A lot of times you won't see immediate results sfrom sweepstakes, expecially if you're entering the one-entry sweepstakes. Why? Often the entry periods are long and winners may not be immediately notified. Or, as in the case of many of Friday's sweepstakes that I listed, there are very few prizes and lots of entries.
Here are some guidelines you can follow to make winning sweepstakes a little easier.
1) Enter sweepstakes with multiple prizes. There are many sweepstakes that will offer a wonderful grand prize, such as a trip or a car, and then have lots of smaller prizes. And smaller prizes can be good! I entered the Butterfinger sweepstakes last week (I will post the link below) and haven't won the grand prize but did win a $25 pre-paid VISA card. I'll take it!
2) Enter sweepstakes with restrictions, for instance only people in a limited number of states can enter. Epcot ran a sweepstakes that ended last month that gave away one pair of 4-day passes to Disney every day for 54 days. The catch? Only Florida residents could win. Both my parents and I were able to win a pair.
3) Although some sweepstakes are one-entry, which I feel gives everyone a fair chance at winning, many are not. There are lots of dailty entry/instant win along with some weekly and monthly sweepstakes. The key to these sweepstakes are consistency and organization! I know many Floridians who entered the Epcot sweepstakes once or twice and gave up. All it took was three seconds to enter your email address everyday. Well worth the time considering I've now got four free days at Disney!
So how do you remember what sweepstakes to enter every day, week or month? You need to book them in your favorites. You should make three folders in your favorties - monthly, weekly and daily. When you find sweepstakes bookmark it to your favorites in one of these folders. The title should include a keyword like "Butterfinger" to let you know which one you are entering and the ending date of the sweepstakes. Why the ending date? Many times companies won't take their sweepstake forms down immediately. It could be left up there for months. Adding the ending date helps you not to waste your time.
Here are some sweepstakes with multiple prizes for you to enter. Don't forget to bookmark them to you favorites in order to enter daily!
- Publix is giving away tons of gift cards! Enter the Campbell's $80,000 giveaway for your chance at one of 4 grand prizes of $10,000 cash plus a $5,000 ublix gift card. There are also 200 first prizes of $100 publix gift cards. Restricted to residents of AL, FL GA, SC and TN. Ends 5/31/2010. Enter daily. http://www.makeitwithcampbells.com/makeitwithcampbells/
- Publix is giving away even MORE gift cards! Enter the Campbell's $10,000 grocery giveaway for your chance to win a $50 Publix gift card. Restricted to residents of AL, FL, GA, SC and TN. Ends 5/31/2010. Enter Daily. http://www.makeitwithcampbells.com/stampouthunger/
- Enter the Nestle Raisinets sweepstakes to win a grand prize of a customized road trip adventure. Daily prizes include a Flip Ultra Camcorder, Amazon Kindle Wireless Reader, 16GB iPod Nano, Patagonia Travel Duffle Bag, Garmin Nuvi 255 GPS, Nixon Coolpix Camera and Sirius Radio! Ends 6/30/2010. Enter daily. http://www.raisinets.com/roadtripsweeps/
- Enter the Butterfinger sweepstakes (mentioned previously) to win a grand prize trip to Comic-Con. There are also 150 first place prizes of $220 in Best Buy Gift Cards adn 500 second prizes of $25 VISA gift cards. A code is required but you can get a free one by e-mail each day. Ends 6/30/2010. Enter daily at http://www.butterfinger.com/defenseleague/
