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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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Nov 13, 2012 04:38 AM
1,430 Posts
Joined Sep 2010
mj025Nov 13, 2012 04:38 AM
1,430 Posts
Quote from SlickPickSlim :
Congrats! I'd go Verizon available 11/27 (AT&T's already available). Thanks for your bookmark system, btw. I've set it up exactly the same way, but for weeklys I begin it with "*Weekly mon", "*Weekly tues", etc so it sorts perfectly though date details following that differ.
Cool, I've wondered if anyone was using my system or not... I've made a couple changes, but nothing too drastic since posting that... One thing I do now is I have Daily - Regular and Daily folders... I realized some days when I was stretched for time I might not get thru all the giveaways, but it hit me that instant wins, and other giveaways that had daily drawings were more important to get in than getting one more entry in a drawing at the end. So now I have all the IWG, giveaways with daily prizes and perhaps a couple giveaways where I really want to get every possible entry into placed into the Daily folder which I do first, then I do Daily - Regular. On a day where I'm really busy, if I skip over the Daily - Regular I don't lose out on all those IWGs and such. Long running IWG's and daily drawing giveaways were suffering by being so far down the list when I couldn't get to them before.

Took me a day or two to sort the giveaways I was already doing into the two folders, but after that it is pretty easy to sort new ones as I bookmark them...

TY for the response about the phone, we'll see. I ruled out T-Mobile cause it is the only model without LTE. But wasn't sure about the others...

-MJ
Nov 14, 2012 12:33 AM
624 Posts
Joined Dec 2007
mmamminnaNov 14, 2012 12:33 AM
624 Posts
When you do FB sweeps and like the pages, will they honor the prize if you won and have un-liked them or I have to keep the pages liked till sweeps is over? TIA
Nov 14, 2012 03:41 AM
118,455 Posts
Joined May 2006
implodeNov 14, 2012 03:41 AM
118,455 Posts
Quote from mmamminna :
When you do FB sweeps and like the pages, will they honor the prize if you won and have un-liked them or I have to keep the pages liked till sweeps is over? TIA
A lot of FB promotions are not run very professionally. I've heard that if you so much as hide them in your feed you can get DQed, let alone unlike them.
Nov 14, 2012 04:06 AM
313 Posts
Joined Dec 2009
caitybatesNov 14, 2012 04:06 AM
313 Posts
Quote from implode :
A lot of FB promotions are not run very professionally. I've heard that if you so much as hide them in your feed you can get DQed, let alone unlike them.
How can they even tell that you've hid them in your feed?
Nov 14, 2012 04:19 AM
8,186 Posts
Joined Nov 2010
SweepToWinNov 14, 2012 04:19 AM
8,186 Posts
Quote from caitybates :
How can they even tell that you've hid them in your feed?
They can look . . . nod
Nov 14, 2012 04:50 AM
26,018 Posts
Joined Dec 2010
User1144648Nov 14, 2012 04:50 AM
26,018 Posts
Quote from mmamminna :
When you do FB sweeps and like the pages, will they honor the prize if you won and have un-liked them or I have to keep the pages liked till sweeps is over? TIA
Quote :
A lot of FB promotions are not run very professionally. I've heard that if you so much as hide them in your feed you can get DQed, let alone unlike them.
Quote from caitybates :
How can they even tell that you've hid them in your feed?
I was wondering the same thing. I just make sure to read the rules, since some pages require you to "like" their page up through the prize drawing, others don't. If it's unclear in the rules, I make sure to continue to "like" the page until the winner is announced.
Quote from sjmcneil :
They can look . . . nod
Don't think so.....you're the only one who can view your newsfeed.
Last edited by User1144648 November 13, 2012 at 08:55 PM.
Nov 14, 2012 04:55 AM
118,455 Posts
Joined May 2006
implodeNov 14, 2012 04:55 AM
118,455 Posts
Quote from MLx3 :
I was wondering the same thing. I just make sure to read the rules, since some pages require you to "like" their page up through the prize drawing, others don't.

Don't think so.....you're the only one who can view your newsfeed.
Nope they can view follower settings (in relation to them) for each person who follows them...they don't need to access your news feed at all to get that info.

