Let's Get to Know Each Other! Sweepstakers Q&A!

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firefly30

New member
Let's play a quick "Get to know your fellow sweepstakers" game!

1. What's the last thing you've won?
2. How many contests do you enter daily?
3. Do you use autofill. If so, which one?
4. Why do you enter contests? What got you started?
5. Do you have any fun tips or tricks?
6. What annoys you the most about sweepstaking?

Here's mine:

1. A Frigo cheesestick pool raft...it looks JUST like a big case of cheesesticks! Lol!
2. Approximately 160 a day
3. I use Google autofill and sometimes I manually type.
4. I enter contests because I want to win! But also, I have a chronic illness that keeps me home a lot, so this gives me something to do. I look forward to it every day. It actually relaxes me, and I love waking up in the morning and checking my email. It's exciting!
5. I like to bookmark my contests in sections of 10 and then "open all tabs" and go through them that way. I also like listening to music or multitasking (talking to my fiance, etc.) at the same time. It makes the time go by faster.
6. Hands down the most annoying thing for me is.... Those awful commercial videos that you CAN'T x out of it! How did they ever discover how to stop the videos when we switch tabs/windows? I hate that! It's like the longest 30 seconds to 2 minutes of my life!
 
Hi!! Great post. I've been wanting to get to know people more who share my hobby, especially those who live in the Los Angeles area. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find anyone who's willing to make friends.

Anyways:

1. I've been MIA for a couple months due to moving, but my last win was a blog win. It was one of those cups that make ice cream? It's still packed away so I'm not entirely sure of the name but it will make a great Xmas gift this year.
2. I would say it's usually between 200-600. 200 if I'm lazy and don't finish, 400ish if I finish all of my dailies. And 600 if I finish all dailies, and update myself by entering all the one entries/photo contests/mail ins. I usually do that once a week.
3. Google Chrome has autofill already in it's browser, so I use that. I do find that sometimes contests don't give you a 2nd address line and I live in an apartment, so I have to manually add the Apt # to the end of the address in some cases.
4. I started in 2014, I've always wanted to get into it but I only finally did around March of that year. It's fun, rewarding, exciting, etc.
5. My biggest word of advice or "trick" is to stay positive! I will have a week or two of a dry spell (including no instant wins), and it can get you down, but I just tell myself and my boyfriend that I'm going to go WIN sweeps, not just enter. Win. And Usually that day, I get a winning email. It's really amazing, actually. It seems kind of crazy, but if you've ever watched the documentary called 'The Secret', it's kind of like that. Positive energy attracts positive energy. If I don't receive an email that day, I just tell myself that I was PICKED as a winner that day, and just haven't received the email yet =). Other tips: Upgrade to SweepstakesPlus.com. You can organize your sweeps in your own way. This helps a lot. For example, I organize all of the Woman's Day Sweeps (There's usually 40ish at any given time) into it's own category. This helps because I can go through them FAST, knowing where to click. I also recommend making a bookmarking folder that includes a folder of each month. I bookmark each One Entry that I enter into the month it expires. This helps me in case I find a sweep elsewhere; I will know if I've already entered it, so I don't DQ myself. Then after a month ends, I just go and delete everything from the previous month.
6. I hate captchas. I hate having to watch a video in order to continue. I hate searching through THOUSANDS of emails daily. But these are just the few negatives to the MANY positives of this great hobby! =)

EDIT: I wanted to add one thing I hate. I am blanking on what they're called, but I hate the contests that are more popular where you have to follow twitter, pinterest, snap chat etc., and visit FB pages and watch videos for your entries. I've won many times on these bc they're completely random, but geez are they annoying. Sometimes the list of things to do is SO LONG. I can only follow so many twitter pages before twitter shuts me down for the day.
 
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Thanks so much for your reply! I've been wanting to connect with other sweepstakers too, and I find that everyone is pretty quiet on here! Your tips are great. You actually inspired me to sign up for Plus. I went ahead and entered all of the local contests just now. I consider myself pretty fast, but how do you manage to do that many a day? Wow! How long does it take? It takes me about an hour to do around 160.

I hate those forms that you're talking about too! Awful! When I entered back in 2012, there weren't many of them and now it seems like they're so popular.
 
I'm definitely a home body. Especially for someone who is only 29. I spend a few hours a day (on the days I feel like entering). It is kind of a lot, but I just relax with my dog, put on TV or the radio, and enter. Then I usually go to work in the evenings.

Yes, people on here are very quiet. Dozens have read your thread, but no one else has commented. Says a lot, in my opinion.

Plus is great for the local contests, too. Good luck!
 
Maybe there's a correlation between being a sweepstaker and being introverted/shy. Who knows! ;) I'm 30, so we're around the same age. I haven't come across many people around our age who do this. Seems like most people are retired. I work from home, and there's a lot of free time when I'm waiting for my next assignment (data entry), so I enter during that time too, but I mainly do at night right before bed for an hour or so. I think I'm going to start entering more though because I'm not winning as much as I want to.

I won so much more back in 2012, and I can't figure out why.

Your prize list is impressive! How was the trip to Arizona?
 
I wouldn't consider myself shy exactly, as I work in the service industry. But I do love my down time haha. Just such a homebody. Anyways, that might be a reason, though!

The trip to AZ was won by my boyfriend, and he LOVES golf, so he had a blast. I decided to stay home and watch our dog so that he could bring his uncle who lived in AZ and who he hadn't seen in a while.
 
