I am guessing that if you are reading this, you are a blogger. That also tells me, you are reading this because you either have heard of Gleam and are curious what it is or how it works; or you are curious if this new ‘thing’ (e.g. Gleam) is something that could benefit you or your blog. Let me introduce you to Gleam.
Giveaways
As a blogger who offers giveaways and a person who enters giveaways; I have found Gleam to be my favorite entry form.
As a blogger who offers giveaways… I feel it is a little time consuming to initially set up, but if you use the same entries over and over, you can copy the entries and make the necessary changes without redoing the entire form. (This is the same for any entry form I have used in the past.) Note, I said time consuming; not difficult, because it really is easy to set up. The set up reminds me of multiple choice. There are multiple choices for entries that you can choose, fill in the information necessary for that entry, and you’re done. One of the nice things I like about Gleam is that an entrant can ‘sign in’ using Facebook, Twitter, or their email. You can also have them input their birth date, making sure they are old enough to be entering your giveaway. In addition to different entry options, it also has templates set up for giveaways related to different social media (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.)
As a person who enters giveaways… I like to log in via my Twitter. Once I’m logged in, entering is a piece of cake and takes much less time than any other entry form I have used to enter a giveaway. For visiting a Facebook page, you do have to click it and it takes you to the Facebook page. Once you authorize Twitter and Instagram, all you have to do is click the entry button and it will automatically follow without having to leave the blog post. Tweeting a tweet for an entry is just as easy. One click of a button and done. I have to tell you, as a person entering giveaways using Gleam, I have become a little spoiled and actually get frustrated with the extra steps of copy/pasting my information while entering!
Captures
Have you ever gone onto one of your favorite blogs or another website and that box pops up, prompting you to subscribe via email or like their Facebook page? That, my friends, is called a capture. Gleam’s capture feature is in beta, but I have been using it for a couple weeks. I started using it after hearing many bloggers share how their subscribers increased after installing a capture; but let me tell you, finding a capture that was a good fit for me and my blog were not easy to come by! There are different captures, different layouts, different capture locations – too many decisions! I had tried a couple and wasn’t satisfied with how they look or how they acted. I ended up trying a few different options on Gleam and finally found one that fits perfectly for me and my blog. I was able to personalize it with my logo. I was able to set it up to capture what I wanted. I was able to place it where I wanted. It does what I wanted. (Mine is set up to pop up in the lower right hand corner so it does not take up the entire blog page and frustrate people. It is easily exited out of, and once you subscribe, it doesn’t return.) All in all, I have been extremely pleased using Gleam. Gleam is definitely at the top of my ‘must have blogger tools’ list!
