Tidbits

Remailing has brought some sweepers increased winnings. It is a technique that can be used in national sweepstakes when the rules call for: ” Limit one online entry per person and no limit on the numbers of entries you may enter by mail.” 

Remailing does not work when the rules allow one entry per person per day regardless of method of entry, because this tells us that most likely all the sweepstake entries will end up in a database of the computer and a random number generator will spit out a number and the name associated with that number is the winner. The computer is a machine that follows the programmer’s instructions without any deviations.

Let’s compare the machine to the judge who is picking the winner from mail-in entries that arrive from every state in which the sweepstake is valid. To be fair, he/she will most likely grab a few entries from several bags that arrive from all the eligible states to put them into the final drawing drum or bin.  When this happens, it is to the sweeper’s advantage to have the sweepstake entries in as many of these bags as possible, so that if the judge takes all the winning entries from a different state that the sweeper lives in, it would help the sweeper if his/her entries were in the state’s mail from which the winning entry was picked. This is the situation when remailing comes into play and help you win those coveted prizes.

To get started, you complete all your mail-in entries for the different dates you want them sent out. I find it a good idea to use sticky notes on front of the envelopes or postcards to write the date when they have to be sent out. Then you put them in as many piles as you have relatives and friends in other states than the one you live in. Only choose people that are trustworthy to send out your finished sweeps on the designated days to make sure the sweepstake entries arrive on time to be entered for the drawing and after you put each pile into a different envelope that is addressed to your out of state people, you mail them out and wait for the outcome.

This activity requires well developped organizational skills,  extra postage and trustworthy relatives and friends who live outside your state unless you plan an extensive trip across the US to mail the sweepstake entries yourself from small towns if possible because that cuts down on the competition. The smaller the number of entries from one location the better chance you have to win a prize.

The art of sweeping has been practiced for so many centuries that we can most likely put some faith into the methods and techniques that the oldtimers use. It might not work for everybody. However, there are some dedicated souls out there for whom this highly disciplined approach to sweeping will work. Remember to stay with it for quite a few months to see results, because any type of sweeping is a longterm endeaver.

WINNING IS MORE ATTITUDE THAN APTITUDE.

  

Tidbits

Here are 2 different Sweepstakes. Which one would you enter if given a choice?

1. Sweepstake: 1 prize, 1 entry, enter online or mail-in, closes in 4 months

2. Sweepstake: 100 different prices, enter as often as you like, on a postcard- handprint your name, address and zip code, day phone number, birthdate and email address if any; closes in 3 weeks.

I would choose the second one because it has multiple prizes and accepts multiple entries. It allows only one method to enter. That is by mail, which creates much less competition than if you can enter in different ways and it has a much shorter running time which probably will bring in less entries which boils down to less competition than the first sweepstake.

The secret to sweeping is to find a preferred method and then stick with it. Do you want to enter online, call-in, mail-in, text messaging or in-store sweepstakes? Do you like sweepstakes with restricted locality (only a few states are eligible) or sweepstakes with limited entry methods or sweepstakes with a short timespan or sweepstakes with oodles of prizes? Test all these different ways of participating in sweepstakes and come up with your own brand of winning.

WINNING ISN’T EVERYTHING BUT WANTING TO WIN IS. (Vince Lombardi)

Tidbits

Enter early and often in a sweepstake you like. In a long running one, decide how many times you want to enter depending on your budget, and space your entries accordingly.

Be persistent. Don’t become discouraged. Nobody wins every sweepstake they enter. Even the best sweepers have dry spells. It is a good idea to make a scrapbook of your wins to have something to fall back on when you get discouraged and ready to throw in the towel. Patience, persistence and postage will make you a winner.

Make sure the sweepstake you enter is not void in your state. That keeps you from being automatically disqualified.

