Entering Contests
It’s kind of sad and at the same time surprisingly true, but there are actually people out there who make a decent (if not outright lavish) living by aggressively seeking out and entering every single contest that they can find (ranging from contests you see on a 2L bottle of pop or a soup can, contests from local shops and community events to broader free online contests that you can find on the internet). These people are playing the odds and have concluded (rightfully so) that the more contests you enter, the more chances you have of winning. Of course, that doesn’t mean you will win anything, but your chances certainly do improve.
The astonishing thing is these people are the ones that often win the grand prizes such as the fancy cars, fully furnished houses, exotic trips and sometimes enormous sums of money! To become part of this elite group of prize poachers, you have to live their philosophy. These people do not like to leave things up to blind luck (although there is still an element of this involved) and do everything in their wake to scale the odds in their own favor. They are not like the general masses that enter a contest once and then cross their fingers in hopes they will win; No, these prize poachers are the ones who excessively enter multiple times (the maximum quantity as well as frequency allowed by the rules and regulations of the contest being entered). They assimilate their everyday life with chances to win contests by obsessively bulk buying cans of soup or bottles of pop with an entry form on the back of the sticker rather than a soup/pop they may actually enjoy more. They constantly keep their eyes and ears open for new contests by watching television commercials, listening to the radio, reading newspaper ads and surfing the internet. They really are a go-getter when it comes to discovering contests and maximizing their chances. By taking the time and effort to do so, they further stack the odds in their favor to win.
One important thing to remember to do is always read the contest rules and regulations carefully to ensure that you are eligible to win and what limits you can go to increase your odds of winning without being disqualified.
Buying entry forms still costs money unfortunately, but the payoff is generally more worthwhile than free contests. The only worthwhile free contests I can think of off the top of my head which provide very attractive prizes such as cool vacation trips, tickets to sold out concerts and thousands of dollars in giveaway money are the popular radio station contests where a particular caller can win for calling in as the nth caller or answering a question correctly. Best of luck if you want to try this because it is difficult to get anything other than a busy signal when you call in for these contests. On the brighter side, there are many free contests that you can enter. These contests are widely available over the internet making them very easy to search for and enter. One nice tip if you plan to enter many online contests is to create yourself an email account separate from that of your true personal account because many of these contests will attract junk mail like bees to honey. You need a way to check to see if you won, but don’t want to be hassled with anything else!
To get an up to date list of these sites, I’d recommend doing a quick online search for “online contests”. While you’re at it you should check out the websites of your local radio stations to see what kind of contests they are currently running. Good luck – if you end up winning something, let us know and we’ll post an amendment to this article with your success story!