I'm not shy either really. Maybe everyone's hands are just worn out from entering so many contests that they're not up to typing on this forum too much lol. The trip sounds fun! I haven't been able to convince my fiance to get into sweepstaking yet - working on it.
 
lol - nope, we don't chat much in this forum - too busy entering! :cool:

firefly30 said:
I'm not shy either really. Maybe everyone's hands are just worn out from entering so many contests that they're not up to typing on this forum too much lol. The trip sounds fun! I haven't been able to convince my fiance to get into sweepstaking yet - working on it.
Click to expand...
 
firefly30 said:
Let's play a quick "Get to know your fellow sweepstakers" game!

1. What's the last thing you've won?
2. How many contests do you enter daily?
3. Do you use autofill. If so, which one?
4. Why do you enter contests? What got you started?
5. Do you have any fun tips or tricks?
6. What annoys you the most about sweepstaking?
Click to expand...

1. A set of Schlage locks from Build.com
2. It varies between 50 - 200? I'm pretty selective, only entering over $1k prizes daily, maybe $250+ for one time entries.
3. I use Last Pass to store my info, then it auto fills about 80% of them next time.
4. Free stuff! Waiting for that BIG win. Started many years ago with the HGTV Dream Home sweeps.
5. I have folders in Favorites for daily, weekly, and monthly. Sweeps with more than one entry get saved with their expiration date, so I know when to delete them. For example: 04-16 Sweepsname
6. CAPTCHAS! Ugh!
 
1. What's the last thing you've won? A free digital download for a movie.
2. How many contests do you enter daily? 25-100
3. Do you use autofill. If so, which one? Use Google Chrome's Built in.
4. Why do you enter contests? What got you started? To win cool things! - Mom did when I used to decorate the envelopes as a kid long before online-entering.
5. Do you have any fun tips or tricks? Be consistent in entering!
6. What annoys you the most about sweepstaking? - Blogs Way too many with a ton of "requirements" to enter.
 
1. What's the last thing you've won?
A $10 RetailMeNot Giftcard

2. How many contests do you enter daily?
About 50-80.

3. Do you use autofill. If so, which one?
Google Chrome Autofill. I hear a bunch about Roboform but if a system is working alright for me I tend to just keep going with it.

4. Why do you enter contests? What got you started?
I was entering to win some cash on iwon.com for a bit until I decided to read up on what the odds were and thought "oh man, am I wasting my time!" I then did some internet searching to see if there were any better contest sites and found the sweeping community. Entered sweeps for a couple weeks without winning anything until I got discouraged and basically gave up on it. Days later I check my e-mail and discover that I won a Laptop computer (!). Needless to say I'm still at it! Thankful for that first prize cause I would have been one of the newbies who get impatient and drop out before figuring out what the hobby is all about otherwise.

5. Do you have any fun tips or tricks?
Try to do instant wins at times when many people may be working, eating or sleeping. Not sure if that helps or not but it makes me feel like I have the edge! haha. Also, don't worry about skipping a day every now and then if you're feeling burned out. Better to do that then risk quitting.

6. What annoys you the most about sweepstaking?
Free product coupons with a "limit 1" redemption rule. (Go to the store 5 times to get all my Snickers bars?!) Also, being pitched at the bank to open some new account each time I go in to get a form notarized. There are definitely times when entering that I skip a sweep because I don't want the prize quite enough and it has an ARV of $600+. I guess both of these problems are actually good to have because they mean that you won something... but ARGH! lol
 
I've been a member for ages, but recently got back into sweeping after a hiatus, so here goes:

Let's play a quick "Get to know your fellow sweepstakers" game!

1. What's the last thing you've won? - a pair of Hear and There Ear buds from the recent Black and Mild instant
2. How many contests do you enter daily? - a little over 100
3. Do you use autofill. If so, which one? - not any longer; I used to use Roboform, but it's faster for me just to type in rather than trying to keep track of which sweeps specify manual entries
4. Why do you enter contests? What got you started? - I enter because I like the winning feeling and I enter only for prizes that myself, family members, or close friends could actually use. I got started because I used to run a website where I had a monthly contest and one week, I got TONS of entries, so I followed them back to the source, which was another sweeps board. I found out then that people do sweepstakes as a hobby, got started myself, and started winning!
5. Do you have any fun tips or tricks? - I don't know if this counts as "fun", but I use the Sweep! program to keep track of my entries and it saves a lot of time and headache. It's no longer on the front page of the Roboform website, but a Google search will get you to a download of it and it's free.
6. What annoys you the most about sweepstaking? - When I see people bragging about entering under different names, emails, etc. - I just think it's better to follow the rules and in the end, if you win, you know you won properly. I think people don't realize how easy it is to track IP's, etc., and I know that many actually miss out on potential wins because the people running the sweepstakes or giveaway caught them out on cheating
 
I think you came up with some good questions!

1. $50 NFLShop.com gift code

2. I had stopped entering for awhile and am getting back into it, but right now I am entering about 50 daily. I also have my monthly, weekly and one entries.

3. I use roboform and the autofiller on google chrome. I always skim and make sure everything is entering correctly.

4. I started entering when I was in grad school a few years ago and working and broke. I thought, wouldn’t it be fun to win some money and escape the rat race? I started reading about sweepstaking and entering and I loved it. Never won enough to escape the rat race, but I did win $5000 once. I enter because its fun, just the possibility of winning is cool and adds some excitement to life.

5. One suggestion I have is to try different kinds of sweepstakes to see what you like and what you hate. I feel like you don’t know how you really feel about a certain sweepstakes until you’ve actually entered. Over my couple of years entering sweeps- I think I’ve entered every kind of sweepstakes except for those recipe contests (but I am planning on trying one at some point!)

6. Dry spells, lol! Sweepstakes games that don’t have the option to skip the game.
 
Thanks for posting all of these stories. Glad everyone is having fun!
 
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