Make
extra money or win some prizes by entering contests
One of my friends
retired a few years back and moved to a resort area. Her full
time job these days is entering the contests that the local
hotels and restaurants set up to market their establishments.
It is amazing how much stuff she has won. She got her driveway
paved and won a scuba diving trip to the Caribbean all for
free or for the nominal cost of raffle tickets. She does buy
raffle tickets sometimes, so her costs are not always zero,
but usually the raffles she enters are for charities. In that
case she feels that even if she doesn't win, the money is
going to a good cause. We usually visit our friend once a
year or so, and we get to eat out and see a lot of local attractions
either for free or at deep discounts just because of her prize
collection.
If you have a regular
job I certainly would not advocate leaving it to become a
professional contest person, but if you are not doing anything
else with your time entering free contests may be something
to consider. Or, if you like to spend your free time shopping,
entering contest instead may actually save you money by not
spending it shopping!
Here are some tips
for making the most of contests:
1. Local church
and charity raffles often have the best odds of winning and
the best prize values for the money.
2. Local contests
are usually going to have less participants than national
contests. So all other things being equal, for a contest with
a nice trip as a prize, spend your stamp on the entry form
for the local contest rather the national one.
3. Even with national
contests, you'd be surprised sometimes at how little competition
there is. A friend of my mine works for a national store chain
that sponsored a contest that was free to enter and had $10,000
worth of prizes. Interestingly, only a thousand entries were
received. From a marketing standpoint the contest was a dismal
failure, but for the people entering the contest the odds
were fantastic compared to others with prizes of that value.
4. My friend who
enters contests for a living listens to a radio station each
day that has prizes for calling in at different times and
being the lucky caller. She has won prizes this way several
times, and didn't even have to pay for a stamp to send in
an entry.
5. The search engine
Iwon gives out prizes just
for using their search engine.
6. To find contests
on the Internet, use a search engine and type in things like:
free contests
free sweepstakes
Here are a couple
of links to get you started:
Freebie
List
TheFreeSite.com:
Sweepstakes and Contests
| Hint:
Typing in 3, 4 and 5 word search terms will get you some
of the more obscure contests available online, and that
may mean less contestants. Use iwon for your search engine
you may even win something just by searching for contests!
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7. You are still
liable for taxes on prizes you win, so before you accept any
prizes make sure it is something that you can either use or
resell. You don't want to have to pay taxes on a trip that
you didn't get to take.
One thing to keep
in mind is that marketers often use drawings and raffles to
get your name for marketing information. So if you live in
the U.S. and do decide to enter a lot of contests, it may
help to limit the number of marketing solicitations you receive
by phone and email by:
1. Putting your
name on the Federal
Trade Commission's do not call list to avoid calls by
telemarketers.
2. Signing up at
the Direct
Mail Marketing web site to have your name removed from their
members' lists.
Remember that when
entering contests, only give out limited personal information
for entries such as your name and address. You don't want
to give out any information that could be used by unscrupulous
marketers for identity theft.
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