Contests & Sweepstakes Tips, Advice, and Questions

Quote from rachaelm : I feel kind of petty complaining, because I love all of the contests being posted. BUT why are there so many new contests being posted that aren't in the right format??? I mean, the FAQ is pretty clear about how you should post a contest. IDK, I guess I'm just being biotchy. That is all. Move along. Nothing more to see here....

I realized last night that I had made errors when posting sweeps. Decided to read the FAQ and learn from my mistakes. There are people who are new to this hardcore lifestyle lol and maybe get a little too excited to share with their fellow sweepers, but I do understand where you are coming from as well.

Quote from sixthr33 : I realized last night that I had made errors when posting sweeps. Decided to read the FAQ and learn from my mistakes. There are people who are new to this hardcore lifestyle lol and maybe get a little too excited to share with their fellow sweepers, but I do understand where you are coming from as well.

And now I really feel guilty for posting such a nasty. I wasn't trying to call anyone out. I like to search by end date every day for contests, to make sure I haven't missed any, and a lot of new contests don't have an end date in the title or it's not in the standard "M/D/YR" format.

I guess if this is what I'm bitching about, my life must not be too bad.

Quote from rachaelm : And now I really feel guilty for posting such a nasty. I wasn't trying to call anyone out. I like to search by end date every day for contests, to make sure I haven't missed any, and a lot of new contests don't have an end date in the title or it's not in the standard "M/D/YR" format. I guess if this is what I'm bitching about, my life must not be too bad.

I understand what your saying, my pet peeve is people bumping dead threads to post a win when thats what we have the "what I won" thread for!

Quote from rachaelm : I feel kind of petty complaining, because I love all of the contests being posted. BUT why are there so many new contests being posted that aren't in the right format??? I mean, the FAQ is pretty clear about how you should post a contest. IDK, I guess I'm just being biotchy. That is all. Move along. Nothing more to see here....

Quote from rachaelm : And now I really feel guilty for posting such a nasty. I wasn't trying to call anyone out. I like to search by end date every day for contests, to make sure I haven't missed any, and a lot of new contests don't have an end date in the title or it's not in the standard "M/D/YR" format. I guess if this is what I'm bitching about, my life must not be too bad.

Personally, I don't think you're being petty or biotchy. Posting sweeps, using the standardized format laid out in the FAQ, is helpful for many reasons.

Sponsor name, Sweepstakes name, and End Date (including month, day, YEAR) in the title is essential when searching the forum for duplicates when posting a new sweep.

I love that there are a lot more SDers sharing their finds with the community. Now, if we all just work together & follow the posting guidelines, everything would run smoother & leave more time for WINNING!

Quote from Sweepaholic : I understand what your saying, my pet peeve is people bumping dead threads to post a win when thats what we have the "what I won" thread for!

Quote from MLx3 : Personally, I don't think you're being petty or biotchy. Posting sweeps, using the standardized format laid out in the FAQ, is helpful for many reasons. Sponsor name, Sweepstakes name, and End Date (including month, day, YEAR) in the title is essential when searching the forum for duplicates when posting a new sweep. I love that there are a lot more SDers sharing their finds with the community. Now, if we all just work together & follow the posting guidelines, everything would run smoother & leave more time for WINNING!

Well, y'all made me feel better. Maybe this little conversation will help some others understand why there is a standard format for these type of posts....

Quote from Sweepaholic : I understand what your saying, my pet peeve is people bumping dead threads to post a win when thats what we have the "what I won" thread for!

That and bumping threads that would expire in a few days or a weeks time...really messes me up to have so many dead threads floating around in the monthly view. From a standpoint of someone who tries to enter them all each and every day. I don't have enough ignores to deal with that. So all the dead threads really really slow me down. I wish people would keep track of their daily entries in a different manner, as you can (SHOULD!!!) enter those multiple times.

Quote from rachaelm : I feel kind of petty complaining, because I love all of the contests being posted. BUT why are there so many new contests being posted that aren't in the right format??? I mean, the FAQ is pretty clear about how you should post a contest. IDK, I guess I'm just being biotchy. That is all. Move along. Nothing more to see here....

Petty schmetty! Not posting according to guidelines is a pet peeve of mine. I try to cut newer OPs some slack, but the more experienced OPs who still insist on "free-styling" really get my tail feathers in a bunch. The guidelines are there for a reason - to make the forum functional! Thanks for commenting on this subject.

Yes, this has seemingly become an issue recently. I won't name any names, but I will say I do appreciate the way MLx3, sweepstaker, YARDEE, FreebiesRGreat, dstncarson and the like post them. Makes this hobby much more convenient.

Quote from rachaelm : And now I really feel guilty for posting such a nasty. I wasn't trying to call anyone out. I like to search by end date every day for contests, to make sure I haven't missed any, and a lot of new contests don't have an end date in the title or it's not in the standard "M/D/YR" format. I guess if this is what I'm bitching about, my life must not be too bad.

FWIW - I didn't think your post sounded nasty - I've read nasty

I do have a question, though. Could you tell me how you find the contests that end on a certain date? I used to put the end date in the search box, but that hasn't worked in a long time.

Appreciate any help I can get. Thanks.

has anyone ever won from http://leitesculinaria.com/

Quote from shopgurl101 : has anyone ever won from http://leitesculinaria.com/

Won a cookbook way back in 2010...nothing since, and entered constantly. NOT sure if that means more publicized now or I got extremely lucky. Would think I would have heard of at least a winner from this site in that time. Odd to me.

Quote from implode : Won a cookbook way back in 2010...nothing since, and entered constantly. NOT sure if that means more publicized now or I got extremely lucky. Would think I would have heard of at least a winner from this site in that time. Odd to me.

I think that's a very highly publicized site and it seems to get LOTS of traffic. I also suspect that their sweeps may get botted a lot because the entry process is so simple (enter name and email) and I'm not sure how good of a job they do trying to catch the spammers or if they even care. My take is that because I can enter so quick, may as well throw a few into the ones where I like the prizes. It literally take 5-6 seconds to click the link, autofill the form and submit.

How do you guys keep track of things inside SD? My standard process is to just sort by Thread Started and go through the new ones that come up each day. If I find a multiple-entry I like, I just a link to the actual contest in my bookmarks (folders for monthly, weekly, and daily). If you're caught up, it doesn't take much time at all to just check once a day; there's usually only a page or two worth of new contests.

Why would you try and use the tags in SD when it's so much easier to just keep things in bookmarks?

I think that trying to track specific threads or even using bookmarks is sort of cumbersome. I just use a spreadsheet and put a direct hyperlink to the sweeps, along with end date and any comments, such as special codes, etc. I even wrote some macros for my dailies so that I know last date/time entered and total entry count. Takes a couple of minutes to add a new one, but after that it goes quick each day.