Slickdeals is community-supported.  We may get paid by brands for deals, including promoted items.
forum threadFreebiesRGreat posted Jun 03, 2008 02:50 AM
  1. Deal Image
Item 1 of 1
forum threadFreebiesRGreat posted Jun 03, 2008 02:50 AM

Contests & Sweepstakes Tips, Advice, and Questions

Sears
9,848 Comments
2,361,034 Views
See Deal
Good Deal
Save
Share
Deal Details
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.

Community Voting

Deal Score
+99
Good Deal
See Deal

Leave a Comment

Unregistered (You)

9,849 Comments

Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.

Feb 19, 2013 12:46 PM
1,103 Posts
Joined May 2008
conehead433Feb 19, 2013 12:46 PM
1,103 Posts
Quote from grinny2222 :
My mom won $5,000 in giftcards from iw game but she used a ficticous first name and birthday. Eprize is asking for her name, ssn, e-mail and physical address and date of birth in a Declaration of Compliance, Liability & Publicity Release. No notary. Everything matches but her first name and birthday because she was scared of internet fraud and never expected to win such a huge prize. I told her she probably just blew $5000 down the drain. Does anyone know how they (eprize) will treat this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
This is how you disqualify yourself from a win. She may as well give up entering sweeps if she ever expects to win any significant prizes. The fact that they are not asking for a notarized affy isn't going to help. She'll be DQ'd when they run her SSN.
Feb 19, 2013 01:57 PM
5,152 Posts
Joined Oct 2008
SweepaholicFeb 19, 2013 01:57 PM
5,152 Posts
Quote from grinny2222 :
My mom won $5,000 in giftcards from iw game but she used a ficticous first name and birthday. Eprize is asking for her name, ssn, e-mail and physical address and date of birth in a Declaration of Compliance, Liability & Publicity Release. No notary. Everything matches but her first name and birthday because she was scared of internet fraud and never expected to win such a huge prize. I told her she probably just blew $5000 down the drain. Does anyone know how they (eprize) will treat this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I agree with conehead, for $5000 they are gonna verify her details and would most likely disqualify her.
Feb 19, 2013 03:23 PM
118,455 Posts
Joined May 2006
implodeFeb 19, 2013 03:23 PM
118,455 Posts
Quote from grinny2222 :
My mom won $5,000 in giftcards from iw game but she used a ficticous first name and birthday. Eprize is asking for her name, ssn, e-mail and physical address and date of birth in a Declaration of Compliance, Liability & Publicity Release. No notary. Everything matches but her first name and birthday because she was scared of internet fraud and never expected to win such a huge prize. I told her she probably just blew $5000 down the drain. Does anyone know how they (eprize) will treat this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Oh the irony committing internet fraud because you are scared of it. laugh out loud I'm sorry, but this seems like a lesson she will have to learn the hard way on. I'm guessing that is grounds for the loss of her win. Even worse, it may mean no one ends up being able to claim the prize--some sweeps don't re-award prizes. She may even have caused herself to be blacklisted from the worlds biggest prize fulfillment group.

My advice would be move on from this having learned a big lesson in life. Honesty is the best policy. Always enter for things you are qualified to do so on and always use accurate information. Anything else is committing fraud.
Feb 19, 2013 06:28 PM
6,323 Posts
Joined Sep 2006
KMAFeb 19, 2013 06:28 PM
6,323 Posts
Quote from grinny2222 :
My mom won $5,000 in giftcards from iw game but she used a ficticous first name and birthday. Eprize is asking for her name, ssn, e-mail and physical address and date of birth in a Declaration of Compliance, Liability & Publicity Release. No notary. Everything matches but her first name and birthday because she was scared of internet fraud and never expected to win such a huge prize. I told her she probably just blew $5000 down the drain. Does anyone know how they (eprize) will treat this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I would email them about it and state exactly what she did and why. If she's older that might gain sympathy/understanding about her fears, so she should include her age. But, before doing this, see what others say about my suggestion since I've no experience dealing with Eprize.
Feb 19, 2013 06:40 PM
5,152 Posts
Joined Oct 2008
SweepaholicFeb 19, 2013 06:40 PM
5,152 Posts
Quote from KMA :
I would email them about it and state exactly what she did and why. If she's older that might gain sympathy/understanding about her fears, so she should include her age. But, before doing this, see what others say about my suggestion since I've no experience dealing with Eprize.
Im pretty sure thats not going to matter to Eprize, the sweeps have rules that are to be followed and using incorrect name/personal information is one of them. Not only would she likely be disqualified as Implode said she risks being blacklisted. This isnt a tshirt or somthing its $5000!
Feb 19, 2013 10:23 PM
293 Posts
Joined Jan 2008
angelsolo3Feb 19, 2013 10:23 PM
293 Posts
Does anyone believe in good karma for posting contests? I have not won anything yet this year. I did pretty well last year and the year before. I have really increased posting sweeps (mostly for things that I really want!). Many of these are somewhat obscure that maybe people would not find without my posting it. Sometimes I want to keep them to myself but I never do because I hope the contest karma will pay off. Is it common to see smaller sweeps and not post them if you want to win them badly yourself? I'm not planning on doing that because I still hope it will pay off...

