Tips for COMPETITIONS / CONTESTS / GIVEAWAYS!
I’m working away again and was going to post this last night but hey ho, the internet at the hotel decided not to work, and my mobile signal is pretty crap in this area, so I had no choice but to wait til this evening!
My post today is about COMPETITIONS! I’ve been doing competitions/contests/giveaways since about 10 years ago, and I’ve been hooked from my first ever win, which was 10 tickets to watch Westlife at Sunday Lagoon Theme Park in Malaysia. It was a phone-in radio competition, I had to go on-air and boy was I nervous! But the buzz I got when the DJs told me I’d won - that’s one feeling I’ll never ever forget, and the adrenaline still hits me whenever I get a big win these days.
Source Getty
That first win was when I was in Malaysia. And now I’m in the UK, this passion of mine is still going strong. My life still revolves around competitions :
WEEKLY GROCERY SHOP - Let’s say I wanted a box of tissues and always bought brand A, but if brand B had a competition going on, then brand B it was!
RADIO - I listen to as many radio stations as possible for a higher chance of winning. I listen at home, at work, and there was even a period when I listened while sleeping, and guess what, I did actually win around 2 am, twice, while half asleep!
TV, NEWSPAPER, MAGAZINES & ONLINE - As I said in my introductory post I live, eat, breathe competitions so I’m always on the look out here, there and everywhere!
I’d like to say that my hard work has paid off and here are a few of my memorable wins :
- Smartfortwo car (year-long competition through the weekly use of your debit card)
- Trip to the Grammy Awards (phone-in radio)
- Trip to Toronto to watch Christina Aguilera/Justin Timberlake’s concert (MTV online)
- 10-day trip to Australia (won a TV audition for a TV program)
- 7-night all-inclusive trip to Antigua (online radio website)
- 14-day cruise to the Caribbean (online radio website)
- 6-night trip to the Maldives (magazine)
- Trip to the Rio Olympics (Visa debit card)
- TV, Playstation 4 and Ipad Mini (simple fill-in form - found this during my weekly shop!)
- And so much more!
As STEEM holds regular competitions (I took part in one a couple of weeks back and won 1st prize, thanks to @cryptoctopos - NEW YEAR'S EVE PHOTO CONTEST, and I also enter @czechglobalhosts daily photo competition - 7 WORLD'S CONTINENTS PHOTO CHALLENGE, I thought I’d share 5 quick tips with you. This obviously can also be applied to other than STEEM competitions too!
JOIN ONLINE FORUMS
There are loads of these and a lot of them are free, find the one that suits you most (format etc). To me, I don’t think it’s really necessary joining paid forums as the free ones are just as good! An example of UK forums are Loquax or the one on MoneySavingExpert, and one example in Malaysia is MyPeraduan. There are also good Facebook groups, but of course, we’re waiting for the community group function on STEEM, and we could then start our own! I’m even going to persuade my fellow competition buddies to move across to STEEM. Win-win situation, wouldn’t you agree?
BE PICKY
There are a whole load of competitions for everyone to take part in but I always advise that we should only partake in those which offer prizes that we’d actually want ourselves or to gift to someone we know. Otherwise, be nice and let others win! I so believe in karma, and by choosing to forgo some of these, I then have more time to spend on the ones I really want - another win-win right?
ENTER CREATIVE COMPETITIONS
Creative competitions usually get a lower number of entrants, especially as it requires time and effort, so to me, the probability and chances of winning automatically increase, and I never say no when odds are on my side!
PERSISTENCE
Yes, this is extremely important and if at first you don’t succeed, try and try again! And I promise you, you’d be happy you did!
THANK THE PROMOTER
Whenever you win something, make it a point to thank the promoter and share the good news on social media. It’s just good manners, plus this gives further incentives to the promoters to run similar promotions again and again when they get a good response and more publicity! Yup, yet another win-win!