Online Sweepstakes Tip and Tricks

Entering online sweepstakes can be a rewarding experience. The past four years have been fun. The largest thing was a trip to Kansas City and $1000.00 spending cash.

I have won several $25, $50, and $100 Visas, and one $150 Visa. There have been a lot of coupons for free products, hats, T-shirts and things like that also. There have been gift cards, in the amount of $5 or $10 to places like Home Depot, Staples, Old Navy, Shell, Starbucks, Borders, Pac Sun, and Amazon. Two $15 Best Buy cards, 3 $25 Dave and Busters cards, and others that I cannot remember.

The keyboard I currently use (on my desktop pc) is a $100 gaming board that has programmable short-cuts and lit keypad. It is a sweepstakes win also.

When searching for online sweepstakes, try to find websites that follow and post sweepstakes every day. My favorite is Mr. Sweepy.

1. Daily entry – you can enter these every day to increase your chance of winning.
2. Daily entry instant win – These sweeps will give you the chance to win something instantly and usually an entry into the grand prize drawing.
3. Weekly entry – you can only enter these once a week. Make sure and keep track as you may be disqualified if you enter too often.
4. Monthly – pretty much self-explanatory.
5. One entry only – you only have to enter these one time. Be careful as you could be disqualified if you enter more than once.
6. Twenty four hour entry – some sweepstakes will only let you enter every twenty four hour period.

I cannot stress the importance of reading the rules. Often times your state will not be included in the sweeps. Sometimes you have to be a certain age. Usually if you are related (to anyone that works for the sponsors of the sweepstakes) you cannot enter. And of course the rules will give you the date that the sweepstakes ends.

The rules will also tell you if it is one entry per person (or email address), or one entry per household. There is a big difference. One entry per person means that your spouse or other family members may also enter. That will give you more chances at a win.

There are online sweepstakes websites that let you keep track of what you enter. You also can use my method. I paste the url’s into a text document and timestamp the entries. Here is an example:

1-31-2010 http://sweepstakes.simmons.com/sweeps/sweeps/simmons grand prize is a mattress also pillows and sheets as secondary prizes 12:06 AM12/2/2009 thru 6:22 AM1/9/20106:10 PM1/10/2010 10:05 AM 1/12/2010 8:43 AM 1/14/2010 6:30 PM1/19/20108:09 AM1/21/2010

*

1-31-2010 http://cookingwithkraft.com/ReturnToSchoolSweepStakes.aspx GP $1K Publix(1) 1p (125) $100 Publix phone must be (863)438-8033 7:28 AM 1/4/2010 5:22 AM 1/6/20108:42 PM1/7/20102:35 PM1/8/20106:23 AM1/9/20106:11 PM1/10/2010 10:06 AM 1/12/2010 8:46 AM 1/14/20106:31 PM1/19/20108:10 AM1/21/2010

*

Note in the first example, I put the expiration date, followed by the url (website address). Next, I write something about the prizes. Then I timestamp the entry. With notepad, all you have to do is hit F5 and will timestamp. I separate the sweeps with a star.

I separate the different types of sweeps into their own text document. And within each one, I group them by expiration date. When they expire, I cut and paste them in to a text document labeled “2010  expired”

There will be times when you are not sure if you already entered a sweepstakes (like the one entry only kind). That is when you go to your records.

Pull out "2010 single entry" text document and put the url into the "find" feature. Many times I discover an entry (from months ago).

Form filling software like Roboform is allowed in most sweeps. They will save you a lot of time and trouble. Roboform works well and the free version is very good for entering online sweepstakes.

if you take your time and develop a system, you can win some nice things, now and then. It is not a get rich quick hobby. Have fun.