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The countries responsible for most of the page views on my blog? Or how about all the countries of residence of my favorite book bloggers? Wrong and wrong again.
In light of the fact that most giveaways seem to be only open to people in the US (or USA and Canada, in some cases) I started wondering how many very lucky people from all kinds of places worldwide ever won something on my blog. Of course a mere list would be a bit boring. And apropos boring - boredom can make you engage in all kinds of activities, such as creating the map above (but seriously, if you want to create a customizable map this is a fantastic site).
You know what my first thought was when I saw the result? There are still an awful lot of white spots on that map. I could have sworn that there must have been a winner in South Africa too, but apparently not. Not all that much going on in Asia or South America either. And hard to believe, but even in Europe there are several countries filled with people who didn't get lucky (in one of my giveaways, anyway).
The point is, it warms my heart seeing how people from around the globe are brought together by their love for books. While I do understand that personally sending out books is rather pricey with shipping costs, still I really wished that authors who offer books in giveaways would see the map of the world like I do. A world filled with readers.
Fellow bloggers, what's the most exotic place any of your winners ever came from? Would you agree that The Book Depository is a fantastic place for sending prices to winners? And tell me, when you have authors as guests on your blog, do you encourage them to make giveaways open worldwide? Please share!
i don't do many giveaway but it's open internationaly and the winner was from indonesia. For the gift i offer i also try not to exclude anyone so i had someone in australia ( that too the longest to arrive), malaysia, europe, but also cili, brazil ^^ so far so good ^^
ReplyDeleteIt's really not about how many giveaways you host, but I find it wonderful that you think about people everywhere! Besides, we all love your bookmarks! :-)
DeleteNice idea! I try to make my giveaways international - sometimes I even offer a different book for people not in the Bookdepository areas. I'm not sure what the most exotic place was, maybe Sri Lanka.
ReplyDeleteI do ask publishers that offer a giveaway if it can be international. Often they're fine with it. It doesn't harm to ask.
I'm not even sure which countries aren't yet in the free-delivery zone at TBD though I heard that Fishpond is a good alternative as it ships to any country.
DeleteI agree, it never harms to ask and from the few giveaways sponsored by authors about half of them agreed to go international.
I don't know how to define exotic as to them living there it wouldn't be considered that at all, :). But probably Indonesia. Great idea for a map. It shows you that you have to do many more giveaways to cover all the countries.
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts exactly - maybe I should host a giveaway for those countries only which haven't had a lucky winner on my blog yet? Hmmm ...
DeleteI generally give gift cards, but the most exotic place I've sent a book to was to a winner in Sri Lanka (same as leeswammes! haha).
ReplyDeleteThe least exotic was to a recent winner in the same town that I live!
Sri Lanka? Again!? ;-)
DeleteSeeing how the latest giveaway hop I participate in ends tonight, I may get a super exotic winner this time round myself!
Hmm... Great point. In the few giveaways that I have hosted, they would usually be from the US. And in other sponsored giveaways that I have done, the participants are usually influenced by the hosting blog -- Asian blog giveaway hosts tend to have more Asian readers and thence participants.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy having an online shop for this reason -- discovering new places and being able to send mail out to them. My latest "exotic" place is New Caledonia. I had to Google!
I agree, it will certainly depend on where blog visitors are from. In my case most are from the US, followed by Canada, the UK and Germany. So it's little surprise that I do get many winners from the US too.
DeleteNew Caledonia? I wonder if I ever have a blog reader or even winner from there, hahaha!