For those who haven't noticed, I've been entering a lot of online competitions lately ('No, really?!' I hear you cry in astonishment). There are an astonishing amount of competitions and giveaways out there from businesses and bloggers all anxious to be noticed. The vast majority of us understand this and realise that businesses run competitions and giveaways in order to promote their business to new customers. This can be a far cheaper way of promotion than using traditional advertising methods; it is unlikely that your local corner shop is going to be able to afford to run an ad on television, but giving away a prize worth £50 to £100 is likely to draw more customers in through the door, providing people know about the competition. Getting people inside the door/on the web page is the first step towards them making a purchase.
I have seen numerous competitions online that are simply 'like and share/retweet' that have only been entered by a couple of dozen people at most. This is far more likely to be because people simply don't know about the competition, than because they don't want to enter. There are a variety of competition sites out there that not only list competitions for free, but in some cases will reward the person who notifies them of a previously unlisted competition, prize draw or giveaway. While many of these sites are free to join, some of them do charge subscribers - who usually receive a monthly magazine.
Some of the many competition listing sites include:
These are a mixture of pay and free-to-join competition listing sites, most of which I am a member myself. If you do an online search, you are likely to find hundreds more listing sites and competitions themselves. Most competition listing sites will encourage members to inform them about any new/unlisted competitions or prize draws, which they will then add to their lists - which is then seen by thousands of online compers.
Just a quick word of warning though: not all competitions are as above board as they may seem. There are scams out there that just want you to promote their product by sharing their page on social media sites, but never actually send out prizes to anyone. A comping friend of mine, Leanne, has started a 'known scams' page on her blog for people to add any companies are known to run scams. In addition, any company that does not comply with the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) requirements for running a competition in Britain can be reported to them for investigation. The rest of Leanne's blog is well worth reading, not only because she is a talented writer, but because she provides some excellent hints and tips in various posts. As she has quite possibly had more wins than any other comper I know, her advice is well worth reading!
The page that I have linked to for the ASA contains a number of in-site links to relevant information both for consumers and industry in relation to competitions, prize draws and giveaways. The information is well worth reading as it gives you the knowledge you require to be safe. Much of this information is repeated on the better competition listing sites.
Finally, good luck to everyone! I would love to hear about your comping wins, so make sure that you let me know. Hearing about everyone else's wins encourages me to keep going in those times that we all inevitably have where we don't win anything for a while.
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