Display and track your giveaways all from a simple sidebar widget.
Giveaway Countdown Version 1.5 is a WordPress plugin working as a widget used to showcase giveaways- replacing time consuming giveaway management with simple features like:
- Giveaway Display in Sidebar – no more manual adds.
- Auto Calculating Days left to Enter. Never again wonder what giveaway is due on what day!
- Utilizes the post thumbnail WordPress feature. Make images easy!
- Counts post comments and displays them as entries- Show site visitors how popular your giveaways are! (NOW OPTIONAL in version 1.5)
- 2 Column and 1 Column Options – you decide which fits your widget area best
It’s easy to use, loads in seconds, and contains no advertisements, links, nor does it pull from other websites. We know you are not making any serious money from your Mommy Blog, but we know your time is valuable.
Make your blog look spectacular and save yourself hours- for only $25 $15!!
- Easy to install
- Easy to manage (all management happens within your posts)
- Its compact and uses two entries per line- with images
- Choose from the single column view or two column view – selected in the widget control panel.
- Act now or you will spend another day wondering which of your giveaways is up for drawing, and not knowing which one is low entries.
- Really, get in the game and be a top mommy blogger, and look professional with this plugin.
What does the Giveaway Countdown Widget Look Like?
Giveaway Countdown with Number of Entries
AkronOhioMoms.com utilizes the Giveaway Countdown widget right in our sidebar. We label it with a graphic called AMAZING National Giveaways. We have full control of what posts are showing (sometimes we leave the high entry ones up for extra weeks!) and we keep it always refreshed with new giveaways.
Place the widget into your sidebar or your footer. The widget is designed to match the width of your sidebar automatically and sets its size based on the percentage of the space needed for each column- making it work for nearly any sidebar width. If you need to make it fit your blog, there is some embedded CSS inside the plugin file, so if you or your designer are comfortable with CSS, feel free to edit to fit!
Once the plugin is loaded, you will set it up to work in your WordPress back end by adding the associated widget to your sidebar. Pictured on the Right.
What is new in Version 1.5 of the Giveaway Countdown?
- Now Select # of Columns to show on the widget from within the plugin!
- Now Choose to show or NOT to show your comment Count in the widget!
Who is using the Giveaway Countdown Widget?
From Cindy, Lead Writer for Akron Ohio Mom
“The Countdown Giveaway Plugin is an easy, visual summary of all active contests with ending dates. I use it to excite people about new and closing giveaways. It also promotes active contests to potential sponsors with associated contest entries. “
From Marina Murphy, My Busy Children Blog
This is the most amazing widget I have ever used. Now my blog visitors can see all the giveaways in one place. Number of giveaway entries doubled on my blog since I installed the widget.
The widget also helps me keep track of all the giveaways: I can see in one place number of entries and days left for each giveaway. I love that it shows pictures of the prizes in addition to the descriptions.
The widget is super easy to install and use. I would never imagine going back to hosting giveaways without this widget.
From Jennifer Williams, Mommys Hangout Blog
Thank you so much for this widget! I have been looking every where for something like this. Now I don’t have to spend extra time writing and changing HTML on the sidebar for current giveaways!
It was very easy to set up. I was up and running in 5 mins! This widget is a must have for all review and giveaway bloggers like myself!
Click to See Setup and Instructions
Loading the Widget
A) Visit your Plugins->New and Choose Upload.
B) Select this zip file and upload.
C) Go to your Plugins Page and ACTIVATE this plugin.
D) Go to your Widget Page- here you will find the new Countdown Giveaway Widget.
E) Drag this widget to your widgetized sidebar of choice.
Configuring the Widget
There are several properties that you need to set in the Widget itself. These are:
- Widget Title
- Category ID
- No# of Items
- TimeZone Offset
- No# Columns
- Show Comments/Entries yes/no
Category ID- the WordPress category # that this plugin will pulll giveaways from.
We recommend that this category be called something like “Current Giveaways”.
Not sure how to find your “Current Giveaways” ID#? -You can locate the category id by clicking ‘Edit Category’ and looking on the URL address bar for the cat_ID value. It will look ‘…categories.php?action=edit&cat_ID=3′ where ’3′ is the category id).
No# of Items- Set the maximum # of posts/giveaways in the widget.
TimeZone Offset- Set this to make sure your giveaways appear ‘closed’ at midnight – in whatever timezone you are in (use 6, 7,8,9 for US- depending on Daylight savings, and your server settings)
No# Columns – This widget can create widgets in either 2 column mode or 1 column mode, depending on how you want it to look in the width of your widgetized areas.
Show Comments (or # entries)- Great to show # of entries for standard blogs, but if you use something like RaffleCopter, or Facebook Comments, you’ll not want to turn this off!
Setting Up Your Countdowns
You have to set up images, ending date, and short name text for each giveaway contest. This is done in each associated post under the current giveaways category selected above.
- The image used in the Giveaway Countdown Grid is pulled from the POST FEATURED IMAGE. Not using the Post Featured Image?in your blog? Well you need to! WordPress 2.9+ includes this functionality: Upload an image within the post, and select the option :Set Featured Image ( a blue text link at the bottom of the dialog box). That’s it.
- Set up a custom Field within your post called: “enddate” – without the quotes. Fill enddate with a value like this: “June 19, 2015″ – without the quotes. Countdown Giveaway will calculate remaining days from 11:59pm on that enddate.
- Setup a custom Field within your post called “shortname” – without the quotes. Your post title is likely too long to fit into the Countdown Giveaway- so use this short name!
Still having problems? Can’t Find the Custom Fields? Please Click Here for a cheat sheet answering the most common questions.
Minimum Requirements
Giveaway Countdown was designed in and for WordPress 2.9, and has been successfully tested on WordPress 3.2. Earlier versions of WordPress are not supported. It’s just not what we do.
Giveaway Countdown Support
Need some help? Contact the developer at matt %@% remarkableteam.com. (Yes, that’s one of the AkronOhio husbands) We’re here to help and assist you all the way through the process. Have a special need and want us to modify the code, or, create a NEW plugin? We’d be happy to speak with you!
How does this come from AkronOhioMoms?
The Giveaway Countdown plugin was created for the specific needs of AkronOhioMoms. The result is a plugin MADE for Mommy Blogs and delivered exactly as specified for a mommy blog. The Remarkable Team a.k.a. my wonderful husband developed this plugin. The Remarkable Team develops blogs, websites, mural graphics, and custom code for a variety of customers.
