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forum threadFreebiesRGreat posted Jun 03, 2008 02:50 AM
forum threadFreebiesRGreat posted Jun 03, 2008 02:50 AM

Contests & Sweepstakes Tips, Advice, and Questions

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The intent of this thread is for users, both new and not-so-new, to ask questions, and help with tips/advice. This is not by any means the "gospel". Please feel free to add your words of wisdom, and if you have questions, just ask! If you have a tip that will make sweeping easier for folks, please feel free to share. This is a community effort. We all will benefit in some way.


The Basic Advice/Tips for the new-to-sweeping folks.
Enter for the items you want/need. If you have no interest in trips, avoid the sweeps where the only prize is a trip. If you know you can't afford the tax on a new vehicle, avoid entering for those.

Set up folders in your bookmark/favorites. Create a separate one for each month, and file any sweeps you are interested in into the folder corresponding with when it ends. Then, if you have a day where you're pressed for time, enter at least the ones ending that day.

Play the instant win games.

Follow the rules! If a sweep is restricted to only females, a certain age group, certain states, etc, make sure you fit the criteria! If you don't, move on to another sweep that you do qualify for. Do not create a bunch of email addresses so you can enter something more than once, or so you can play an Instant win game more. The Sponsors can tell, and will DQ you. You're better off playing by the rules than cheating and getting disqualified and having NO entries.

Don't immediately dismiss essay required sweeps (or recipes, photos, etc)....well, unless you know you don't want to write something. A lot of people pass on them, so you might have a better shot at winning something.

Don't expect this to be lucrative enough to become a job. Yes, a lot of us win, and often, but not nearly enough to quit a job!

Expect things to go slow at first. It takes a while for the wins to roll in. But once they do...look out!

Expect to occasionally hit a dry spell. It happens to ALL of us.

DEFINITELY USE YOUR REAL INFO! If you use a fake phone number, and a sponsor is calling to notify people of wins, you'll never know what you missed out on. I, and many others, have been doing this for a long time, and we have no problems with sales calls. Also, use your real name. If your name is Robert or Catherine, using Bob or Cathy is ok, as they are known acceptable shorter versions of that name. if your name is Matilda, and you go by Fluffy, don't use Fluffy. Looking at your ID to get an affy notarized, they may reject it because the names don't match. The sponsor may also say "Fluffy won, not Matilda". So stick with using your real name, or something close to it.

Most of all, HAVE FUN! And don't be afraid to ask questions. We were all new to this at one time. Any one of us would be happy to answer questions.


For easy form filling, check out Roboform [roboform.com]. Google Tool bar and the autofill feature on IE also work well.

For Mac users, the best form filler is 1Password: http://agilewebsolutions.com/products/1Password (thanks javaFlower!)

FireFox Form Filler browser extensions: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/...ll&cat=all

To set up the autofill feature in IE: Click on Tools, then internet options, then choose 'content'. When that pops up, click on "Autocomplete", and make sure to check the boxes for forms and passwords on forms. This is not a good idea if you are on a shared/public computer!

February 17, 2009, 3:10 am: System Notice: This thread has been automatically renewed after reaching a post limit. Most of its content has been moved to this thread for reference purposes.

July 12, 2010, 3:23 pm: System Notice: This thread has been automatically renewed after reaching a post limit. Most of its content has been moved to this thread for reference purposes.
Community Notes
About the Poster
Deal Details
Community Notes
About the Poster
The intent of this thread is for users, both new and not-so-new, to ask questions, and help with tips/advice. This is not by any means the "gospel". Please feel free to add your words of wisdom, and if you have questions, just ask! If you have a tip that will make sweeping easier for folks, please feel free to share. This is a community effort. We all will benefit in some way.


The Basic Advice/Tips for the new-to-sweeping folks.
Enter for the items you want/need. If you have no interest in trips, avoid the sweeps where the only prize is a trip. If you know you can't afford the tax on a new vehicle, avoid entering for those.

Set up folders in your bookmark/favorites. Create a separate one for each month, and file any sweeps you are interested in into the folder corresponding with when it ends. Then, if you have a day where you're pressed for time, enter at least the ones ending that day.

