Bloggy Giveaways Quarterly Carnival starts on Monday

The Bloggy Giveaways Quarterly Carnival starts on Monday! If you've never participated before, you're going to love it! There are literally thousands of giveaways posted in the Mr. Linky at Bloggy Giveaways, with a wide range of prizes from very small to rather huge. And even the biggest giveaways end up with just a couple thousand entries, so your chances of winning are actually fabulous compared to a national sweepstakes.

And if you're a participating blogger, you'll get quite a few new visitors. The trick, of course, is to convert those new visitors into regular visitors, so be sure to (at a minimum) include a snippet about your blog in your contest post.

Have fun!

P.S. I'll be participating with a giveaway over at Chief Family Officer . . . although I'm not sure what I'll be giving away just yet!

Giveaway alert: check out the Bloggy Giveaways Quarterly Carnival

Most of you probably already know about the Bloggy Giveaways Quarterly Carnival, but in case you don't, you should definitely check it out. There are hundreds of giveaways (over 800 as of this writing). Plus, you'll get to check out blogs you've never heard of!

Coupon giveaway at Common Sense with Money

Mercedes is giving away two sets of baby-related coupons and two sets of grocery coupons at Common Sense with Money. The baby coupons include CVS and Target coupons that can be stacked with the manufacturer coupons she's including. And the grocery coupons include some coupons that have been extremely popular on the coupon forums that I read, so I know they can get you a really sweet deal. Head on over to enter the giveaways!

Happy Anniversary to Mommin' It Up!

Mommin' It Up! is celebrating their first blogging anniversary by giving away a Target gift basket full of merchandise, and a $25 CVS gift card. What does it say about me that I'd rather win the gift card than the basket? To enter the contest, just leave a comment here.

John Chow is giving away a "Bag of Stuff"

John Chow's latest contest is for a "Bag of Stuff" - but it's cool stuff, courtesy of Market Leverage. The "stuff" includes a Flip video camera, a $200 Market Leverage Amex Rewards card, a USB drive that is also a pen, and an iPod Nano. Find out how to enter by checking out the contest post.

An Island Life is giving away a Zune!

I love portable MP3 players that also play videos. They're fantastic for the car, especially when I'm trying to get home before nap time. Alex will watch a favorite video and stay awake until we pull into the driveway. Tyler's almost old enough for his own video player, which will help ensure that Mommy and Daddy can make the most of nap time!

Why am I telling you this? To encourage you to head over to Kailani's great blog, An Island Life. She's giving away a Microsoft Zune Digital Player from Best Buy just in time for Father's Day!

Chief Family Officer's Third Anniversary Celebration: Giveaway #2 - Heels.com $50 gift certificate

Head over to Chief Family Officer to win a $50 gift certificate to Heels.com!

One Million & Beyond is giving away an Amazon gift certificate . . . but should you root for Matt or not?

One Million and Beyond is giving away an Amazon gift certificate, but with a catch. If Matt doesn't stick to his weekly budget during the next four weeks, he'll give away a $25 Amazon gift certificate that week. But if he does stick to his budget for all four weeks, then he'll give away one $50 Amazon gift certificate.

Although the odds of winning are better if Matt doesn't stick to his budget, I hope he does. There's just something special about accomplishing a goal, no matter how big or small.

If you want to enter Matt's contest, check out his contest post for instructions. And good luck!

Chief Family Officer's Third Anniversary Celebration is underway!

Chief Family Officer turns 3 on Saturday, and I'm thanking all of my readers with some great giveaways. The first one is a KABOOST chair booster, and you can enter to win it now!

Win cash from Everyday Finance

Everyday Finance is giving away a $100 first prize and a $25 second prize via PayPal. If you're a blogger or have something to advertise, you can also enter to win a post all about you or your company or a one-month text link ad. To enter, comment on the contest post and pick of the four options for entering (ranging from subscribing to Everyday Finance's RSS feed to posting about the contest on forums). Good luck!

Win Bob the Builder: The Three Musketrucks from Seven Dogs & a Baby

Seven Dogs & a Baby is giving away four copies of a Bob the Builder DVD, The Three Musketrucks. To enter, just head over to their site and leave a comment with your favorite current HIT Entertainment release. Good luck!

