Contests and Sweepstakes

Are They Worth Your Time?

Contests and Sweepstakes. Raffles, giveaways, and drawings.



Another fun promotional tool employed by both small and large companies alike is the opportunity to win some fabulous prizes in return for just a few moments of your time.

The terms contests, sweepstakes and giveaways basically mean the same thing (although a giveaway can also include special promotions that take place in a retail location or online.)

All of these prize-winning opportunities can be set up in different ways.

Some online or in-store contests and sweepstakes will award a prize to the first (specified number) people who come to a store display, sign up on a website form at a certain time, or call in to a radio station.

Examples include: the first 3 callers to a radio show will win concert tickets or the first 100 people to fill out an entry form on a beauty website at exactly noon EST will win a new nail polish, etc.

Other giveaways (or “drawings” as they may also be called) have a specified period in which people can enter (usually a week or more) and then a random winner (or winners) are selected to win a prize from the pool of all the people who gave it a shot.

Prizes can include anywhere from retail merchandise to gift cards (typical of smaller and Work-At-Home websites) to cash, vacations, room makeovers or vehicles (usually sponsored by larger corporations).

Common contest and sweepstakes prizes include beauty products, store gift certificates, T-shirts and new products that are being introduced on the market (i.e. personalized fruit-roll-ups or boxes of cereals).

Most contests require very little effort on your part, just filling out a form in-store or online, although some require that you print out a coupon or voucher to redeem for your in-person giveaways.

Some sweepstakes require that you be added to the mailing list to be included in the promotion (there should always be an opt-out or unsubscribe feature if you are not interested in receiving newsletters after the contest is over.)

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Here are some of the things I have won in the past year:

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Blog Giveaways

With the ever-growing popularity of blogging, contests and sweepstakes, or giveaways have become a valuable marketing tool to attract people to new blogs.

Many of these giveaways are sponsored by smaller companies and offer a wide variety of prizes.

Blog giveaways may require a little more effort because you typically are asked to leave a comment pertaining to a specific subject or asked to browse through the sponsor’s website and choose your favorite product.

You do NOT have to be a blogger to participate in most contests. When leaving a comment, you can select the Name/URL option to just leave your name and optional website address.

You want to be sure to leave your email in your comment so that the administrator can contact you if you are the winner.

Note: You should always spell out the "at" symbol and dot com when posting your email to avoid SPAM harvesting.

Blog giveaways can be conducted by individual blogs throughout the year or many related blogs may team up to do an even larger simultaneous promotion with numerous prizes (i.e. Blogtoberfest, Fall Y’all Bloggy Giveaways, etc.)

One great advantage to contests and sweepstakes like blog giveaways is that since every entry/comment is publicly posted, you will always have an idea of how many people have entered.

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Tips for Entering Contests, Sweepstakes and Giveaways

1)Tired of filling out the same information on lots of contests and sweepstakes entry forms?

Check out Roboform a great service where you can choose the "Fill" option and after registering everything once, you can fill out all the entry forms with just one click of your mouse.

Saves a lot of time and energy!

2)For blog giveaways, you may want to check the number of comments before entering.

If your time is limited, you may want to avoid contests and sweepstakes that already have hundreds of comments. Look for giveaways that have fewer comments to increase your odds.

3)For contests and sweepstakes that begin at a certain time (first 500 to enter at noon EST) competition can be fierce. Try to get there a few minutes ahead of time and even fill out the form in advance. Then hit the “submit” button right at that time. These contests are usually over in a matter of seconds!

4)Be sure to use an email address that you check on a regular basis. Many contests inform their winners through email and will ask for a confirmation or your mailing address within a certain time period (i.e. 72 hours.) If they don’t hear from you, they will just pick another winner.

5)Save all your correspondence regarding any prizes you have won until the prize arrives. You may need to follow-up with sponsors if your prize is not received in a reasonable time frame.

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Where Can You Find Contests?

There are a number of bargain-hunting websites that have special sections for freebies or giveaways.

These sites typically post about in-store and restaurant giveaways, as well as beauty giveaways (with companies such as Allure or Seventeen magazine).

Sunday newspaper advertising circulars and coupon circulars are also a great place to read about new contests sponsored by large corporations (i.e. Bed, Bath and Beyond or Kraft Foods.)

Subscribe to a few blogs that interest you to keep up with any blog contests. There are also several websites that sponsor contests all the time, so you can check every week or so and see what is new.

Check out:

Fat Wallet

Deal Taker

More Online Contests

In-Store Contests

Work at Home Contests

Blog Giveaways

Roboform Tool to Help You Fill Out Entries Fast (free)

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Why?

Simply because Refund Cents is the best coupon, refund, deals, and freebies site on the internet.

It is run by Michele Easter, and has been in existence for literally decades.

Refunding Makes Cents is the most distributed coupon and refund newsletter in the world.

There are two portions to Refund Cents, the print magazine, which has 11 issues a year, and the online access.


The online access is a membership based site, but the dues are extremely low, costing less for an entire year than most sites charge a month. (About $1 per month)

If you are new to couponing, or if you are serious about this hobby/income sources, I highly, highly suggest you invest a few dollars into Refund Cents.

If you can afford it (around $25) get the print issues and the online access. Make sure you pick up a copy of the Beginner’s Bonanza. If that is too steep for you, then just get the online access.

Deals are posted by other members, in real time. Check "Michele's Updates" and "Chit-Chat" daily.

Trust me, you'll make up the purchase price in a few days. You'll be emailing me thanking me for introducing you to this wonderful information source.

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