Play the instant win games.

Follow the rules! If a sweep is restricted to only females, a certain age group, certain states, etc, make sure you fit the criteria! If you don't, move on to another sweep that you do qualify for. Do not create a bunch of email addresses so you can enter something more than once, or so you can play an Instant win game more. The Sponsors can tell, and will DQ you. You're better off playing by the rules than cheating and getting disqualified and having NO entries.

Don't immediately dismiss essay required sweeps (or recipes, photos, etc)....well, unless you know you don't want to write something. A lot of people pass on them, so you might have a better shot at winning something.

Don't expect this to be lucrative enough to become a job. Yes, a lot of us win, and often, but not nearly enough to quit a job!

Expect things to go slow at first. It takes a while for the wins to roll in. But once they do...look out!

Expect to occasionally hit a dry spell. It happens to ALL of us.

DEFINITELY USE YOUR REAL INFO! If you use a fake phone number, and a sponsor is calling to notify people of wins, you'll never know what you missed out on. I, and many others, have been doing this for a long time, and we have no problems with sales calls. Also, use your real name. If your name is Robert or Catherine, using Bob or Cathy is ok, as they are known acceptable shorter versions of that name. if your name is Matilda, and you go by Fluffy, don't use Fluffy. Looking at your ID to get an affy notarized, they may reject it because the names don't match. The sponsor may also say "Fluffy won, not Matilda". So stick with using your real name, or something close to it.

Most of all, HAVE FUN! And don't be afraid to ask questions. We were all new to this at one time. Any one of us would be happy to answer questions.


For easy form filling, check out Roboform [roboform.com]. Google Tool bar and the autofill feature on IE also work well.

For Mac users, the best form filler is 1Password: http://agilewebsolutions.com/products/1Password (thanks javaFlower!)

FireFox Form Filler browser extensions: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/...ll&cat=all

To set up the autofill feature in IE: Click on Tools, then internet options, then choose 'content'. When that pops up, click on "Autocomplete", and make sure to check the boxes for forms and passwords on forms. This is not a good idea if you are on a shared/public computer!

February 17, 2009, 3:10 am: System Notice: This thread has been automatically renewed after reaching a post limit. Most of its content has been moved to this thread for reference purposes.

July 12, 2010, 3:23 pm: System Notice: This thread has been automatically renewed after reaching a post limit. Most of its content has been moved to this thread for reference purposes.

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Apr 15, 2012 08:08 PM
561 Posts
Joined Aug 2011
maxximilianApr 15, 2012 08:08 PM
561 Posts
Hiya,

Just a general question about how the forum operates....what exactly constitutes "bad content" in the thumbs voting scheme?

More specifically, I have posted 4 or 5 sweeps here and they have been well-received for the most part, but I also noticed a few thumbs down for bad content. When a I see a thumbs down, I go back and check the site rules to make sure I didn't miss anything that would indicate a scam or something. I do this at first, but don't discount that I could miss something. Anyway, I don't see any red flags when I go back. Take the case of the Star Trek autograph cast photo sweep I posted yesterday. I saw two "bad content" votes and I can't see the problem with it. The FB site is the official Star Trek site with 1.9 million fans....so it's not a scam site. The entry is pretty painless with a single shot instead of daily hoops to jump through. What's bad about that?

Still trying to get my bearings here at SD.....
Apr 15, 2012 08:46 PM
118,455 Posts
Joined May 2006
implodeApr 15, 2012 08:46 PM
118,455 Posts
Quote from maxximilian :
Hiya,

Just a general question about how the forum operates....what exactly constitutes "bad content" in the thumbs voting scheme?

More specifically, I have posted 4 or 5 sweeps here and they have been well-received for the most part, but I also noticed a few thumbs down for bad content. When a I see a thumbs down, I go back and check the site rules to make sure I didn't miss anything that would indicate a scam or something. I do this at first, but don't discount that I could miss something. Anyway, I don't see any red flags when I go back. Take the case of the Star Trek autograph cast photo sweep I posted yesterday. I saw two "bad content" votes and I can't see the problem with it. The FB site is the official Star Trek site with 1.9 million fans....so it's not a scam site. The entry is pretty painless with a single shot instead of daily hoops to jump through. What's bad about that?

