Entering contests. Do you do it? What have you won?

I was inspired to write this blog because I won a prize in a recent contest. Nothing major but I did win. I won a TAG reading system from the Wendy's Learning Adventure Sweepstakes. I've won prizes in other contest before.

The biggest prize I think I ever won was roughly about 7 years ago. I used to be a huge fan of Mystic flavored spring waters. Does anyone else remember those? Anyway, they had a contest that I entered online. I had pretty much forgotten about the contest when I got a letter in the mail saying I had one 1st prize (NOT the grand prize unfortunately, grand prize was something like $10,000) But I digress. I had won a year's supply of Mystic and a Mystic T-shirt.

The point of me telling you this is not to brag but make a point. I'm telling one of my coworkers about my recent win of the TAG reading system. She says "you're so lucky I never win anything". Lucky, no i don't think so. I think the law of averages falls into place somewhere.

For anyone that knows even a little bit about me, I love to enter contests and I'm not afraid to get free samples (and tell people about them)

You're odds increase the more you enter. Some contests allow you to enter daily, weekly, monthly or only once. There are many great sites out there that offer a list of great sweeps and contests. Some of the ones I enjoy using are:

www.mysavings.com this one is also a great free sample site

www.sweepstakestoday.com
this site allow you to easily re-enter contests.


There are also other websites that offer great contests such as:
www.sheknows.com
www.womansday.com
www.madberries.com

Personally I must enter 100s of contests a year. So if I win one or 2 things a year I'm really not THAT lucky. A lot of sites make it easy for you to re-enter as well. Google tool bar offer an autofill button on their bar. There is also something called "roboform" available online that i've heard many people use. I personally don't but mostly because I like the google autofill. I've never won the big prize in a contest but I'm working on it :-)

Also a little more rewarding is Online Instant Win contests or IWGs.
www.myinstantwin.com
While it doesn't seem to be that they are updating the main page of the site you can go into the forums and find many instant win games. Often there are lots of prizes being given away in these games and you'll have better odds of winning something. I've won things like: free wendy's frosty's, a $50 amex gift card from Kraft, free m&ms for the mars halloween IWG they do, and more from contests like these.

Most online contests are free to enter. If the contests requires a code from a package purchase check the rules. Often times they will offer an alternative entry method or list a "free code" in the rules.

Also as a matter of courtesy. I don't enter contests if I'm really not interested in the prize. For instance, I would never enter a contest for something like free sky diving lessons, or "spend the day with _______ football player ( i wouldn't even know what to say) or something like that. Not for me, but I'm sure there are people out there that would truely enjoy that.