Tumblr Giveaway Tool for
Fandom & Creative Communities
Run structured Tumblr giveaways with Follow and Like Post entry methods, automatic winner selection, and anti-fraud protection. Better than "reblog to enter" posts that you have to count by hand.
Tumblr Entry Methods
Two entry methods designed for Tumblr's follow-and-engage ecosystem. One builds your audience, the other drives interaction on specific posts. Together they turn a giveaway into a real growth tool instead of a chaotic reblog chain.
Your primary growth action. Entrants follow your Tumblr blog to earn entry points. Every new follower sees your posts in their dashboard feed, which means each giveaway participant becomes a potential long-term audience member for your fan art, fic recs, edits, or whatever you post. This is the foundation of every Tumblr giveaway.
Drive engagement on a specific post. Point entrants to your giveaway announcement, a featured piece of fan art, or a project launch post. Likes boost the post's visibility in Tumblr's algorithm, which means more organic reach beyond the giveaway itself. Use this as a secondary action worth fewer points than Follow.
Every giveaway also supports refer-a-friend viral sharing, email capture, and entry methods from 30+ other platforms. Grow your Tumblr following while also building your Instagram, X, or Discord audience from a single contest.
Why Not Just Do a "Reblog to Enter" Giveaway?
If you have been on Tumblr for more than a week, you have seen them. "Reblog this post for a chance to win!" Posts with 40,000 notes where the creator has to somehow pick a winner from a wall of reblogs. It sort of works, but it has real problems.
Reblog Giveaways
- No way to verify entries
- Picking a winner from notes is painful
- No email capture or contact info
- Giveaway blogs and bots inflate numbers
- Only grows one platform at a time
SweepWidget Giveaways
- Tracked entries with anti-fraud tools
- Built-in random winner picker
- Collect emails for future announcements
- reCAPTCHA, IP limits, VPN blocking
- Grow Tumblr + other platforms at once
Still want reblogs? You can. Post your giveaway announcement on Tumblr and ask people to reblog it for visibility. Then link them to the SweepWidget giveaway page where the actual tracked entries happen. This way you get the organic reach of reblogs plus the structure of a real giveaway tool.
Cross-Platform Strategy for Tumblr Creators
Most Tumblr creators are active on multiple platforms. You might post art on Tumblr, share process videos on Instagram or TikTok, and have a Discord for your community. A single SweepWidget giveaway lets you grow all of them at once.
Across SweepWidget, giveaways with 5+ entry methods average 787 entrants compared to 163 for single-method contests. Weight Tumblr actions the highest so they are the most attractive, then let other platforms fill out the rest. See the full data breakdown.
Tumblr Giveaway Tips That Actually Work
Tumblr is not Instagram. What works on mainstream social platforms often falls flat here. These tips are specific to how Tumblr's community behaves, how content spreads through the dashboard, and what fandom audiences respond to.
Time Your Giveaway Around Fandom Events
Tumblr activity spikes around fandom events: new season drops, movie releases, character birthdays, fandom appreciation weeks, and ship weeks. If you run a fan art blog, launching a giveaway during a fandom week gives you a built-in audience that is already creating and sharing content. Your giveaway announcement rides the same wave of activity.
Set your giveaway duration to cover the full event. A 7-day fandom week pairs perfectly with a 7-10 day giveaway. SweepWidget lets you schedule giveaways in advance, so you can set it up days before and have it go live exactly when the event starts.
Use Tags Strategically (Not Spammily)
Tumblr's tag system is how people discover content outside their follow list. When you post your giveaway announcement on Tumblr, tag it with relevant fandom tags, character tags, and genre tags. But be specific. Tagging broad terms like "art" or "giveaway" puts you in a sea of unrelated content. Tagging your specific fandom, ship, or niche puts you in front of people who actually care.
Important: Tumblr only indexes the first 20 tags on a post for search. Use them wisely. Mix fandom-specific tags with a few broader ones. And avoid tag-spamming unrelated fandoms. The Tumblr community notices, and it hurts your credibility.
Offer Creative Prizes, Not Gift Cards
Generic prizes attract giveaway blogs and sweepstakes hunters who will unfollow you the second the contest ends. Tumblr-specific prizes attract real community members. Think: custom commissions (art, fic, edits), fandom merch from independent artists, art supply kits, writing software licenses, or Wacom tablets for digital artists.
The more niche the prize, the better. A commission from a well-known fandom artist is worth more to a Tumblr audience than a $50 Amazon card. And those specific-interest entrants are the ones who stay after the giveaway ends.
Cross-Post to Where Your Fandom Lives
Most fandom communities exist across multiple platforms simultaneously. The same people who follow you on Tumblr might also be in a Discord server, an X art community, or a subreddit for the same fandom. Share your giveaway link in all of those places.
SweepWidget gives you a hosted landing page URL and an embed code, so you are not limited to Tumblr's post format. Share the link on X, in Discord servers, on Reddit threads, in fandom Facebook groups. The refer-a-friend entry method gives entrants their own unique link to share, turning your community members into promoters.
Celebrate Follower Milestones
Tumblr has a strong culture of follower milestone celebrations. Hitting 1K, 5K, or 10K followers is a genuine community moment, and giveaways are a natural way to mark it. Your audience already expects it. The difference with SweepWidget is that your milestone giveaway actually works as a growth tool instead of just a thank-you gesture.
