kcmoviebuff
New member
(actually, it's been 6 years - couldn't edit the title)
I had a good run but the past few years have seen sweepstakes I want to enter decline by about 70%. Here are my criteria for NOT entering a sweepstakes:
... sweeps prize worth less than $100
... cannot be a prize I already own or have no use for (I don't resell or barter - I could give them away but what's the point of working so much for nothing?)
... cannot be specifically to be used only by women or children
... trips that don't allow a cash option to taking the trip, unless it's a trip I really want (Alaska, Grand Canyon, etc)
... trips specifically related to events like award shows, movie openings, minor sporting events, soccer, etc (I don't want to pay the taxes for trips I would not pay for myself)
... trips to certain foreign countries I don't want to visit due to instability, terrorism, corruption, legal system (Dubai, Turkey, any South American country, Mexico, etc)
... trips to NYC (been there, done that, is the only reason), LA, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, etc (no fan of big cities)
I will also not enter these types:
Twitter (I used to but win rate far too low) - Twitter 'parties' far too time-consuming
Instagram - no smart phone
unlimited entry - time killer
DVD - I use Netflix and Redbox
Book - library, inter-library loan for rarer books
Blogs - too many actions
Surveys - too much time
Product ratings/reviews - too much time + dishonest, IMHO, as companies want positive reviews
Sweeps requiring selfies with or without their products - too much time and I don't own a smartphone anyway
A few months ago I posted in someone else's topic about the fact that I'm a retired analyst who has kept track of these sweeps more or less
by habit with a spreadsheet, so I know my 70% figure is accurate. I've been on cold spells before but nothing approaching the past 24 months, and the good
wins have been few and far between. I fully understand the vagaries of entering sweeps and that you have to persist but I think a structural
change has occurred with fewer sweeps being offered, more of them being aimed specifically at women/children then at the male sex, and
I believe there is far more cheating and more sophisticated cheating going on, even simply cheating like using multiple relative and friend's
info to enter the same sweeps or swapping votes. I'm not complaining about it, I'm simply explaining that if this were not true then it would be worth my while
to continue spending 1.5 hours per day entering sweeps.
This morning I finally decided to stop cold turkey, delete everything related to sweeps on my computer and move on to other things. It's been a good ride but my tank is empty (lol) and it's
nothing to do with burnout - repetitive work doesn't bother me but repetitive work without reward does. Since I rarely miss a day entering, I would estimate I
have entered sweeps 350 days every year, and at 1.5 hours per day (half spent looking for and evaluating new sweeps) that's 525 hours per year spent on sweeping.
Which is 65.62 full 8 hour work days, or 17.5 24 hour days per year! This does NOT include all the time I spend every day unsubcribing from emails I was forced
to sign up for as a condition of entering a sweeps. Refinery29 and Kim Kommando are so relentless that I stopped entering those long ago.
It would be one thing if the value of the prizes was all cash but the reality is that most of your prizes are NOT cash and which you have to PAY taxes on, so in reality you're making a lot less than minimum wage for your effort.
In conclusion, thanks, SA, for the help you've provided in entering sweeps and the best of luck going forward to everyone still sweeping! I'm going to enjoy
sleeping in late and no longer sweating entering the 24 hour sweeps on time any longer - lol. Time for more fishing, too.
p.s. Hey Amy, while those '12 days of Christmas' sweeps did pop up like toadstools after a hard summer rain, you know most of the daily prizes being offered weren't worth
the time!
I had a good run but the past few years have seen sweepstakes I want to enter decline by about 70%. Here are my criteria for NOT entering a sweepstakes:
... sweeps prize worth less than $100
... cannot be a prize I already own or have no use for (I don't resell or barter - I could give them away but what's the point of working so much for nothing?)
... cannot be specifically to be used only by women or children
... trips that don't allow a cash option to taking the trip, unless it's a trip I really want (Alaska, Grand Canyon, etc)
... trips specifically related to events like award shows, movie openings, minor sporting events, soccer, etc (I don't want to pay the taxes for trips I would not pay for myself)
... trips to certain foreign countries I don't want to visit due to instability, terrorism, corruption, legal system (Dubai, Turkey, any South American country, Mexico, etc)
... trips to NYC (been there, done that, is the only reason), LA, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, etc (no fan of big cities)
I will also not enter these types:
Twitter (I used to but win rate far too low) - Twitter 'parties' far too time-consuming
Instagram - no smart phone
unlimited entry - time killer
DVD - I use Netflix and Redbox
Book - library, inter-library loan for rarer books
Blogs - too many actions
Surveys - too much time
Product ratings/reviews - too much time + dishonest, IMHO, as companies want positive reviews
Sweeps requiring selfies with or without their products - too much time and I don't own a smartphone anyway
A few months ago I posted in someone else's topic about the fact that I'm a retired analyst who has kept track of these sweeps more or less
by habit with a spreadsheet, so I know my 70% figure is accurate. I've been on cold spells before but nothing approaching the past 24 months, and the good
wins have been few and far between. I fully understand the vagaries of entering sweeps and that you have to persist but I think a structural
change has occurred with fewer sweeps being offered, more of them being aimed specifically at women/children then at the male sex, and
I believe there is far more cheating and more sophisticated cheating going on, even simply cheating like using multiple relative and friend's
info to enter the same sweeps or swapping votes. I'm not complaining about it, I'm simply explaining that if this were not true then it would be worth my while
to continue spending 1.5 hours per day entering sweeps.
This morning I finally decided to stop cold turkey, delete everything related to sweeps on my computer and move on to other things. It's been a good ride but my tank is empty (lol) and it's
nothing to do with burnout - repetitive work doesn't bother me but repetitive work without reward does. Since I rarely miss a day entering, I would estimate I
have entered sweeps 350 days every year, and at 1.5 hours per day (half spent looking for and evaluating new sweeps) that's 525 hours per year spent on sweeping.
Which is 65.62 full 8 hour work days, or 17.5 24 hour days per year! This does NOT include all the time I spend every day unsubcribing from emails I was forced
to sign up for as a condition of entering a sweeps. Refinery29 and Kim Kommando are so relentless that I stopped entering those long ago.
It would be one thing if the value of the prizes was all cash but the reality is that most of your prizes are NOT cash and which you have to PAY taxes on, so in reality you're making a lot less than minimum wage for your effort.
In conclusion, thanks, SA, for the help you've provided in entering sweeps and the best of luck going forward to everyone still sweeping! I'm going to enjoy
sleeping in late and no longer sweating entering the 24 hour sweeps on time any longer - lol. Time for more fishing, too.
p.s. Hey Amy, while those '12 days of Christmas' sweeps did pop up like toadstools after a hard summer rain, you know most of the daily prizes being offered weren't worth
the time!
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