but is there a difference between posting for an hour or a day?
The longer a giveaway lasts, the more entries it gets.

>Does it matter if 1000 people would enter or 100?
Generally, the lower entries, the more excited the people involved will be over it.
The shorter a giveaway, the lower the entries.
Hence 'flash giveaways' are often responded to very positively.

Flip side, if you're doing low-level public giveaways, there's a fair chance of getting cheats and exploiters and leeches winning your gibs- and they're more likely to enter low entry giveaways, regardless of if they want the game or not.
Longer giveaway lengths, of course, mean more people have a shot at the win, as well.

Basically, if it's a game you want to see go to someone 'worthy', post a private giveaway link on the forums (for better filtering, use the sgtools filter or add prerequisites to you giving people the link, such as an itssohard puzzle), or use a high sg contributor level limitation.

Comparatively, giveaway duration is a minor element in determining the results of who wins a giveaway.

8 years ago
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I get that, and the leechers is a valid point.

However, I myself have a problem with the SG tools filters - Won something I had while the account wasn't in sync, and gave it away again, so I fail the filter.
Kinda hate the SG tools for that ;-)

8 years ago
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Why.. why would you give it away? o.O;

8 years ago
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I already had that game, so I threw it back to the sea...
Didn't understand it's against the rules

I was "Apprehanded", suspended for a few days and came back.
But SG tools keep tabs on your sins ;-)

8 years ago
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:P
Well, you can fix that at any time, by contacting support, and then giving the giveaway creator a fresh copy of the game. support'll then reroll a new winner for that giveaway, letting you off the hook- and clearing your sgtools status completely :)

8 years ago
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OH! didn't know that!

8 years ago
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The site rules could be better elaborated, no doubt :P

Good luck with it! :)

8 years ago
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I like making giveaways for 1 hour. That way less people will be disappointed at missing out. In either case, there will be only 1 winner who will be happy, with shorter duration, there are less that are unhappy.

8 years ago
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I get your point, though that makes it almost impossible for people from some timezones to enter your GAs. As the users from there will be asleep or at work.
That's why I make my GAs last 24+ hours, so everyone (regardless from where) has a chance to see and enter it.

8 years ago
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But I don't want everyone to see it.
Imagine if every user on this site enters your giveaway. Only 1 winner.. and so many losers.
In an ideal world I would have a handful of contestants. Adding more people to the giveaway gives other people a chance.. yes, but it also takes away the chance that the entrees would normally have had. There is a fixed 100% chance to win. Once you have 10 people, 10% chance is good. Once you have 10,000, those extra 9,990 people have stolen the chance from the 10 people. Regardless of how many people enter, its still exactly one winner. Which is why I almost never bother to enter giveaways where the win chance is way too low.

8 years ago
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as I said, I do get your point.
but it cuts out people sorely by where they live, which in my book isn't enough of a reason to exclude them from my GAs. you could set the GA to a high level or make it only for a small group or WL and also achieve a low number of entries.
but which if any conditions you set on your GAs is for the GA creators to decide and that's fine by me.

8 years ago
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Nice idea to limit the number of entrants - Like old IndieGala had...

8 years ago
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theres an easy fix for that too, and i often use it. You can make a giveaway start at any time you want, so sometimes i make GA's that start at like 5-6 AM european time because im well aware how not everyone is able to join my euro focused giveaways times (:

and yeah i also prefer to make 1hr public giveaways, regardless of their start time. I rarely bother entering 24hrs ones (public ones thats it, forum and group giveaways are a different story) :P

8 years ago
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if you have non bundled games or popular bundled games, you can even make flash 1 hours GA's up to level 9 and still easily get at least 5 entrants.

better chances at whitelist and group invites, faster point earnings (high level members tend to marked received very quickly as they know ho wit feels only too well what it feels like to wait)

level 10 takes a little longer just because of the fewer numbers of them.

8 years ago
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Based on my experiences, there are many factors, yet one thing seems to be valid every time: the majority of the entries are made on the first hour (when it is fairly high on the New tab) and the last (when it gets closer to the main page). The only exceptions are the feature (50+ copy) GAs, which receive a constant rate since they are always in front of the people.

8 years ago
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