I recently ran a raffle for a pair of worn socks and it was a success! Here’s what I learned

For context, I sell foot content and worn items as my full time job. I’ve written advice posts/AMAs here and here.

Background/motive: I’ve been doing this job full time for a little over a year now, and I wanted to mix things up a little and get more creative about what I was offering (end goals: more money and a more interesting day to day for me). My biggest learning from the last year is that selling premade content at scale is a fantastic way to boost numbers in this business, because even cheap vids ($8-$15) add up if tons of people are buying, and way more people will buy if the price is low (vs a small number of people buying an expensive vid). I was thinking about how I might apply this learning to socks/other worn items and I was feeling stumped, because beyond wearing a pair of socks for less time, you can’t really offer them cheaper without losing money, and even my cheapest offering ($30 for one day of wear) is too much for a lot of buyers. Then I thought of a raffle!

Set up: $10 per entry, winner gets a pair of socks of their choosing worn for a week ($86 value with shipping). Unlimited entries, US only (to avoid crazy shipping), everyone had to verify their age to enter or pay on a site like OF which would be liable if it turned out they were minor. Plus, and I think this is really what made it successful: every single person who entered got the same 3 minute premade video that I filmed with the pair that won. I advertised on Reddit, all things worn, only fans, and feet finder and the raffle was open for 2 weeks. I made the closing day my birthday, and promoted it as a birthday raffle.

Results: I made roughly 2x the value of the week worn socks + what I would charge for a 3 minute custom video, which is a huge success in my book! I was worried I wouldn’t even make enough to cover the cost of the socks, so I’m very pleased with this outcome.

Why I think it worked:

- the premade vid really sweetened the deal. Even if the buyer didn’t win the raffle, they wouldn’t walk away empty handed, and it was minimal extra work for me because I only had to film once. Plus, $10 for a 3 minute premade video is cheaper than I typically charge per minute, so it’s a good deal, and it’s a topic they know they’ll be interested in (stinky socks)

- promising a video of the winning socks made it clear that I was actually planning on picking a winner and wearing the socks, which helped with my credibility and trustworthiness (though I have a large following already so I wasn’t too worried about this)

- advertising it as a birthday raffle made people say happy birthday in my comments which helped boost my posts lol. But I think this was minor

Learnings:

- raffles are technically gambling lol. I did some research on the laws in my state about raffles and decided it was too small of a scale and too low consequence for me to be worried about legal action. However, all things worn made me take my post down because they don’t have a gambling license lol (fair) so next time, I’ll probably only promote on reddit

- I sold most entries on Reddit/OF. Selling worn items technically isn’t allowed on OF, but I figured it was worth the gamble (and I was planning on discussing details with the winner on telegram if it was someone who had paid on OF)

- most people only bought one entry, which makes sense given that I was hoping to lower the barrier of entry and entice buyers with smaller budgets

- many people who entered are people who have engaged with me a ton of Reddit/OF but have never bought anything, which made me happy! To me this says that they’ve always wanted to support me but haven’t been able to at my standard price points

- a few people who entered are sock regulars who were just like hell yeah, why not! Because they already know they like my scent

- time will tell, but I suspect the people who entered will now be more likely to buy from me again, because they’ve seen a full video of mine

Stuff I’ll try next time:

- I’ll probably try lowering the entry price, maybe $5 each, and going with a cheaper pair of socks (3-5 days)

- might also try shoes, though that market is smaller and I’d definitely risk losing money on the pair

- 3 mins was kind of a long premade, might do 2 mins (especially if the socks are worn for less time and the entry price is cheaper).

- two winners?? And two pairs of socks

- I’ll space out the next one because I want it to feel special so people keep entering

Feel free to leave questions in the comments! If you couldn’t tell, I used to work in growth strategy lol so I love talking about this stuff