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Nov 14, 2012 05:19 AM
26,018 Posts
Joined Dec 2010
User1144648Nov 14, 2012 05:19 AM
26,018 Posts
Quote from implode :
Nope they can view follower settings (in relation to them) for each person who follows them...they don't need to access your news feed at all to get that info.
Hmmm, not aware of that capability for pages. Know they can tell who likes their page, and if you've used an app on their page, they have access to your basic profile info, but don't think they have access to an individual's settings.

Where do you get your information? Do you administer a page? Or know someone who does?

Can a Page see my information if I like it?

Pages cannot see the profiles (timelines) of people who connect with them, only their profile picture and name. Pages also do not have access to a news feed with information about what the activity of the people who connect with them. Page admins, however, will be able to see anything you've made available as Public on your profile (timeline) by visiting your profile (timeline). Pages can communicate with people who like their Page by sending messages. Authenticated Pages may also post status updates, which may appear in the news feeds of people who like the Page.
Last edited by User1144648 November 13, 2012 at 09:37 PM.
Nov 14, 2012 06:10 AM
313 Posts
Joined Dec 2009
caitybatesNov 14, 2012 06:10 AM
313 Posts
Quote from MLx3 :
Hmmm, not aware of that capability for pages. Know they can tell who likes their page, and if you've used an app on their page, they have access to your basic profile info, but don't think they have access to an individual's settings.

Where do you get your information? Do you administer a page? Or know someone who does?

Can a Page see my information if I like it?

Pages cannot see the profiles (timelines) of people who connect with them, only their profile picture and name. Pages also do not have access to a news feed with information about what the activity of the people who connect with them. Page admins, however, will be able to see anything you've made available as Public on your profile (timeline) by visiting your profile (timeline). Pages can communicate with people who like their Page by sending messages. Authenticated Pages may also post status updates, which may appear in the news feeds of people who like the Page.
I administer a few pages and I just looked and wasn't able to see if people had hid me in their timelines.
Nov 14, 2012 06:20 AM
8,994 Posts
Joined Jan 2006
allyn9Nov 14, 2012 06:20 AM
8,994 Posts
Quote from implode :
Nope they can view follower settings (in relation to them) for each person who follows them...they don't need to access your news feed at all to get that info.
Quote from MLx3 :
I was wondering the same thing. I just make sure to read the rules, since some pages require you to "like" their page up through the prize drawing, others don't. If it's unclear in the rules, I make sure to continue to "like" the page until the winner is announced.

Don't think so.....you're the only one who can view your newsfeed.
I've got to agree with MLx3 on this one. I also know my daughter's been on her Facebook account when she's been home and she doesn't see everything of mine, and even if she goes to my homepage, she doesn't see the things I set for me only to see.
Nov 14, 2012 06:30 AM
26,018 Posts
Joined Dec 2010
User1144648Nov 14, 2012 06:30 AM
26,018 Posts
Quote from caitybates :
I administer a few pages and I just looked and wasn't able to see if people had hid me in their timelines.
Thank you for verifying that! I just knew pages didn't have access to individuals' settings.
Last edited by User1144648 November 13, 2012 at 10:34 PM.
Nov 14, 2012 07:27 PM
624 Posts
Joined Dec 2007
mmamminnaNov 14, 2012 07:27 PM
624 Posts
Quote from caitybates :
I administer a few pages and I just looked and wasn't able to see if people had hid me in their timelines.
Thanks for all the answers. So, what is the consensus?Keep them liked up until drawing? TIA
Nov 14, 2012 07:46 PM
26,018 Posts
Joined Dec 2010
User1144648Nov 14, 2012 07:46 PM
26,018 Posts
Quote from mmamminna :
Thanks for all the answers. So, what is the consensus?Keep them liked up until drawing? TIA
That's what I do, just in case.
Nov 15, 2012 06:01 PM
4,688 Posts
Joined Jan 2006
STPATTY3172000Nov 15, 2012 06:01 PM
4,688 Posts
Got my first affy and sent it back, so I guess it's OK to announce that I won the Bottom Dollar contest on Facebook, the prize is a $500 gift card! Biggest win to date!

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Nov 15, 2012 07:56 PM
118,455 Posts
Joined May 2006
implodeNov 15, 2012 07:56 PM
118,455 Posts
Quote from STPATTY3172000 :
Got my first affy and sent it back, so I guess it's OK to announce that I won the Bottom Dollar contest on Facebook, the prize is a $500 gift card! Biggest win to date!
Congrats, hope you are quick to break your new record for size of win.

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