WINNING IS A COMBINATION OF GOOD LUCK AND GOOD INSTINCTS

Tidbits

Glamour magazine has an unnerving fact based article about the dangers of blogging in the October issue. It deals with the blog www.Gawker.com that Jessica Coen wrote and edited . She found out the hard way that the virtual world can be a very mean place to hang our hat. Her gossip blog was read by millions of people. Her employer wanted her to write 12 daily items about absurdities and inaccuracies she found in the media. Jessica expected some backlash when she called somebody “an utterly ridiculous twit” and made remarks along the same lines all across her blog.

However, she did not expect her readers to go overboard with revenge about her remarks. After all, she was only doing a job along the same lines as Imus a while back. One blogger posted her home address and cell phone number on the Internet. The harassment went so far that she turned off her phone for 3 days. The she found out that somebody created a Yahoo account in her name and assumed her identity for a few unbearable weeks and a website was created in her name that published private information about her family. Her father had an email exchange with an unknown individual who pretended to be his daughter. Jessica finally surrendered and moved on to another job where she could interact with real people and leave those daily faceless emails behind her.

Ms Coen warns her readers that hostiliy is a growing hazard for web users. Everybody can take a stab at anybody incognito. Kathy Sierra was another victim of cyberspace rage that was delivered without any provocatin. This woman got threaths like: ” I hope somebody slits your throat.” She got so despondent that she cancelled all her speaking engagements.

On the one hand, the Internet is an emboldening, alternate reality, -on the other hand  it’s still reality and everybody should apply general ethical principles when posting or emailing with others. It can be so tempting to play poker with words but if our correspondents are not familiar with our personality, they might get the wrong impression about us. This article gives me the incentive to only post things I am willing to stand behind and can in good faith sign my name to it. May the Internet make us all more considerate human beings!!!

THE ONLY SURE THING ABOUT LUCK IS THAT IT WILL CHANGE. ( Bret Harte )

Tidbits

A contest in the US is any competition where the final winners are selected on the basis of skill. It requires a set of specified and unchangeable official rules to govern and restrict the actions of both sponsors and contestans as well as a list of predetermined and announced prizes for which a particular group of people are permitted to compete.

The rules, prizes and competitors must conform to the laws of The US, the laws and regulations of the state and city in which every contestant resides. The rules are the most important part of every contest. They must be understandable and obeyed by the sponsor and contestants alike. Once the contest has started, neither side is permitted to to violate or amend the rules.  When a contest rule is violated the US postal office and the Federal Trade Commisiion can intercede and begin inquiries to determine whether fraud was intended and committed.

The Compact Oxford English Dictionary defines ’sweepstake’  as a form of gambling, especially on sports events, in which all the stakes are divided  among the winners. The term ’sweepstake’ originated in horseracing where each entrant would put up a stake and the winner would sweep all stakes.

In the US, sweepstakes or simply sweeps, are consumer sales promotions.  Most of the large companies have marketing promotions to generate enthusiasm in their products and to entice consumers to submit free entries into drawings of chance to receive prizes that can be less than a dollar or millions of dollars like the Coke sweepstake.

While a contest requires a skill and sometimes a purchase, a sweepstake requires no skill and never a purchase of any kind. This would be against federal lottery law.  Canada and some European countries require entrants to solve a mathematical puzzle, making it a contest skill, to avoid being in the gambling profession. Sweepstakes are subject to state law. One example is Tennessee where sweepstake agencies and sponsors are prohibited to  require prize winners to submit to an ‘in perpetuity’ public release.  A person who enters sweepstakes as a hobby is called a sweeper.

There is a general structure of winning a sweepstake prize. It starts with the sponosr promotion, then the winner notification and finally the winner receives the prize. The whole process starts with the sponsor advertising the sweepstake, prize structure and the official rules. There is an opening date for receiving entries and a closing date as well as a drawing date when entries are judged and one or more winners are declared.

Next, the sweepstake promotion judges contact prize winners and the winners file a publicity release,  an affidavit, and any required federal and/or stae tax forms with the sponsor’s sweepstake promotion agency. The winners should never, by law, be required to pay any shipping or handling charges in order to win or receive their prize.

