🎁 GiveawayKit — Installer

Your own viral giveaway, running in your accounts, for $0.
One careful pass through these steps and you're live.

Version 3
📦 READ THIS FIRST — WHICH ZIP GOES WHERE The file giveawaykit-site-v3-….zip goes to a Cloudflare Pages project named giveawaykit-contest — a NEW project, created in YOUR Cloudflare account (Step 4). Never upload it over some other site's project. The full-kit zip is just the whole folder (this installer + the site/ and worker/ folders) for your files — it doesn't get uploaded anywhere.

🧪 Fresh-account / no-domain TEST MODE

Just want to try it first — maybe on a brand-new Cloudflare account, with no domain at all? That's a perfect first run. Here's the shortcut path:

  1. A brand-new Cloudflare account works fine. The first time you create a Worker, Cloudflare will ask you to pick your workers.dev subdomain (something like yourname.workers.dev). That's normal — every account does it once. Pick anything you like.
  2. You do NOT need a custom domain — not for the test, not even for a real launch. Your site gets a complete free address, giveawaykit-contest.pages.dev, and your API gets giveawaykit-api.<your-subdomain>.workers.dev. Those addresses work on their own, forever. A custom domain (Step 4, optional) is just nicer branding, later.
  3. Skip Step 3 (Resend) entirely on your first run. The contest page, the admin, entries, bonuses and the draw all work — emails simply stay off until email is set up. Nothing breaks.
  4. Switching emails on later is easy: verify one domain you own in Resend (Step 3). The DNS records for that domain go wherever that domain's DNS actually lives — that might be a different Cloudflare account, or GoDaddy, or anywhere else. That's fine and normal: the Worker doesn't care which account holds the DNS. The only rule: MAIL_FROM must be an address on that verified domain.

So the test path is simply: Step 1 → Step 2 → Step 4 → Step 5, and add Step 3 whenever you're ready for emails.

0Overview — what you're about to build

You will create 4 free things, all in YOUR OWN accounts:

Time: about 10–15 minutes. Cost: $0. The best part: everything stays yours. No platform can shut your contest down, raise its price, or hold your list hostage — because none of it runs on anyone else's system but yours.

1The database (Cloudflare D1)

  1. In Cloudflare, go to Storage & Databases → D1 SQL Database → Create database.
  2. Name it exactly: giveawaykit
  3. That's it. Leave it completely EMPTY.
⚠️ Never paste SQL anywhere. There is no schema file to run and nothing to import. The Worker builds its own tables, by itself, the first time it is called. An empty database is the correct starting point — if a step ever asks you for SQL, you're on the wrong screen.

2The engine (Cloudflare Worker)

  1. In Cloudflare, go to Workers & Pages → Create → Worker, name it giveawaykit-api and click Deploy (the temporary "Hello World" page is normal).
  2. First time on this account? Cloudflare may first ask you to choose your workers.dev subdomain. That's a one-time, normal step for every new account — pick a name and continue.
  3. Open the Worker → Edit code → select all → delete → paste the entire contents of worker/worker.js from this kit → Deploy.
  4. Connect the database: Worker → Settings → Bindings → Add binding → D1 database:
    Variable name DB — exactly these two letters, capitals
    Databasegiveawaykit (the one from Step 1)
  5. Add your variables & secrets: Worker → Settings → Variables and Secrets → Add:
    ADMIN_KEY Secret. A password you invent — it opens your contest admin. Keep it somewhere safe.
    RESEND_API_KEY Secret. From Step 3. Skip it for now if you're in Test Mode — add it later, same screen.
    MAIL_FROM Text. Your sender, like Your Brand <contest@yourdomain.com> — the address must be on your Resend-verified domain (Step 3).
    SITE_BASE Text, optional. Your contest's public address (from Step 4, e.g. https://giveawaykit-contest.pages.dev). You can come back and add it after Step 4.
  6. Write down your Worker address — it looks like https://giveawaykit-api.<your-subdomain>.workers.dev. You'll need it in Step 4.

