How to enter Gleam giveaways

If you enter a lot of online comps, you’ll probably have encountered Gleam widgets. They’re used on blogs, websites and Facebook pages and, like Rafflecopter, are an easy way for a promoter to run a fair and random prize draw. 

Gleam giveaways have one or more entry tasks, which can be mandatory or optional. When the giveaway has ended, Gleam chooses a random winner from all entries, and the promoter contacts the winner via email and can choose to display the winner’s name and photo on the widget.

Gleam giveaways are much quicker to enter than Rafflecopter, as tasks like tweeting can be done with a single click, rather than copying and pasting links. Although this makes life easier for the entrant, it does make it harder for the promoter to check entries have been completed, and that’s why bloggers who like to run multiple task giveaways usually opt for Rafflecopter rather than Gleam. Personally, as both a comper and a promoter, I prefer the look and feel of Gleam.

In this post I’ll be showing how to enter a Gleam giveaway correctly. For most giveaways, you don’t have to complete every task to enter the prize draw, and you don’t require any social media accounts – using just your email address is fine. Before you start entering Gleam giveaways, consider creating a Google/gmail account – then it’s easy to comment on blogs, YouTube and Google+ if those are required tasks.

Some bloggers will list a LOT of optional tasks in their Gleam widget, but just complete the ones you want to. Each one will get you the corresponding number of entries in the draw.

Gleam giveaway walkthrough

I’m going to use one of Lucy’s giveaways as an example to show the Gleam entry process – the video below will show exactly what I’m doing at each stage.

Below is the ‘widget’ on the blog – this is what you’ll see if you’re NOT logged in.

Gleam1

At the bottom, click ‘Terms and Conditions’ to see more information (this may be blank!) – you should also check any instructions within the blog post to confirm what you need to do. On the widget you can also see the prize, how long is left and the number of entries you have in the draw – the promoter can choose to show or hide the total number of entries.

The promoter can choose from various log in methods, which are usually email, Facebook and Twitter (Instagram and Soundcloud are optional). Sometimes you might be asked to complete name, email address, postal address and date of birth – but usually a Facebook login is sufficient! If you click to connect with a social media account you’ll have to give Gleam permission to access your account – once you’ve done this, you’ll automatically be logged in to Gleam next time you use it. When you log in, you can see the tasks you need to complete.

Gleam2

For this particular giveaway there are 2 tasks that when completed, will unlock 8 more tasks. Although these top 2 tasks are referred to as ‘mandatory’, in fact even if you complete just one of them, you will still be in the prize draw – but you won’t have access to any of the bonus optional tasks. Completing the mandatory tasks reveals the bonus tasks.

The total number of available entries is shown at the top of the widget – in this case, I can get 14 entries in total if I do all mandatory AND optional tasks (it’s 14 entries because one of the tasks is worth 5 entries, and the other nine are worth 1 entry each).

Here are the tasks I need to complete to enter this prize draw:

Follow on Twitter

Click the +1 to automatically follow the specified Twitter account. If you’re new to Gleam you’ll have to allow the app access to your Twitter account first.

Visit a page on Facebook

Click +1, then follow the link to visit the Facebook page (you’re not obliged to Like it), close the window and click Continue.

Gleam3

Completing both the mandatory tasks will show your 2 entries at the top of the widget and display a list of all the optional tasks you can complete, in the case of this giveaway we have 8 more tasks. You can see that one of them ‘Click for a daily bonus entry’ has a ‘lock’ next to it – the promoter has set the options so this task is only unlocked if the entrant completes a certain number of other tasks.

Gleam4

Click here to confirm your entry

This task is simply a bonus entry for completing the two mandatory tasks – clicking +1 gets you another entry in the draw.

Comment on this blog post

If the widget is on a blog, leaving a comment is likely to be a task. Click on the +1 button in the widget to see what your comment should be about – a lot of entrants mess up here and leave a comment to say ‘I love this prize!’ instead of answering the question. Scroll down to leave a comment, THEN click Continue in the widget! Blogs have different commenting methods – you can read more about these on my Rafflecopter guide.

