Enter Contests Online

How to Win Free Stuff? Enter Any Sweepstakes Online

Do you enter contests online? If not, maybe you should! Learn how to win free stuff and enter any sweepstakes online. Have fun playing online instant win sweepstakes and win some online cash contests.

A fun promotional tool employed by both small and large companies is the opportunity to win fabulous prizes in return for just a few moments of your time, and many of these opportunities come in the form of online instant win sweepstakes and online cash contests.

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.)

Though I'd love to say you can enter any sweepstakes online, these prize-winning opportunities can be set up in many 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, enter contests online 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 online instant win sweepstakes form on a beauty website at exactly noon EST will win a new nail polish, etc.
Other ways how to win free stuff will 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 online cash contests, vacations, room makeovers or vehicles (usually sponsored by larger corporations).

Common online instant win 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 you can enter contests online, although some require that you print out a coupon or voucher to redeem for you 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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Enter Contests Online

Here are some of the great prizes I have won in the past, simply by playing online instant win sweepstakes and online cash contests. For the most part, I enter any sweepstakes online that I am interested in. I rarely fill out forms when out and about.

Origins Body Spray (45.00 value)

Olay Age-Defying moisturizer (15.00 value)

Maybelline lip gloss

Oprah tote bag filled with over 50.00 worth of samples and prizes

Adult Sized T-shirt

Child's Boutique T-shirt (24.95 value)

Carpet Bocce

Your Baby Can Read DVD

Computer Camp for my son (95.00 value)

30 personalized fruit rollups (30.00 value)

Tons of free full sized product samples

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Enter Contests Online: Blog Giveaways

With the ever-growing popularity of blogging and the desire to enter any sweepstakes online, giveaways have become a valuable marketing tool to attract people to new blogs where they can learn how to win free stuff.

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 and enter contests online.

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 enter contests online.

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How to Win Free Stuff

The following tips on how to win free stuff will help you with your online instant win sweepstakes and online cash contests entries. Good luck!

Automate Entries
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!


Edge Out the Competition
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.


Timing is Everything
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!


Check Your Email
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.


Keep a Paper Trail
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.


Limit the Obsession
The amount of time you spend searching for and entering online cash contests and sweepstakes can easily consume your entire day. It get's addicting! The best way to combat this time-sucker is to limit yourself to 30 minutes, 45 minutes or an hour a day to enter any sweepstakes online. That way you still have a life to live.


Stay Emotionally Detached
I don't let my kids enter contests online anymore, or, rather, look over my shoulder as I do. Why? Well, once I entered a contest for a Little Debbie Cupcake Smart Car. It was just a simple online sweepstakes, with a low chance of winning, but the kids asked me everyday for a month if we won the cupcake car. They talked about where they would park it, who would get to ride in it first, and were extremely upset (tears) when we didn't win. Don't get caught up in the fantasy!


Don't Take it Personally
A while ago, Amazon.com had an online contest for a $25,000 Amazon Gift Card. The Amazon forums were filled to the brim with sob stories about why each particular person deserved to win the prize. Though the contest was completely random, it didn't stop many people from getting way too emotionally involved. Resist the temptation when you enter contests online and save yourself some heartache!

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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

Allure Online Contests

I actually use the message boards at Savings Angel to enter contests online. Very helpful readers update the message boards with current contests, and I don't have spend my time trying to track them down. Savings Angel is a subscription site, but saves enormous amounts of time and money. Give it a try!

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