Happy sweeping!
Feb 19, 2013 11:07 PM
1,844 Posts
Joined Jun 2009
JangFeb 19, 2013 11:07 PM
1,844 Posts
Quote from angelsolo3 :
Does anyone believe in good karma for posting contests? I have not won anything yet this year. I did pretty well last year and the year before. I have really increased posting sweeps (mostly for things that I really want!). Many of these are somewhat obscure that maybe people would not find without my posting it. Sometimes I want to keep them to myself but I never do because I hope the contest karma will pay off. Is it common to see smaller sweeps and not post them if you want to win them badly yourself? I'm not planning on doing that because I still hope it will pay off...

Happy sweeping!

It'll pay off. Thanks for contributing and happy sweeping!

Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.

Feb 20, 2013 12:01 AM
318 Posts
Joined Dec 2011
bittripfanFeb 20, 2013 12:01 AM
318 Posts
Quote from angelsolo3 :
Does anyone believe in good karma for posting contests? I have not won anything yet this year. I did pretty well last year and the year before. I have really increased posting sweeps (mostly for things that I really want!). Many of these are somewhat obscure that maybe people would not find without my posting it. Sometimes I want to keep them to myself but I never do because I hope the contest karma will pay off. Is it common to see smaller sweeps and not post them if you want to win them badly yourself? I'm not planning on doing that because I still hope it will pay off...

Happy sweeping!
While I'm sure everyone appreciates when you post sweeps. There is no such thing as karma. If your losing time on entering time because your posting then maybe you should focus on entering before you post sweeps.
Feb 20, 2013 06:48 AM
100 Posts
Joined Aug 2012
BrewCityJamezFeb 20, 2013 06:48 AM
100 Posts
Does anyone else want to kick themselves in the head when they disqualify themselves from entering a one timer twice on accident? As hard as I try I simply can't keep track of every single swep I enter and the longer running ones always seem to get me. I click on it and sit there asking myself "Did I already enter this?" Then reluctantly enter to find out I already have.
Last edited by BrewCityJamez February 19, 2013 at 10:51 PM.
Feb 20, 2013 03:42 PM
118,455 Posts
Joined May 2006
implodeFeb 20, 2013 03:42 PM
118,455 Posts
Quote from BrewCityJamez :
Does anyone else want to kick themselves in the head when they disqualify themselves from entering a one timer twice on accident? As hard as I try I simply can't keep track of every single swep I enter and the longer running ones always seem to get me. I click on it and sit there asking myself "Did I already enter this?" Then reluctantly enter to find out I already have.
Nope on single entries, I usually mark the thread with a 'Thanks'. So site keeps track for me. On rare occurrences multiple versions may derail me. If I think something looks familiar I click the category icon for the website to see if other versions may exist as a fail safe. Works incredibly well.
Feb 20, 2013 04:48 PM
1,844 Posts
Joined Jun 2009
JangFeb 20, 2013 04:48 PM
1,844 Posts
Quote from BrewCityJamez :
Does anyone else want to kick themselves in the head when they disqualify themselves from entering a one timer twice on accident? As hard as I try I simply can't keep track of every single swep I enter and the longer running ones always seem to get me. I click on it and sit there asking myself "Did I already enter this?" Then reluctantly enter to find out I already have.

If it feels even a little like I've entered already, I check my history or just skip it. I'm sure I've disqualified myself several times though. The "once every 24 hours" ones can get me though because I don't enter at the same time every day.
Feb 20, 2013 04:55 PM
503 Posts
Joined Oct 2011
NodnetniFeb 20, 2013 04:55 PM
503 Posts
Quote from BrewCityJamez :
Does anyone else want to kick themselves in the head when they disqualify themselves from entering a one timer twice on accident? As hard as I try I simply can't keep track of every single swep I enter and the longer running ones always seem to get me. I click on it and sit there asking myself "Did I already enter this?" Then reluctantly enter to find out I already have.
I assume most don't actually disqualify you, unless you are varying your information. I know quite often if I accidentally enter a one timer twice it will simply state "You have already entered". I always assumed that it wasn't disqualifying me, just stating that I had already entered.