Gleam5

Click for a daily bonus entry

There may be a ‘free entry’ option, where you simply click for a bonus entry and can usually do so daily.

Subscribe to a newsletter

Click the button to join the mailing list. For some Gleam widgets, a click on +1 may be automatically set up to add you to a list from a provider such as Mailchimp. For this particular giveaway, I simply type my email address into the box.

Visit on Instagram

Click +1 to visit an Instagram page – you don’t have to follow it (Instagram used to allow Gleam to follow directly from widgets, but this is no longer available).

Tweet on Twitter

Tweeting is much easier than Rafflecopter – hover over the word TWEET to check the text before you send it, then simply click +1.

GleamTweet

I’ve now completed all 14 entries for Lucy’s giveaway – when I return to do the daily bonus entry, here’s what the widget looks like, with +1 per day:

DailyTweet

My number of entries at the top of the widget will increase by one for each day I click the bonus button. That could get me 40 total entries in the draw if I enter daily for the remaining 26 days.

Other Gleam tasks you might encounter:

Retweet on Twitter

Similar to tweeting – hover over Retweet to see the tweet text you’ll be sending.

Answer a question

Answer a question in the Gleam widget, rather than as a comment. This is useful if promoters don’t want entrants copying the answers from the comment thread.

Bonus entry for YouTube subscribers

Click Subscribe Here to open up the promoter’s YouTube page, make sure you’re signed in (with Google) and choose Subscribe. Then click Continue on the Gleam widget.

Add to Google+ circles

Click the +1 button in the widget to add the page to your circles.

Visit on Pinterest

Click the +1 button in the widget to visit the user’s Pinterest profile – you don’t have to follow.

Watch a video

A video will play in the widget. You’ll have to watch the video to the end before you can click to get the entry!

Refer friends for extra entries

With this common option, you’ll be given a unique link which you can choose to share on social media, or just copy and paste into emails. If a friend clicks the link and goes on to enter the giveaway, you’ll get a bonus entry in the draw. You can share this link as often as you like.

There are plenty of other options – the promoter can customise the widget to add anything they like! If there are tasks you’re not sure about, just give them a miss.

  • The promoter can add a daily option to many tasks, including tweeting or commenting. If you want to increase your chance of winning, add the URL of the giveaway to a daily bookmarks list and pop back daily for bonus entries.
  • Promoters are able to set an age limit for a Gleam giveaway – if this is enabled, you will have to put in your date of birth before entry.
  • With Gleam, the default setting is to send an annoying email to entrants confirming their entries in the draw – although promoters can switch this setting off!

Choosing the winner and moderating entries

When the giveaway has ended, the promoter logs in at www.gleam.io and clicks to generate a random winner. The winning entry will be a single task – for example, it could be a YouTube channel subscribe or a tweet. The promoter should check that specific winning task was done correctly – but should also check any other mandatory tasks completed by that person. For example, the winning entry might be a tweet, but if the entrant didn’t also leave a mandatory blog comment, they wouldn’t be eligible to win. If the winner DIDN’T enter correctly, the promoter should invalidate that winning entry, then click again to choose a new winner and do the same checks. This is tricky if the promoter uses the free version of Gleam, as they only have access to the winning entry. My recommendation for promoters on the free Gleam plan is to set all tasks to optional – or have a single, easy to check mandatory task like a blog comment (and the remainder as optional tasks).

When a winning entry has been validated, the promoter clicks to send an email – if you used Facebook log in, this will go to your Facebook-registered address. They can choose to display the winner’s name on the Gleam widget – this will usually be done AFTER the winner has responded to the winning email (for example, if the winner replies to the winning email with a postal address from an ineligible country, a new winner should be drawn).

Changing your linked accounts

One of the problems with Gleam is that users can’t change a linked Twitter or Instagram account, but you can do it by emailing hello@gleam.io. For verification, make sure you email from the address you use to sign in to Gleam (hover over the envelope icon on a widget to see what this is) – then let them know the usernames you want to update!

Visit my Blog Comp Linkys for practice with Gleam giveaways.