3Email (Resend) — optional on day one

In Test Mode? Skip this whole step for now and come back when you want emails on.

  1. Create a free account at Resend.
  2. Domains → Add domain → add a domain you own.
  3. Resend shows you a few DNS records to add. Add them where that domain's DNS lives:
    • If the domain's DNS is on Cloudflare: DNS → Records → Add record, one by one.
    • If it's at GoDaddy or another registrar: add them there instead. Either way is fine — the DNS does not need to live in the same Cloudflare account as your contest.
  4. Wait for the domain to show Verified in Resend (usually a few minutes).
  5. API Keys → Create API Key → permission: Sending access → copy the key into RESEND_API_KEY back in Step 2, and make sure MAIL_FROM is an address on this verified domain.
💡 How email behaves: until the domain is verified and the key is set, the contest still works perfectly — the Worker simply skips sending, safely, with no errors for your visitors. The moment both are in place, every automated email (confirmation, mid-contest reminder, final-24-hours, winner, non-winner) starts working instantly. No code change, no redeploy of the site.

4The contest page (Cloudflare Pages)

  1. Open site/app.js in any text editor. Right at the top, one clearly marked line says const API_BASE = "https://YOUR-WORKER.workers.dev"; — replace the address with your Worker address from Step 2. Save. That's the only code edit in the whole install.
  2. Zip the CONTENTS of the site/ folder (the 4 files themselves at the top of the zip — not a folder inside the zip). The kit also ships a ready-made zip: giveawaykit-site-v3-….zip — but if you edited app.js, re-zip your edited files.
  3. In Cloudflare: Workers & Pages → Create → Pages → Upload assets → create a NEW project named giveawaykit-contest → upload the zip → Deploy.
  4. Your contest now lives at https://giveawaykit-contest.pages.dev. Done — that address is complete on its own.

Optional — your own custom domain

Whenever you're ready: in the Pages project, Custom domains → Set up a domain and attach your domain or a subdomain (like contest.yourdomain.com). Purely branding — everything works exactly the same on the free pages.dev address.

🌐 Need a domain for your contest?

Buy it wherever you like — a domain is optional, and the free pages.dev address works forever. Our recommendation if you do buy one: register it at Namecheap, keep the domain there, then add it to Cloudflare for free DNS (you just change the nameservers at Namecheap to the ones Cloudflare gives you). That registrar-there / DNS-on-Cloudflare split is the exact setup this kit is built for — and it keeps your domain independent of your hosting.

See domains at Namecheap →

Affiliate note: if you buy through our link, we may earn a small commission — at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting the project. 💛

5Launch check 🚀

  1. Open your Pages address (giveawaykit-contest.pages.dev or your custom domain). You should see your giveaway page with a generated cover — no broken anything.
  2. Open /admin.html on the same address and log in with your ADMIN_KEY. On this first visit, the database builds itself — tables, settings, and one starter prize ("Grand Prize — $100 Gift Card") appear on their own.
  3. In the admin's Quick-create: set your real prize, your dates, your Facebook links, your brand name and colours.
  4. Make a test entry with your own email on the public page.
  5. If email is set up (Step 3): open the confirmation email and click the confirmation link — you're now eligible in your own draw, and the whole chain is proven.

🎉 You're live. Share your contest link anywhere — your Facebook Page, your site, your emails. Every entrant gets their own referral link, and the sharing starts working for you.

✨ After you install — make it yours

The contest already works. These touches make it yours — all in the admin, no code:

🛠 Troubleshooting

Emails aren't arriving

The admin won't log me in

The page is stuck on "opening soon" / looks empty

I'm seeing an old version of the page

📝

This installer is Version 3 — everything in Version 2, plus Instant Win prizes, your QR code (PNG, website snippet, printable poster), the winners wall, YouTube & TikTok bonus actions, one-click Relaunch for the next edition, and reminder emails that send themselves.
If you got stuck on any step — even for a minute — please write down which step and what confused you and send it back to us. The next version gets fixed from real installs like yours, and your notes are exactly what makes it better. Thank you! 🙏