Before becoming involved with online competitions as a job, I had always wondered whether it was worth entering them and whether I could ever actually win. Since starting to run a company that is all about allowing people to win a holiday, I have done a lot more research into competitions. I ran a competition on my personal blog and I've even entered a few myself! The results have been a revelation! The main lesson I've learned is that somebody has to win. Admittedly, it's not usually me. That said, even I won something!
Competitions are a great way for businesses to promote themselves and their products. Despite running a competition website, it was still worthwhile running a separate competition in an online magazine to let people know about our company. Running a competition can often work out cheaper than placing a standard advert, which allows you to spend a decent amount of money on purchasing a great prize.
Often, in order to enter a competition, you will have to answer a question. To do so correctly, you may have to do some research on the relevant website. This is great for the business that is running the competition because it increases knowledge and awareness about their product. It can also be great for the consumer. If you enter only competitions that have prizes that you want to win then you may hear of a product, service or company that you love and you would otherwise never have heard of.
You can increase your chances of winning competitions both by entering lots of them, and by seeking out those with few entrants. A lot of people who do competitions regularly will enter regardless of whether they want the prize. Many will then sell whatever they win and may even make a living out of doing so. Personally, unless this is your main income or an essential way of supplementing your income, I would only advise entering competitions that you want to win. Leave the other prizes for somebody that really wants them.
You can find lists of competitions on dedicated competition websites. Often, they will show you how many people have viewed that competition on their site. It then becomes easy to spot those that will have less entries. If you have your heart set on winning a car, or you only want to win a holiday, a large amount of cash or another expensive prize, your odds of winning decrease dramatically. For these high value prizes, don't rule out competitions that you have to pay to enter such as lowest unique bid auctions or lotteries. These will have less entrants and, with lowest unique bid auctions, you have a little more control over whether you win because you have to exercise skill as well as pinch of luck.
If you are interested in winning lower value prizes, it is a great idea to read and follow a few blogs. Bloggers are often asked by companies to give away some great prizes so if you follow a few blogs that write about topics that incorporate the prizes you would like to win, you might be lucky enough to spot a relevant competition. Blog competitions will usually have notably fewer entries and, additionally, you can often enter multiple times.
I must also touch on instant-win competitions. I had read a blog by somebody who did competitions for a living and they mentioned that they had won a prize on an instant win competition through a Facebook page. All you had to do is like the page and play a little computer game. I had a few goes and I soon managed to win a couple of baby beakers. This was a low value prize, but I would have bought some anyway. They posted them to me free of charge and they're great quality, they immediately became my one-year-old daughter's favorite cups.
As for me? I'm a convert. I will keep looking for competitions where a bit of skill is involved because less people are likely to enter. Who knows, I might have a big win one day!
