Tips for Entering Sweepstakes

1) Be consistant

When you decide to enter contests take full advantage of the rules the sweepstake sponsor has established.  In most sweepstakes, the odds of winning the sweepstake are determined by the number of entries.  Make sure you are getting all the entries possible when multiple entries are allowed.

WIth SweepsWizard this is less of a problem, because SweepsWizard becomes you entry scheduler, keeping track of the last time you've entered and when you can enter again.

2) Be Organized

Web sites usually have two reasons for offering sweepstakes on their web sites. 1) they want to get your e-mail address so they can send you special offers and information.  2) they want more people to come to their site so you can see the information on their site.

In the case of e-mail, once you start entering sweepstakes, you will start receiving additional e-mail that you hadn't received before.  This can provide an additional distraction to a normally hectic e-mail environment. If you do some planning prior to entering contests, you can limit the work load caused by increased sweepstakes related e-mail. 

There are a number of possible solutions, the most popular being to use a separate e-mail account for sweepstake activities. If you're using a browser based e-mail program like HotMail or other free e-mail systems, then you will have to go to each account and administer them separately.  If on the other hand, you're using a traditional POP3 type e-mail system, you can have your client (Eudora, Outlook, Netscape Communicator) go to mulitple e-mail providers, collect e-mail from each source and then sort the messages into different mail boxes.  While this takes a little time to setup, it can greatly simplify your life in the end.

The best strategy that we have seen is that of filtering sweepstakes entries to a separate e-mail account or mailbox so 1) they are kept together, 2) they don't clutter your day-to-day e-mail inbox and 3) you can control when you want to spend time on your sweepstaking.

3) Choose your contests wisely

When you see big prizes and lots of advertising, you know that that contest will be having a lot of entries and your odds of winning will be rather low.  On the other hand, when the prize is a set of costume grade jewelry earrings, you may have great odds of winning, but your prize may only be worth $5.00.

So decide what you want for a sweepstake strategy.  If you only enter million dollar contests, be prepared to wait a long time for your first win.  On the other hand if you enter low exposure contests, you may be winning frequently, but you bank account won't get much bigger.

One of the better strategies that we have seen is to use your own personal interest to determine what to enter.  If you're an expectant mother, you probably aren't interested in winning a genuine mallard duck call, and conversely if your a golfing father with kids in college, you might not be too excited about winning a year's supply of diapers.

SweepsWIzard offers a full range of contests, but you have the capability to turn off any sweepstake entry any time you want.

4) Giving good information 

The main reason that companies run on-line contests is so they can find out what type of people come to their web site. In exchange for the information that your providing them they are putting up valuable contest prizes. Most contest administrators take a fairly strict stand on requiring accurate information. This means that if you were to enter a contest multiple times with inconsistent information a large number of your entries may be disqualified. In addition, a large number of contests will disqualify entries if there is any missing information. In order to have the best chance of winning it behooves you to completely and accurately fill out all the information.

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