Why I love to enter competitions and have I ever won?

Almost 2 years ago I came across a video on YouTube from a certain lady called Di Coke. It was a prize unboxing video. Intrigued, I continued to watch the video and was amazed by the number of prizes she was winning from her hobby of entering competitions.

I’d entered the odd competition in the past but as a pessimist, I always thought they were a bit of a con and only a small percentage of competitions were genuine and had legitimate winners. In particular ever since OFCOM fined both ITV and BBC for unfair conduct when running competitions. I generally thought if they were cheating people out of winning at competitions then anyone can.

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ssimist,

I read the book, marked the pages that I knew I would need to refer back to. In particular how to google search for specific competitions. I then started to enter competitions again.

I soon found my feet and started to really enjoy it. I can quite happily say now it’s a much-loved hobby of mine again now. Negativity isn’t going to get me anywhere when entering competitions so with the change in my attitude I was on a roll.

much-loved

Firstly, you have to be in it to win it so, with my stubbornness in not entering any competitions in the past because of my assumptions that they were all fixed – that wasn’t going to get me anywhere because you have to be in them to win them right?. Secondly, you need to BELIEVE you can win and why shouldn’t you? You have as much chance as anyone else entering the competition (providing the competition is legit!)

BELIEVE
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Don’t get me wrong. I have seen my fair share of dodgy competitions in particular Facebook competitions from small businesses. By this, I mean not announcing winners and hoping that no one notices or selecting family members/friends as competition winners. I have also seen a lot of competitions being run incorrectly. For example, Facebook competitions. Did you know that it is against Facebook rules for a person running a competition to ask the entrees to share any of their content? Most people do not know this and will oblige in order to try and win the prize on offer.

When running a competition myself. I will always make it clear that sharing is not compulsory and not required for entry but will always explain that it does help my business to reach out and is much appreciated.
Personally. I will ALWAYS share a competition if the host is upfront about this. Ultimately the reason why the company is hosting a competition in the first place is to try and reach out to more potential new clients or followers.

Have I ever won?

Yes, I’ve won local competitions for small prizes and these are the ones I really do love because I absolutely love to help out small local businesses and although I’m at an advantage by winning and an item they are giving me for free. I will always thank them publicly on my personal and business accounts as well as leave a review about their products if I am able to. I will then go on to recommend them if I find that their products/services are good enough.

My biggest win to date is probably a pair of Premier League football tickets which I won with Cadburys. It is only recently (2019) that I have decided to take one comping as a hardcore hobby. I’ve created a competition wishlist on Pinterest which only I can see. I then spend an hour a night focusing on searching for competitions with the prizes I want and will enter them. After that, I head over to Facebook and search for local competitions and if I still have any willpower left I’ll head to Competition Database and see what’s ending soon over there.

League

I’m still trying to find out the most strategic way of doing it so that I am making the most use of my time. I struggle with remembering which competitions I’ve entered but I don’t want to write them down as this is the time that could be better spent entering the competitions. This is where Competition Database is useful as I can mark a competition as Entered. It will also give me all the statistics for competitions I’ve entered.

I really enjoy entering social media competitions the most and for me, they are the easiest to keep track of too. I’ve created a folder in my bookmarks section of my browser and within that folder, I have more relevant sections including ‘Comps entered’ and for every social media competition I enter I will save it here. I rename the competition starting with the end date.

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they are the easiest to keep track of too. I’ve created a folder in my bookmarks section of my browser and within that folder, I have more relevant

Once a week I can go through the ones that have ended and see if a winner has been announced. This is also a good way of making sure that they follow through with announcing a winner.

I’m also a member of many comping Facebook groups which offer so much encouragement, support and competitions details.

My dream prize?

My dream prize is a trip to Florida for my family. Simple.

If I were to win this prize and had to forfeit ever entering any competitions again I would do it in a heartbeat as my dream would be totally fulfilled. I even have Florida as a screen saver on my laptop because it encourages me to keep going. Thankfully I was extremely lucky to visit Florida 3 times as a child and I know how magical it is. It wasn’t until I was older and became a parent myself that I appreciate how lucky I was to have that opportunity and thankful to my parents for making it happen.

Florida

It’s certainly not something I could ever really afford and with my son being 14, I don’t want the opportunity to pass that he’s too old to come on holiday with his parents. My daughter is almost 8 and this is the perfect age for her to go so I am trying so hard to make it happen.

In February of this year, we entered the Faces For Florida competition that was being hosted by Heart FM. This is a very popular competition amongst the comping community. We worked so hard on the entry that we entered too late. Taking on board that Heart was looking for creative entries relevant to the competition we decided to go with a racing theme. Daytona Raceway in Orlando. We worked so hard on our creation we were gutted to have missed the deadline but we had SO much fun making it and there’s always next year. Here is our entry, albeit late.

My top tips for entering competitions:

wishlist

Low Entry

Time is comps
is comps

Create a separate Email address
CHECK YOUR SPAM!

Are you a comper? Have you thought about entering competitions as a hobby? What are your thoughts on competitions? Leave me a comment below. I’d love to hear your views.

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Are you a comper? Have you thought about entering competitions as a hobby? What are your thoughts on competitions? Leave me a comment below. I’d love to hear your views.

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning, at no extra additional cost to you I will earn a very small commission if you click through and proceed to make a purchase.

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning, at no extra additional cost to you I will earn a very small commission if you click through and proceed to make a purchase
Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning, at no extra additional cost to you I will earn a very small commission if you click through and proceed to make a purchase
.