Bloggers – if you notice entrants aren’t completing their entries correctly, why not add in some simple instructions telling them which tasks are mandatory, and link them to this post? It will benefit both of you if they take the time to enter your giveaway properly! If you’re interested in using Gleam for a promotion, read my guide How to run Gleam giveaways.

See also: How to enter a Rafflecopter giveaway

104 Responses

  1. de says:

    Hello, I’m new to gleam giveaways and I had a family member complete a referral for me but we live in the same house. It was in a different device but still I’m worried that my entries are flagged now from reading this. do you know if my all entries have been automatically flagged now from your experience with gleam?

    • Di says:

      Your behaviour for one giveaway shouldn’t affect future giveaways, but I recommend you be careful about anyone entering from the same IP as that will get you disauqlified, even though it’s a different person!

      • de says:

        Oh ok. thank you very much

      • de says:

        Um.. how do I know if I’m disqualified? I’ve been visiting the giveaway page everyday for a daily entry but I haven’t received an invalid or too many entries warning. Does it just not say so?

        • Di says:

          If you get a contact email for the promoter/blogger, then send them an email and ask them to check in their Gleam dashboard that your entries are valid. I’ve done this for several entrants in my giveaways!

      • de says:

        Oh, I’m sorry for leaving so many comments. I went to gleam’s twitter account and they said they don’t don’t take action on same household entries unless it deliberately looks like fraud so I think I’ll be ok! Thanks for taking time to answer my question. No need to answer the last one I left.

  2. Ellen says:

    Is it safe to connect gleam to your social media account?

    • Di says:

      Absolutely. Here’s some info from the Gleam website:
      – Gleam will only ever use information that you have made public or specifically allowed us to access when you accept permissions
      – Gleam does not know or store any passwords associated with your social accounts
      – If you wish to remove the link between Gleam and any social network, you can either remove the Gleam Competitions app inside that specific social network or unlink it from the Edit tab inside the Campaign

  3. Andy says:

    If i accidently turn on my vpn and i used only single account. is my entries invalid?

  4. kaynaklar says:

    Helpful info. Fortunate me I discovered your web site unintentionally, and I’m surprised why this accident did not took place in advance!
    I bookmarked it.

  5. Kim Fortenberry says:

    Do you need a Facebook or instagram account for the “visit this page” or “view this post” to be valid. The only social media I use is Pinterest. So I have not been clicking on the others in case it disqualified me.

    • Di says:

      Public posts on Facebook and Instagram are viewable to anyone regardless of whether they’re signed in, so I think it would count!

      • Kim Fortenberry says:

        Thank you very much for your answer and fast response.
        Your boards are very helpful

  6. Anuj says:

    Please make a chewing
    For gleam giveaway

  7. Betty Curran says:

    I have just experienced a new problem with Gleam. I haven’t changed anything at all but when I click to retweet I get a message “Connect your Twitter account to perform/verify Twitter actions in 1 click.
    We will not post without your permission.” I can follow but not retweet and I can’t see how to connect the accounts.

    • Di says:

      Have you tried logging out and then reconnecting by logging in with Twitter – or trying on a different device to see if you have the same problem Betty?

  8. Rick J Bryant says:

    I now have a problem on my iMac. I sign up for contest and pages reload to click an icon for facebook, twitter…..50 others to then re-do sogn up…..None will work on my iMac.
    On my iPad it will work to some degree. Hmmmmm

  9. ABHIJEET KUMAR says:

    Hi Superlucky,
    My query is that In gleam giveaways, the winner is declared and his entry no. (in format #745236) is shown.
    How to know my entry no. winners are declared (the full names are not declared).????

  10. Michael Perkins says:

    A lot of computer giveaways use a steam follow that doesnt seem to work at all. It loops to making you sign in at steam, then the app is like it hasnt been entered again & asks your name & email, then choose a app like FB or twitter, then it still hasnt given the entry, Im on a macPro. HELP!

    • Di says:

      I’ve got no experience of Steam at all I’m afraid Michael! When I’ve had issues with apps and widgets before, I usually try and avoid the social media logins and just use my email address. Could you try this?