Set the Follow action as required, add Like Post and cross-platform methods as bonus entries, and use tiered prizes. Tier 1 unlocks at 10 points (everyone who enters). Tier 2 unlocks at 25 points (people who completed multiple actions). Tier 3 is the grand prize drawing. This structure rewards your most engaged community members.
Run Fan Art Contests and Creative Challenges
Tumblr is one of the most creative platforms on the internet. Fan art, cosplay photography, fanfiction, mood boards, video edits. If your community creates things, a SweepWidget contest with file uploads and public voting lets you turn that creative energy into structured community events.
Fan Art Contest
Community voting on submitted artwork
Use SweepWidget's Upload a File entry method to collect submissions. Participants upload their fan art directly through the giveaway widget. All submissions appear in a public gallery where the community can vote for their favorites.
How to set it up:
- Upload a File (5 points) - participants submit their artwork
- Tumblr Follow (3 points) - grow your blog alongside the contest
- Enable public gallery - let the community see and vote on submissions
- Set vote limits - prevent vote manipulation by limiting votes per user
Why this works on Tumblr: Tumblr's community thrives on sharing creative work. A fan art contest gives artists a structured place to submit and get recognized, and the public voting gallery gives the whole community a reason to engage. Share the gallery link on Tumblr and let people reblog their favorites to drive more votes and more entries.
Cosplay Photo Contest
Showcase cosplay with community voting
Cosplay is a massive part of Tumblr's culture. A photo contest lets cosplayers submit their work and compete for prizes voted on by the community. This works especially well around convention season, when cosplayers have fresh photos to share.
SweepWidget's gallery supports image uploads with optional captions. You can require login to vote (prevents anonymous vote manipulation), set a maximum number of votes per person, and even allow anonymous voting if you prefer. Winners can be chosen by popular vote, random selection, or a combination of both.
Prize idea: Cosplay supplies, fabric store gift cards, wig vouchers, or a commission for a cosplay prop maker. Prizes that are relevant to the contest medium attract serious entries instead of low-effort submissions.
Creative Writing Challenge
Fic prompts, poetry, or original writing
Tumblr has one of the largest fanfiction and original writing communities online. A writing challenge with a prompt, a word limit, and a submission deadline gives writers a reason to create and share. Use the Upload a File entry method to collect text files, PDFs, or even screenshots of finished pieces.
For writing contests, you might want to pick winners manually rather than by popular vote, since reading entries takes more effort than viewing images. Use the SweepWidget dashboard to review all submissions, then select winners. You can also combine manual judging with a "People's Choice" category that uses the public voting gallery.
All contest types support combining the creative submission with standard entry methods. Someone can submit their fan art AND follow your Tumblr, join your Discord, and refer friends. Each action earns points. The submission gets them into the gallery. The other actions earn bonus entries into a separate prize drawing. Two contests in one.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I do a giveaway on Tumblr?
Create a SweepWidget account, set up your giveaway with a prize and dates, add the Tumblr Follow and Like Post entry methods, and publish. Share the giveaway link in a Tumblr post with relevant fandom tags, in your bio, and across your other social accounts. SweepWidget tracks every entry and handles winner selection when the contest ends.
How do I pick a Tumblr giveaway winner?
SweepWidget has a built-in random winner picker weighted by entry points. You can also manually select a winner or use leaderboard mode to award whoever earned the most points. Export all entries to CSV if you need to review them. No more scrolling through thousands of notes trying to pick a random reblogger.
What are the rules for Tumblr giveaways?
Tumblr's Community Guidelines apply to all content including giveaways. Don't mislead participants, don't spam, and follow your local sweepstakes laws. Include official rules, eligibility requirements, and "no purchase necessary" language. SweepWidget lets you add custom rules text directly to the giveaway widget for transparency.
Is it worth doing a giveaway on Tumblr?
If your audience is on Tumblr, absolutely. Tumblr has a uniquely engaged user base, especially in fandom, art, and creative writing communities. Followers gained through giveaways on niche platforms tend to stick around longer than followers from mainstream social giveaways because they are genuinely interested in your content niche.
Can I run a fan art contest on Tumblr with SweepWidget?
Yes. Use the Upload a File entry method to collect art submissions. Enable the public gallery so the community can view and vote on entries. Combine it with Tumblr Follow as a bonus action to grow your blog. Winners can be chosen by popular vote, random drawing, or manual selection by a judging panel.
How do I stop giveaway blogs from entering?
Giveaway blogs (accounts that only reblog contests) are a known issue on Tumblr. SweepWidget helps filter them out with reCAPTCHA, email verification, IP limits, and VPN blocking. You can also maintain a blacklist across giveaways. Since entries happen through the SweepWidget widget rather than reblogs, you have much more control over who participates.
Do I need a paid plan for Tumblr giveaways?
Yes. Both Tumblr entry methods (Follow and Like Post) require a Pro plan or higher. The Pro plan also includes access to Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and other platform-specific entry methods, plus refer-a-friend viral sharing, file uploads for photo contests, and up to 40 actions per contest.
How long should a Tumblr giveaway last?
Based on SweepWidget data across 70,000+ giveaways, 8-14 days is the sweet spot for maximum entries. For Tumblr specifically, aligning your giveaway with a fandom week or event (typically 7 days) works well. Shorter giveaways don't give enough time for posts to spread through reblogs. Longer ones lose urgency.
Ready to Run Your Tumblr Giveaway?
Create a giveaway with Tumblr Follow and Like Post entry methods, fan art galleries, anti-fraud protection, and cross-platform growth. No credit card required.
Create Your Tumblr Giveaway