A lot of sweepstakes can be entered in a short time, especially online while contests take more time and sometimes an outlay of money. Choose what suits you best.

THERE IS NO FREE LUNCH.

Tips

I have done my share of entering sweepstakes these last 6 weeks manually, meaning I typed my information by hand, one letter after another. A couple weeks ago, I downloaded ROBOFORM for a free trial period. This program fills out the entry forms with the flick of a button which saves typing every letter by hand every day. However, I never got the hang of it how to use it.  So when the trial period ran out, I got cold feet and cancelled the service.

A few days ago, it came to my attention that I have an autocomplete  entry program included with my browser. It is the little blue “e” on my desktop Internet Explorer but it was not turned on and could not complete each part of my entry forms by just typing the first letter of a word. I installed it, following these steps:

On the tool bar, I clicked Tools – Internet Options – Content – Autocomplete.

Then I placed a checkmark in all the boxes and clicked OK and exited the box by clicking the tiny x in the upper right hand corner.

The first time I filled out an entry form, the autocomplete mechanism did not kick in, because it had nothing to go on, but the second time I filled out the entry form, it worked. As soon as I typed the first letter of my name, it filled in the rest of my name automatically and so on through the whole entry form.

This speeds up the process of filling out tens of online forms quite a bit and I don’t have to worry about monthly bills. The autocomplete is not considered an automated entry which are forbidden and way above my computer expertise.

www.monsterwin.com has hourly sweepstakes and when members fill out their profile, the entry box will automatically be filled when they are ready to enter a sweepstake.

PRACTICE MAKES THE MASTER

Who was William Sunners 1904 – 1988?

The NYTimes had an obituary on May 13, 1988 stating that William Sunners, author, 84 had died of congestive heart failure in Brooklyn. He had written more than 100 books on how to win prizes in contests. Mr. Sunners quit his job as a NYcity high school teacher in 1960 because he had earned more writing jingles, and he devoted the rest of  his life to jingles, contests and books.

Mr. Sunners has lots of advice for contestants where to find the inspiration for their contest entries. He writes that the person who has been contesting for several years has learned that all printed pieces can be thought stimulators and idea incubators. Therefore, when he receives circulars and letters through the mail, he does not hastily toss them in the wastebasket. He realizes that direct mail letters are carefully planned and often brilliantly written. They are intended to convince the reader that he should purchase the product offered for sale. Therefore, the contest professional studies these literary pleas and saves the best for future use. Many direct mail advertisers engage the best copywriters to produce the most effective letters. These circulars contain most of the outstanding qualities that judges seek in entries. Therefore they are worth studying and filing.

YOU CAN WIN JUST AS SURELY AS THEY-SO BEGIN TODAY! ( Jeanette B. Kelly)

Who are Wilmer Shepherd and Sandra Grauschopf?

The sweepstakes and contest world has produced some very colorful people like Wilmer Shepherd. In the 1950s he was regarded as the dean of contest teachers. He was the first man in America to establish a school of contest writing. He stopped entering contests to devote his full attention to the teaching of contest techniques. His correspondence school, The Shepherd School of Contest Writing, was located in Pennsylvania and graduated thousands of students.

Mr. Shepherd edited and published a bulletin every two weeks which analyzed current contests, discussed sponsor’s sales points, the products’ qualities, the judges preferences, and other pertinent facts of timely contest interest. In his newsletter, he announced new contests and entries that had won prizes for his students. Subscription to the newsletter was only available to graduates of his school.

Mr. Shepherd coined the phrase ‘idea incubator’. An idea incubator can be any aid that will enable a contestant to hatch an egg of a contest creation into a chick of a polished entry. Idea incubators can be a scrapbook of advertisements, files of winning entries, a thesaurus, or any similar help. The experienced contestants know that after reading for about an hour, after studying ads, and pondering upon words and phrases from dictionairies and reference books, he will eventually and surely discover the germ of an idea, a germ that can be fertilized into a finished, breathing, sparkling, living entry. ( William Sunners)

Sandra Grauschopf is a contemporary. She manages the About.com ‘Sweepstakes and Contest guide’ website. She has tips and tricks for our hobby and a sweepstakes and contest list that she updates on a regular basis.