  11. Kelly Hemmings says:

    Hi I used to be able to use gleam , but now when I try to connect to Twitter or Facebook etc it just keeps going back to sign in and not the competition list? Is there a setting I need to go to? And why could I use before but not now?
    Has anyone else encountered this problem??
    Thanks

    • Emma Nixon says:

      I have the same problem.
      It started after i did the last IOS update on my ipad.
      Works ok if i use an older device which has not had the update.

      • Kelly Hemmings says:

        Yeah had done a recent update too. My email got all messed up as well. Was thinking about completely restarting my iPad ?!

        • I’ve been in touch with Gleam – they’re aware of the issue but can’t replicate it themselves. It might be a bug at Apple’s end where cookies are wiped after login meaning you have to log in again. Sorry to not be of more help.

  12. Karol says:

    Hi…is a problem that I enter gleam with a different email that the one i use with my YouTube account?I normally use my phone and today I try to enter with my computer and gleam said that i already have and account…i did understand so I wonder is it has anything to do with the fact that I used a different email from the one i used on YouTube. I’ll appreciate any comments,thanks.

  13. Djddjd887 says:

    I can’t seem to get my YouTube account linked – it just takes me to youtube rather than registering it to my profile? Twitter fb etc are all okay

    • Djddjd887 says:

      Please help! I have found no other place on the internet that might be able to help me!

  14. Andrew Ricketts says:

    I have had my Twitter account locked twice in a short period of time from entering Gleam competitions, how can I avoid it getting locked again other than entering less competitions which kind of defeats the object of comping? Thanks.

    • Rather than entering less competitions, perhaps you could try interspersing your entries with more manual tweets (so, not via an app like Gleam) – try sending replies in addition to your RT entries, to show Twitter that it’s a real person using the account – and interact with friends if you have any comping/sweeping buddies?

  15. disqus_mncnTqwiGZ says:

    Another family member also joined a giveaway from the same ip adress. Will my entries be invalid?

  16. Jonathan Hess says:

    If a family enters the same giveaway with different accounts on the same computer will they become invalid? Because it is asking us if we are human.

  17. kelly tone says:

    if i logout will my submission will be terminated?

  18. Jonathan Loy says:

    So i tried to enter a giveaway and it stays red when i enter birthday 00/00/0000 and cant continue tried to tell jayztwocents about it cause he’s the one hosting it but he’s a smartass and tells me to read the example i know how to put it in entered before.

  19. Diane Jackson says:

    I’ve somehow managed to delete the facebook icon tab on Gleam giveaways, where it says “Entering as ….. ……(shows all the social media tabs EXCEPT THE FACEBOOK ONE now) Edit Logout” Any advice on how I can get it back? Thanks

  20. Chester Douglas says:

    I have a question… I’ve entered multiple Gleam giveaways that are giving away the same prize using my email for each one but I never entered under multiple accounts on the same giveaway. Can I still be allowed to enter as many giveaways as I’d like to increase my chance of winning it or is this considered spam since each separate giveaway is to win the same type of prize?!

    • It’s fine! If they didn’t want people to enter them all, the promoter could choose to use one single Gleam widget embedded on multiple blogs. I remember when I really wanted to win a Spirograph for my son, I think I entered 15 different blog giveaways for one! (I won it in the end!)

  21. Utsav Devadiga says:

    Gleam counts our entry do it count valid entry or invalid entry too??

  22. Bec says:

    I visit and read a lot of quilting blogs and if they have a giveaway, I usually enter if it is something that I like. I may enter 10 or more a week. I’m up late at night and this passes the time for me and is fun. Recently, I keep getting the message for me to login to my existing account. (email address) has has already been used to log in to Gleam.

    Please login to your linked account: (it shows the facebook icon)

    I don’t want to login with my facebook and have never had to before. So what is happening?

  23. Anu Modi says:

    skipping video (long videos,no one can watch daily) lead to disqualify ??

  24. Ankita Kumari says:

    I entered a gleam competition with my laptop and I shared the link with my roommate and he also entered with the same wifi connection but with his laptop and his email account will I be disqualified ?
    Because when I checked it showed same IP address for for both the laptops.

