A giveaway landing page with written rules and entries you can check

What's on the page

1. The prize, photographed and described with its value and anything not included, such as travel to collect it.
2. How to enter, in one line, with the form directly below.
3. The closing date and time, with its time zone.
4. When and how winners are told, and how long they have to reply.
5. A link to the full rules, close to the form, not only in the footer.
6. Who's running it: your name or business name and a contact address.

Keep everything else off the page. A giveaway landing page with a long brand story above the form loses entries; the people who want your story will find it after they've entered.

Writing the rules

Prize promotions are regulated in most countries, and the rules differ on things like whether entry can require a purchase, whether a game of skill or a random draw is allowed, and what has to be written down. In the US, a sweepstakes landing page that asks for a purchase can turn a giveaway into an illegal lottery in many states; in the UK, the advertising codes set out what a promoter must tell entrants. Check the rules for every place you accept entries from, and take advice for a valuable prize. As a minimum, written rules usually cover:

The entry form

Ask only what you need to contact a winner and check eligibility. The built-in contact form asks for name, email and a message, and the newsletter form asks for an email. If your giveaway entry form needs more, such as country, an age confirmation or an answer to a skill question, it can be a custom form tied to a site function with up to 30 plain-text fields. The function runs on the server when someone enters, and a formula can refuse an entry with its own message when a number is outside your rules, such as an age below the minimum. Formulas only work on numbers, so text answers are checked by you. The thank-you page then shows your own heading and message. There are no file uploads, so a photo contest needs entrants to post elsewhere and send you a link.

If joining your mailing list is part of entering, say so beside the form, and keep it optional where your local rules require it. Entries from the newsletter form can go to Mailchimp (with double opt-in) or Kit through a connector.

Collecting and drawing entries

Every entry is saved in your dashboard, sealed at rest, and can be emailed to you. For the draw, a spreadsheet is the practical tool: add the Google Sheets connector or Airtable so each entry becomes a row. Each submission is sent once without retries, so compare the sheet's row count with the dashboard before the draw. Then remove duplicates by email, remove entries that break the rules, number the rows and draw a number with a method you can describe afterwards. Write down when you drew and who was there.

What you handle outside Anticode

• The legal check. The site gets a Privacy Policy and Terms written from what it collects; they're a starting point, not advice on prize law.
• Picking winners. Do it from your spreadsheet, or with a separate random name picker you paste names into.
• One entry per person. Clean the list yourself before the draw.
• Social entries. Likes, follows and shares happen on each platform under its own promotion rules; the page can't count them.
• Closing the form. Unpublish the page, or ask for the form to be replaced with a closed notice, as soon as the entry period ends, so late entries don't muddy the draw.

Questions people ask

Can I require people to buy something to enter?

In many places that turns a free draw into a lottery, which is usually restricted. Offer a free way to enter or take legal advice before asking for a purchase.

Can the page show a countdown to the closing date?

Not as a live timer on a design-engine page, which runs no scripts. State the closing date and time clearly instead.

Can I contact entrants after the giveaway?

Only as your rules and privacy notice said you would. If marketing emails weren't part of the deal, don't send them.