Maybe I am wrong, but I figured the only 1 entry did some kind of verification to make sure you weren't entering under multiple email addresses, if an entrant came up as to similar in information, then they were disqualified.

Maybe I assume to much....
Feb 20, 2013 05:30 PM
732 Posts
Joined Nov 2008
elangomattFeb 20, 2013 05:30 PM
732 Posts
Quote from Nodnetni :
I assume most don't actually disqualify you, unless you are varying your information. I know quite often if I accidentally enter a one timer twice it will simply state "You have already entered". I always assumed that it wasn't disqualifying me, just stating that I had already entered.

Maybe I am wrong, but I figured the only 1 entry did some kind of verification to make sure you weren't entering under multiple email addresses, if an entrant came up as to similar in information, then they were disqualified.

Maybe I assume to much....
I've always assumed the same thing Nodnetni. If I get the "you've already entered" message, then I assume I haven't been DQed since it checked to see if I've already entered. It's the ones that don't do any validation that I think are more likely to be DQed on since at the end they might look for more entries from the potential winner to see if they should be DQed.
Feb 20, 2013 06:17 PM
1,103 Posts
Joined May 2008
conehead433Feb 20, 2013 06:17 PM
1,103 Posts
I thought I had DQ'd myself in one single entry sweeps. I entered and the website didn't acknowledge my entry so I entered again with the same result. I contacted the sweeps administrator about the problem and whether I had DQ'd myself because of multiple entries. He said no that the extra entries just get discarded. They fixed the problem also. I think this is probably the case for almost all of the sweeps that have a multiple entry DQ clause. I know I've reentered a number of such sweeps after receiving an email from a sweepstakes I've already entered. Personally I don't worry about getting DQ'd from any of them.

Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.

Feb 22, 2013 09:26 AM
1,488 Posts
Joined Jan 2008
sammeedogFeb 22, 2013 09:26 AM
1,488 Posts
Eprize is definitely dropping the ball. I won a $1000 walmart card from MCR early december, signed affidavit, contest ended 12/31. I recieved prize January 11. I got a 1099 for it. I emailed them Monday, haven't heard anything yet.

Leave a Comment

Unregistered (You)

Related Searches

OtherKmartSears

Popular Deals

See All
Found by Red_Liz
Jun 11, 2026 01:28 PM
Forum Thread
Giantex 5-Tier Storage Pantry Organizer w/ Pegboard & Hutch (White) $75 + Free Shipping$75$150
50% off
0
Found by kenmikec
Today 05:07 PM
Forum Thread
Lowe's My Rewards Members: 10% off eligible puchase ($50 max) YMMV
4
Found by phoinix
Yesterday 01:29 PM
Forum Thread
[SnS, AC] $8.48* | 2 × 5.25oz Catalina Crunch Protein Snack Mix w/ Cheese Crisps (Spicy Kick) ($4.24 each) at Amazon$8.48$12
29% off
0
Found by Eragorn
Jun 10, 2026 08:59 PM
Forum Thread
65-Item Bigger Better Unreal Engine Assets Bundle (12,000+ Assets) $22$22$7,830
99% off
5
Found by EagerCreature883
Today 04:53 AM
Forum Thread
Garmin fēnix® 8 – 47mm, AMOLED, Premium Multisport GPS Smartwatch, Long-Lasting Battery Life, Dive-Rated, Built-in LED Flashlight, Slate Gray with Black Band $749.99$750$1,000
25% off
2

Trending Deals

See All
Found by phoinix
Yesterday 09:27 PM
Forum Thread
$89.99 | 12-Month Microsoft 365 Family Subscription at Woot!$90$130
30% off
14
Found by SickerDealer
Today 03:06 PM
Forum Thread
Extra 20% Off 3+ items: REI Outlet Member Clothing Deals
1
Found by JollyPickle276
Today 05:49 PM
Forum Thread
Sony WH-1000XM5 $199$199$278
28% off
4
Found by blue668
Today 03:21 PM
Forum Thread
Cert. Refurb: eufy 2K Outdoor Solar Security Cameras (SoloCam S230 * 3) $95 + Free Shipping$95$450
78% off
5
Found by Taco_Doomsday
Today 04:02 AM
Forum Thread
DEWALT FLEXVOLT 20V/60V MAX* 15.0Ah Battery $289$289$419
31% off
9