  25. Perla Espinoza says:

    I’ve been disqualified from one giveaway on gleam for getting more entries with different accounts does that mean in disqualified from any other giveaways on gleam?

    • Each giveaway is treated differently, so anything that happened in a different giveaway won’t have any bearing on a new one. But if you enter with different emails/identities from the same IP address in other Gleam giveaways, yes of course your entries will be invalidated every time.

    • Cirilla Rianon says:

      What did you think? That is cheating hon. You can’t enter into a giveaway with more than one account!

  26. Hijaabi potato says:

    Is there any way to know our entries are valid or invalid? I never win in any gleam competition even after getting almost the highest entries. Does it depends on the country you live in? Like gleam doesn’t choose few countries like India and all?

  27. Dorr Farm says:

    I always find with Gleam that the total number of entries doesn’t go up; as though mine aren’t counted, even though it’s ticked. I’ve never won anything through Gleam and I’m wondering if there’s a problem.

  28. Sergey Grebionkin says:

    Where can I find all the competitions that I entered and check their status and other info?

  29. Lola says:

    Will fast forwarding through a video disqualify me? Some people put several videos on theirs that you can watch for daily entries, but watching the same videos everyday for a month is a little tedious.

    • Usually you won’t actually be able to skip through the video – you’ll only be able to check that entry after watching it all the way through. Personally, I wouldn’t bother doing that daily unless you really want the prize – as you say, it’s tedious!

    • Helen Sammet Richter says:

      When the video is too long for me to watch I speed it right where you choose which quality of the video you want. Helps a lot. I can watch more videos a day and sometimes it’s better to watch it with higher speed because some youtubers talk so slow.

  30. Sofia says:

    If I enter a giveaway and then receive the email with the number of entries, can I get discualified?

  31. TStyles says:

    How does gleam send u the price and how do they check parental consent?

    • Gleam don’t send the prize – it’s just a tool used by a blogger/promoter/brand to host giveaways. The promoter will contact the winner by email and ask for their postal address to send the prize. Promoters can request a date-of-birth option on the entry beforehand, to check age of entrants.

      • TStyles says:

        Thanks for the quick reply, also if you’ve entered a competition, are u able to leave it?

  32. meriemdz says:

    Why when I am in a competition that does not accept my date of birth ?

  33. Kylie M says:

    Will you get disqualified after entering too many giveaways/competitions? I’ve seen two different youtubers say “Spam accounts and accounts looking for giveaways will be invalid by generator”. I’ve already entered a dozen or so this week and am worried I will be flagged by the generator as spamming.

    • Is this specificlly for Gleam giveaways? Gleam is able to detect fraud where there are multiple entries into a single giveaway from the same IP address (this is probably the ‘spam’ they mention). If you’re entering separate giveaways this won’t apply!

  34. miva2 says:

    Thanks for your explanation. I didn’t know there was a manual checking process related to the winning entry. So I suppose that means if I get an entry by (re)tweeting something and then delete that tweet, it doesn’t count even though the gleam widget still shows a checkmark. Thanks!

    • Now, that would depend on how thorough the promoter decides to be – a lot wouldn’t go as far as checking the entry still exists – the important thing is that they did it in the first place!

  35. Kawtar says:

    So I wanna win and i have1000 entries 🙁 but I don’t know how much ppl r making out there like how can I know

  36. Martina Evans says:

    I don’t understand the ‘subscribe to Youtube’ entry on the gleam widget. It just says to subscribe. How will they know that I’ve subscribed, if there isn’t a box to write my Youtube account name in?

  37. Rose Elise says:

    I’m new to Gleam but I know I have entered more contests than I have received confirmation emails for in my inbox. Do all contests send a confirmation email? I’m hoping the entries all went through.

  38. Michelle Schultz says:

    I’m having issues with Gleam and clicking on the Instagram button. I’ll click on that button and my entry count goes back to 0 with no success of linking to Instagram. Any advice?

  39. Kev says:

    Can you place entries on more than one email account? Why doesn’t the giveaway that im in say the total amount of entries?