Curiosity: How many giveaway prizes aren't received by the winner?

The blogosphere makes it so easy to enter giveaways that I've entered quite a few, and I've actually won a few times. It's really rather shocking, given that I'm the person who only wins a door prize if everyone is getting one.

But I've won two giveaways now where I never received my prize, and emails to the host site have been ignored. No, I won't name names, even though I am tempted! It's made me wonder, though, how often this happens.

In both cases, I responded as required. If I'd done something incorrectly and my prize was forfeited, I can accept that. It's the dead silence in response to my inquiring email that makes me, let's be frank, suspicious that these sites are not holding giveaways on the up and up.

So I'm curious:

Have you won a giveaway and not received your prize? Do you think there are sites out there holding giveaways without real prizes?

GoodyBlog Mother's Day Blog Party

Parents is one of my two favorite magazines and I love GoodyBlog, which is written by editors of the magazine. (For the record, Cooking Light is my other fave.) One of the reasons I love GoodyBlog is their awesome giveaways, even though I've never won (hopefully that's about to change!).

In their own words, "Mother's Day is like the GoodyBlog equivalent of the Superbowl!" And they've got awesome giveaways to prove it. So head over to GoodyBlog's Mother's Day Blog Party, and enter to win prizes like a pink laptop and a $500 shopping spree - not to mention a chance to win $500 for your favorite charity! What are you waiting for?

5 Minutes for Mom's Mother's Day Giveaway

5 Minutes for Mom is having a huge Mother's Day Giveaway, starting with a $1,000 American Express gift card courtesy of Egg Beaters. You can enter that contest here. Check in with them over the next two weeks to see what other fabulous giveaways they come up with!

5 Minutes for Mom is giving away 2 weeks of toys!

5 Minutes for Mom is hosting the Two Weeks of Toys Giveaway Event. All you have to do to enter is post a comment on the giveaway posts.

So far, you can enter the following giveaways:

• Playskool Dream Town, Kid Motion and Made For Me Giveaway
• Want a Hanes Shopping Spree?

Win a $10 Target giftcard just for subscribing to HowISaveMoney.net

Lulugal is giving away a $10 Target giftcard to one lucky subscriber. So head over and subscribe to her RSS feed and leave a comment. Enter by March 29.

Win a $50 Williams Sonoma gift card

The Clean Plate Club is giving away a $50 gift certificate to Williams Sonoma. I usually avoid WS because I'll just be tempted to spend money, but I had to go in there a couple of weeks ago to buy a bridal shower gift and saw some things that I would love to have. I managed to prevent myself from buying them since I didn't want to spend more than the $100 I was spending on the gift. But a free gift card, I could do some shopping with that!

Note: The giveaway seems to be open to bloggers only.

Check out mod*mom's fabulous giveaways!

Mod*mom always has amazing giveaways, and her current giveaways include a $100 Whole Foods gift card, Whole World books, Green Cleaning Gift Baskets, and a Vibe Stroller. The best part is that entering her giveaways is always easy. So head over there right now!

Win a Nintendo DS Lite

Because Marc grew up playing Nintendo games, we are a Nintendo kind of family. We haven't gotten a Wii (who has time to play video games?!) but we were at Target on the day the GameCube was released back in 2001. We also have every Gameboy ever made, as well as a DS. The one hand-held console that we don't have is the DS Lite.

I'm hoping to win one from GoodyBlog, but I'm so loyal to my readers (that's YOU!) that I'm telling you about the giveaway so that you have a chance to win too. Enter here by Feb. 29.

Get family fitness tips and a chance to win a $50 Hanes Kids gift certificate

Cindy at one of my regular reads, Go Workout Mom, is having a fun giveaway for a $50 gift certificate to Hanes Kids. Check it out, along with some family fitness tips from celebrity trainer Kathy Kaehler. (Irrelevant side note: the woman who used to do my nails - back when I had the time for such pampering - also did Kathy Kaehler's nails and said she was just the sweetest woman.)