A Very Bloggy Giveaway!

It seems that everywhere you turn in Bloggityville, there are giveaways going on.  Giveaways!  People just giving away stuff!  Just for fun!  And for free!  FREE, I tell you!

(Hang on, I need to breathe for a second.)

Anyway, with these fun giveaways popping up all over the place, I was thinking to myself, wouldn't it be fun if our little corner of the blogosphere held a ton of giveaways for our readers at the SAME TIME?  And we could kind of turn it into a carnival, of sorts?  We could all go "live" with our giveaway on the same day, and we could all do our drawings on the same day, and, well, all the loveliness would be enough to make the internet smell like flowers!  [CUE VIOLIN MUSIC.]

Basically, think "Works-For-Me Wednesday", but instead of offering helpful tips, you're offering an item that you would ship to the winner.  I'm calling it the "Dog Days of Summer Bloggy Giveaway".  See?  The button has a dog on it.  The cleverness abounds.

You can hold a drawing at your blog for whatever you want.  It doesn't have to be big, or expensive, or even new.  It can be something you made.  Or something you found on sale.  Or something you've used (a book, maybe?) and want to pass on to others.  A purse?  Jewelry?  A gift card?  The ideas are endless.  If you're feeling extra creative, choose an item that is significant to your own blog.  For example, I plan to give away something embroidery-related, since I've been writing about it lately.

The idea is simple:  we'll all go "live" with our giveaways on Monday, July 23 (or anytime that week).  I'll have a Mr. Linky up here where you can enter a link to your giveaway post--hopefully we'll have such a huge list of partcipants that there will be LOTS of chances to win.  You'll accumulate comments through the week, and then you can draw randomly from those commenters on Friday, July 27, announcing your winner.

Obviously, you have to be a blogger to host a giveaway at your site (business owners, you're welcome to participate, but you must have a specific site to link to for announcing the contest and a way to hold a drawing), BUT YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE A BLOGGER TO WIN. 

So, you generous bloggers, be working on ideas for a giveaway. I'll have reminders up through the week.  And tell your readers you'll be playing along!  You can use this code to put the button on your site:

<p><a href="http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/shannon/2007/07/a-very-bloggy-g.html" target="_blank"><img alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket" src="http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa160/rocksinmydryer/dogdays.jpg" border="0" /></a></p>

Remember the giveaway goes live on Monday, July 23rd.  That gives you a whole week to shop for/make/plan an item.  Please plan to play along--the more, the merrier!  Not that this is exactly rocket science, but I've posted a complete list of guidelines (click here) that should hopefully answer any questions you might have.