    • No, you can only have one email account registered with Gleam. And promoters can choose to hide the total number of entries when they set up the ‘widget’!

  40. IsabelOBrien says:

    Do you know how to edit your account details as an entrant? It has my old instagram account saved to it so I can’t do any instagram entries. I don’t see any options on the widget to change these things?

  41. khader says:

    The one with the largest number of entries wins ? Is this how gleam operates
    or
    the winner is chosen randomly no matter what number of entries he has ?

    • A single task is chosen as the winning task, so anyone can win regardless of how many tasks they completed. Some entrants just do one mandatory task, others might tweet daily for a month. The person who tweeted daily will have 31 entries in the draw compared to 1 – so they have a better chance of winning!

  42. Debjyoti Ghosh says:

    can you please tell me how can I win something for sure….I have entered in almost all giveaways…Not getting selected is not a good feeling

  43. Debjyoti Ghosh says:

    when a giveaway has ended the winning entry is shown with a ‘#’ in green box with numbers. What i that? Is that the no. of entries he got from friends and tasks?

    • That’s the number of the winning entry – so for example my giveaway might have 1600 tasks completed, from 300 entrants. Task #1340 is chosen by random.org as the winning task, but it may be one of 10 entries from entrant number 268 – does that make sense?!

      • Debjyoti Ghosh says:

        how will i know where am i in the total tasks…..say i have 5 entries then my entries can be anywhere right

        • The entries are in date order, but if you do five one after the other then they will be 5 consecutive numbers in the draw. Like buying raffle tickets!

  44. Debjyoti Ghosh says:

    my question is that I don’t have a huge friendlist on social media. I post the giveaways but don’t get any entries. My entries only come from the given tasks. So to win is it entirely dependent on your friend’s entries and as much entries one can pile or someone with say 10 entries can even win. So is there a luck factor or winners are decided based on one’s maximum entries?

    • I’ve run lots of Gleam and Rafflecopter giveaways, and with the referrals, people only usually get 1 or 2 extra entries – not the dozens of clicks you might imagine! And I’ve given away prizes to entrants who only did the mandatory comment task and ignored the rest too!

      • Debjyoti Ghosh says:

        most of the winning entries I saw had over 500 some even thousands of entries. If referrals give a mere 1 or 2 entries how do they amass so many entries?

        • That’s because of the entries assigned to tasks – so one person can earn anything from 1 entry up to 200 entries depending on how the promoter/blogger sets up the giveaway. I usually allow 1 entry for comment/tweet/friend referred, then give 3 or 5 entries if they join my mailing list. Never let the huge entry numbers put you off – it will usually be 1000 entries from 150 or so entrants!

          • Debjyoti Ghosh says:

            Thanks a lot. You cleared a lot of doubts hovering over my mind

  45. Petra Beck says:

    Di, do you happen to know how I can edit my email address for gleam? I have recently changed/updated my email address in facebook but the gleam widget still sends comp confirmations to my old address (which I was planning to abandon due to some problems with it). I can “log out” of gleam but when I log back in it does not update the email adress via facebook. Argh.

    • Hi Petra, sorry for the super late reply – I bet you’ve sorted this, but if not could you try logging out of Facebook and Twitter, then signing in to Gleam using your new email address, then reconnecting the FB and Twitter as you go?

      • Petra Beck says:

        Hi Di, no logging in/out didn’t work. It just recognised me by my Facebook profile (I don’t use twitter), but kept using the old email address. However I then clicked on the “powered by gleam” link at the bottom of the entry form, which brought me to gleam’s website, and I used their “contact us” form. They responded very quickly and sorted out my email address change. Well done gleam!

  1. 26/02/2016

    […] A popular method of running competitions is by using a widget called “Rafflecopter” or “Gleam”. There are a lot of posts available on how to use them, Di Coke from SuperLucky.me has a good one on her Blog here  and Gleam here. […]

  2. 05/12/2017

    […] If you aren’t sure how to enter Gleam giveaways, check out this handy guide.  […]

  3. 18/07/2019

    […] Enter using the Gleam widget below. If you are unfamiliar with Gleam, check out this handy Guide on how to use Gleam. […]

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