Giveaway contests

Hi
Just wondering if any of you have run these and if you have any experiences to share about what was effective and what wasn't.

I have gleaned that simply offering copies of your book/ebook/audiobook/autographed serviette doesn't really pull that much interest (if you are an unknown), but I got my hands on a nice handful of $25 gift cards I thought might be a better draw. It's not a lot, but it's the price of a whole book, a meal for one, or a trip for two to the movies.

I also understand that offering prizes in exchange for reviews (be they good or bad) is absolutely out.

So if you've run a giveaway and found it successful (however you define that) what were your experiences? What did you offer? Were you already established? What was the response?

Part of my motivation for writing this post was to get some help clarifying my objective. As you mention, the mailing list idea won't necessarily translate into actual interest (I tend to ignore mailing list emails even from things I'm interested in, so I think I've already discarded that one).

From the reading I've done, questions I've asked other people, and my general feeling about how I get hooked on a someone elses marketing, I think I want to increase exposure. As this is my first book project I've ever tried to market, I was hoping someone might have perspective on whether "like and share the cover image on FB and Twitter" route actually results in any increased exposure. I have a feeling just getting the cover image/plot hook as far as possible is the best form of this kind of marketing, but I don't actually have experience with it so don't know if it's the best use of my resources/time.

It's not anywhere yet. I think Spring? I'm just getting everything in place.

I've heard a lot of good things about Goodreads giveaways and the community in general. I've been slowly working on my contribution there, but despite writing quite a lot, I'm actually a pretty slow reader. I find the site kind of painfully dated in how it actually works, but it's incredibly active.