Still trying to get my bearings here at SD.....
People can give a thumbs down for any reason they want, no rules governing the voting system here. I often thumbs down things I think are a scam.

No clue what your situation was about...sometimes people here are just rather rude.

Edit: hmmm perhaps, its about unrealistic retail value on the item in question.
Apr 15, 2012 09:41 PM
561 Posts
Joined Aug 2011
maxximilianApr 15, 2012 09:41 PM
561 Posts
Quote from implode :
People can give a thumbs down for any reason they want, no rules governing the voting system here. I often thumbs down things I think are a scam.

No clue what your situation was about...sometimes people here are just rather rude.

Edit: hmmm perhaps, its about unrealistic retail value on the item in question.
Now that you mention it. I thought the value to be set rather high myself....but I don't know collectables. Didn't think it rose to "bad content" level of over-pricing though.

Now that I am curious about this system, I went checked other poster's sweeps and noticed the same thing. Good solid sweeps, no scam, good prizes, easy entry, etc....and always someone turning up their nose at it. Weird....
Apr 15, 2012 10:47 PM
118,455 Posts
Joined May 2006
implodeApr 15, 2012 10:47 PM
118,455 Posts
Quote from maxximilian :
Now that you mention it. I thought the value to be set rather high myself....but I don't know collectables. Didn't think it rose to "bad content" level of over-pricing though.

Now that I am curious about this system, I went checked other poster's sweeps and noticed the same thing. Good solid sweeps, no scam, good prizes, easy entry, etc....and always someone turning up their nose at it. Weird....
Perhaps they should leave the thumbs up/down system for deals...if a contest is worth dissing, you should give a reason for dislike in the thread itself.

Think something is a scam, say so...think something isn't intended for sweepers as its private contest say so.
Apr 15, 2012 11:02 PM
561 Posts
Joined Aug 2011
maxximilianApr 15, 2012 11:02 PM
561 Posts
I don't completely rely on the thumb system....but I do take it into consideration when deciding if a sweep is legit or not. I will just have to remember that thumbs down can be arbitrary sometimes. I agree....if you have information that a sweep is bad, thumbing it doesn't help much. Post and explain what is wrong with it and help out the other members.
Apr 16, 2012 04:55 AM
26,018 Posts
Joined Dec 2010
User1144648Apr 16, 2012 04:55 AM
26,018 Posts
Quote from maxximilian :
Now that I am curious about this system, I went checked other poster's sweeps and noticed the same thing. Good solid sweeps, no scam, good prizes, easy entry, etc....and always someone turning up their nose at it. Weird....
Lots of great people on SD, but along with them comes the a-holes....fact of life I guess.

There is at least one (and probably more) "ninja thumbs-downer" who routinely blows through the C&S forum, giving a TD to every single thread - all legit sweeps that people have taken time finding & put effort into sharing with the SD community. Used to bug me when I first started posting sweeps, but don't let it get to me anymore.

Just ignore the jerks who seem to get a cheap thrill giving a thread a TD & use your own judgement as to whether you'll enter a sweeps or not. If you're unsure, won't hurt anything to post your questions/doubts here & get some advice from more experienced sweepers.

Have fun & good luck sweeping!
Apr 16, 2012 03:03 PM
561 Posts
Joined Aug 2011
maxximilianApr 16, 2012 03:03 PM
561 Posts
Thanks for the replies. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't posting bad sweeps. I have many more up thumbs than down ones, so I won't worry about my screening procedure too much. I do try to check them out thoroughly first. Smilie

As for chronic down-thumbing.....that's a good way to get yourself banned. Each of those clicks are recorded and easily searchable in the database with a simple query.

