CONTESTING HINTS AND TIPS
By Susan Francis
HINTS AND TIPS: The main thing is to enter and enter consistently. I have gotten my best results by keeping to a schedule: daily entry contests I try to enter daily- while you can, and I have, win a daily entry contest with only one entry, each entry increases your chances.
Weekly entry contests I try to enter weekly on the same day- usually Monday. I find it is better to enter them all on the same day for several reasons, the main one being that I don’t want to enter a contest more than once a week and disqualify myself. Also, ones which draw weekly have different draw dates, some draw Sunday, some first thing Monday morning, some Wendsday and others Friday. By having one day set aside for weeklies, you are less likely to miss entering, or disqualify yourself by entering more than once weekly as some of the weekly entry/monthly draw contests have a seven day period between entries while other go from say, Sunday to Sunday.
Monthly contests are different, as there are far too many to enter on one day. Since they also have different draw dates, I enter them after the 15th of the month. This is because very few have draw dates between the 15th and the end of the month. I have a very few favorite websites I enter them from, and what I do is write down where I am (i.e.: page four, my contests), again to avoid entering more than once in a month. I enter a website page or so a day, time permitting. It can also be helpful to empty the history and have your computer change the colour of visited links, but if you use the link history to keep track of one-time entry contests, you won’t be able to do this. Since there are so many monthly contests, some of them get very few entries- I have entered guestbook contests where there were only a half dozen entries. Your chances are much greater with fewer entries, than a contest with thousands of entries each month.
One-time entry contests I try to enter around the middle to last half of the promotion, but again the important thing is to enter.
It should go without saying that you should follow all rules to the letter, but a surprising number of people don’t and then wonder why they don’t win! Any contests that I have run I always have a few people that don’t enter properly- my rules say to enter the guestbook and they email me! If there is a trivia question, math problem, survey, essay or comment required be sure to answer all questions. The form must be completely filled out, as partially filled out forms are rejected. If it is a timed entry contest you have two options. Enter after you are sure the time has expired, for example if its a twenty four hour entry enter every other day or create a favorites file with the time you entered the last of the timed contests as the name of the folder, enter them the next day after that time and rename it daily with the new time.
I use roboform to fill in my entries. There is other software that does this as well. There is even software that keeps track of expiry dates so you aren’t entering a contest after it’s over, but it is time consuming to set up. However, avoid gator as it contains spyware. I find roboform to be a great time saver, especially with daily entry contests which have a long form to fill out as you only need to fill the form out once and then save it. Flash-based forms still have to be filled out by hand, as the software does not recognize them as forms. This is different than the sites that autosubmit for you, as you do have to visit the website and allow the form to fully open before it is filled out. Entries from autosubmitting websites are usually disqualified, and they are easy to spot. One contest I enter regularly sent out a newsletter saying that the contest had been spammed by one of these sites, and that the trivia answer was wrong on all their entries, so all were disqualified. Another site simply discontinued their contest when they were suddenly overwhelmed by entries sent out at the same time by an autosubmit site.
Google rules when it comes to finding trivia answers. You can just copy the question using quotation marks around it, or edit it. For example: what is the most active volcano in Canada? I would first try the entire question, as this often will give a site where the question had been asked previously. If this doesn’t give results I would then try "most active volcano in Canada". The quotation marks are needed to avoid getting results for each word.
Spam goes with the territory. I get anywhere from two hundred to five hundred emails daily. I would put spam at about 95% of all of these emails. I filter the spam into a separate folder, and scan the subjects and senders before deleting them. Every time I check I find a few that were improperly sorted, which I move back to the inbox. Depending on how the subject was worded, your email filter may mistake a win notice for somebody trying to sell you viagra. Many contests require you to receive email from them or their newsletters, and a few of the more unscrupulous ones actually sell your email to spammers. Some ISP’s do this as well, as I often get spam with dozens of sympatico addresses in alphabetical order- and only sympatico addresses. You can get software to filter spam or sign up for services give you a safe list that you will accept email from, but remember that there is a good chance you will miss out on a win that was filtered or blocked, since you don’t know the email address of the person who will be emailing you.
It is extremely important to check your email inbox daily, as some contests want a reply within a set period of time. If they wanted a reply within twenty-four hours and you sent it after twenty- five, you will be disqualified, as another winner will have been chosen. It is also important to empty the inbox out. I send out a newsletter and have had as many as twenty percent bounce back due to full mailboxes. If I was sending a win notice these people would lose their chance, and another winner would be picked. This is really a problem is you get a free email address to use only for contesting- the space limits on these emails are fairly low and if you get html emails they get filled up pretty quickly. I have a hotmail account that I check daily and I have found it full on occasion. This account is only used for entering contests which are entered by sending an email.
It is always a good idea to print out your win notices- that way if the prize doesn’t arrive, (and I have had some that I have never received) you will have proof to use to complain to the site owner if the email has been accidentally deleted. My email is automatically deleted after twenty- seven days by my ISP. The same is true when the notice is mailed to you-make a copy of the notice. For cross border wins, it’s a good idea to have a copy anyway so you can recover any taxes or duties charged by customs. A good answering machine is also a good idea. I missed out on a win because I couldn’t make out the number of the person I was to call to claim my win.
CANADIANS AND CONTESTS FROM OUTSIDE OF CANADA: I have had dozens of wins from contests not based in Canada. The only country that a win sometimes leads to grief is the United States. Sometimes the sponsor does not label the package "gift" or "sample" or indicate it has no value. When this happens customs inspects the package and will charge you tax and duties. They also randomly inspect parcels, asses value and charge tax and duties, as well as a five dollar inspection fee. However, contest winnings valued at under $65 are not taxable, or covered by duties. What you need to do is: pay the fee at the post office or to the mailman, get a receipt, carefully remove the yellow label that states what you were charged, and fill out the refund form on the back, and mail it into revenue Canada along with a copy of your winning email and/ or congratulatory letter (support documents). You can also request and/or download a copy of the form from the government’s website. It takes about six weeks, but they will mail you a check. I have won contests located in both Great Britain and Australia, and received my winnings fairly quickly without any customs inspection. Since I only enter contests where I can read the rules I don’t enter contests from non-English speaking countries. Japan does run some that available in English, but to date I have not won any of them.