Today she talks about what to do when we don’t win as often as we wish or when we get bored with our routine.Her suggestion is for us to shake up our routine. We should find new types of sweepstakes or contests to enter or concentrate on a different type of prize for awhile.

When I started my sweeping hobby 6 weeks ago, all I could think of is winning a car, a trip, or the bloghome from the diy TV show. After a couple of weeks I started to realize what a minuscule chance I have to win any of these desirable items in my lifetime, and I started to participate in food giveaways and beauty items. These are things everybody consumes daily, and there are many more prizes in these categories and less sweepers than in the coveted categories.

Here is the website for the worldwide search for a torchbearer in the next Olympic Games in China. www.lenovo.com . I hope it is a legitimate outfit.

YOU REFLECT THE WORLD BY WHAT YOU BROWSE. (Tim Berners-Lee)

5 Tips To Enter Contests

Contests are different from sweepstakes. They require a skill and come in many forms like writing in different genres, counting a jar of coins or guessing a hi-lo jackpot. The list goes on and on. My 5 tips will help you get starting with contesting.

1. Enter online contests. Most contests are posted online and submissions are accepted online unless there is a purchase connected with it. Then it would have to be mailed in.

2. Enter contests that are suited to your skill level and interests. You might be interested in the currently running worldwide search for a torchbearer in the Olympic games that will be held in China. The contest starts with a 50 word or less essay about yourself and the finalists will be sending in an audio video about themselves. Maybe mathematical or guessing games are more your cup of tea. There are innumerable choices out there to fit anybody’s needs.

3. Consider the tax consequences before you enter a contest. There are no problems when the prize is cash. You pay taxes on the federal and local level for  the cash you receive  and the matter is closed. However if the prize consists of merchandise or services you have to declare the fair market value which does not always match the contest sponsor’s declaration. The taxes have to be paid in cash.

4. Surround yourself with resources. For writing contests  acquire a good dictionary, a thesaurus, a lexicon and paper and pen as required. Invest in sweepstakes- and contest books, attend workshops in your subject area, join a contest club and attend conventions.

5. Meet the deadline. A wall calendar will help you keep track when contest entries are due. You can have the best entry, but if you miss the deadline, you are out of the game. Remember: YOU CANNOT WIN WITHOUT PARTICIPATION.

5 Tips To Enter Sweepstakes Online

To enter sweepstakes requires no skill or purchase of any kind, and there are always winners. All you have to do is, read the rules before you start to find out if you meet the residency and age requirements, and then make sure your state laws allow your participation. Here are some tips to get you started to have some fun and win prizes.

1. Online sweepstakes are free. There are thousands of sweepstakes listed online that cost nothing to enter as long as you have a computer, internet access, and an email address. There is no postage involved or phonebills or visits to the store or postcards and envelopes. How much better can it get?

2.Get a free email address. This will keep your regular inbox free from the extra mail you will get from entering sweepstakes online, and most likely you will not overlook the notification of a price. Free email accounts are very easy to get from yahoo and google.

3.Categorize your sweepstakes. I use a separate 3×5 card for:

instant

daily

weekly

monthly

single

unlimited sweepstakes.

4.Check the rules again. I find out about age limits, how often I can enter, the ending date of the sweepstake and some specifics about the sweepstake, and then I list the items on my category cards to save time with inputting the data. Here is an example on a daily 3×5 card.

www.apcsweeps.com 18 yrs old – 10/31/2007 – The postoffice awards prizes daily

5.Enter sweepstakes regularly. Put a set amount of time aside each day or week or month to sweep and be a sweeper. This is the name given to sweepstakes hobbyists. Remember: A WINNER NEVER QUITS AND A QUITTER NEVER WINS.