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Apr 16, 2012 03:24 PM
118,455 Posts
Joined May 2006
implodeApr 16, 2012 03:24 PM
118,455 Posts
Anyone use UPS my choice alerts:
http://www.ups.com/mychoice/

Really really cool service, they send you alerts letting you know when something ships to you. But better then that, sweepers often don't know about packages because senders don't tell them. This lets you know when lazy judging agencies don't tell you you are a winner.

Thought I would mention this here, as its a FREE service many of us could us.

Quote from maxximilian :
Thanks for the replies. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't posting bad sweeps. I have many more up thumbs than down ones, so I won't worry about my screening procedure too much. I do try to check them out thoroughly first. Smilie

As for chronic down-thumbing.....that's a good way to get yourself banned. Each of those clicks are recorded and easily searchable in the database with a simple query.
Doubt anyone gets banned for that, its within the rules of the site to be a critic.
Apr 16, 2012 04:03 PM
744 Posts
Joined Nov 2008
mike34Apr 16, 2012 04:03 PM
744 Posts
Quote from implode :
Anyone use UPS my choice alerts:
http://www.ups.com/mychoice/

Really really cool service, they send you alerts letting you know when something ships to you. But better then that, sweepers often don't know about packages because senders don't tell them. This lets you know when lazy judging agencies don't tell you you are a winner.

Thought I would mention this here, as its a FREE service many of us could us.
Interesting service. I was a little freaked out by the security questions they asked to verify my identity though. The month my sister was born (asked using her full, married name), city of the address I shared with my father, etc. Where did they get this info with just my name and birth date?
Apr 16, 2012 05:23 PM
87 Posts
Joined Jan 2012
dustdivaApr 16, 2012 05:23 PM
87 Posts
Quote from mike34 :
Interesting service. I was a little freaked out by the security questions they asked to verify my identity though. The month my sister was born (asked using her full, married name), city of the address I shared with my father, etc. Where did they get this info with just my name and birth date?
Do a PIPL search on yourself. You will be amazed at what you see. I am very fortunate as I have a very common name (I married a guy with a common name). It is harder to find me, yet it is all there, age, previous addresses, kids names, etc.
Apr 16, 2012 06:51 PM
87 Posts
Joined Jan 2012
dustdivaApr 16, 2012 06:51 PM
87 Posts
PAZSAZ - Has anyone ever won any of their sweeps? Looks like they have them on a regular basis but cannot find anyone on SD claiming they have won. Wondering if it is another "Don't Waste Your Time".
Apr 16, 2012 07:15 PM
118,455 Posts
Joined May 2006
implodeApr 16, 2012 07:15 PM
118,455 Posts
Quote from dustdiva :
PAZSAZ - Has anyone ever won any of their sweeps? Looks like they have them on a regular basis but cannot find anyone on SD claiming they have won. Wondering if it is another "Don't Waste Your Time".
Nope. But long entry period for a single prize, doesn't breed a ton of winners either.
Apr 17, 2012 04:49 PM
237 Posts
Joined Jul 2010
DealNinja84Apr 17, 2012 04:49 PM
237 Posts
Is there a place on here to share links to facebook contests. You know the ones with the most "likes" wins?
Apr 17, 2012 05:04 PM
118,455 Posts
Joined May 2006
implodeApr 17, 2012 05:04 PM
118,455 Posts
Quote from DealNinja84 :
Is there a place on here to share links to facebook contests. You know the ones with the most "likes" wins?
Referrals are strictly forbidden here...

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Apr 17, 2012 05:22 PM
248 Posts
Joined Apr 2008
theviper21Apr 17, 2012 05:22 PM
248 Posts
Quote from implode :
Anyone use UPS my choice alerts:
http://www.ups.com/mychoice/

Really really cool service, they send you alerts letting you know when something ships to you. But better then that, sweepers often don't know about packages because senders don't tell them. This lets you know when lazy judging agencies don't tell you you are a winner.

Thought I would mention this here, as its a FREE service many of us could us.



Doubt anyone gets banned for that, its within the rules of the site to be a critic.
Thanks for posting the UPS info! I'd heard about alerts, but wasn't sure how you signed up for it.

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