Today I’m going to keep YOU in the flow of the general structure of winning a sweepstakes prize.

Almost every sweepstakes in the U.S. that offers prizes valued at $600 or greater will typically follow the following structure outlining the lifetime of a sweepstakes:

SPONSOR PROMOTION

• Creating the sweepstakes promotion for a sponsor or sponsors
• Advertising the sweepstakes, prize structure, and the official rules
• Opening date for receiving entries
• Closing date for receiving entries
• Drawing date to judge winning entries

WINNER NOTIFICATION

• Sweepstakes promotion judges contacting prize winner
• Winner filing publicity release with sponsor's sweepstakes promotion agency
• Winner filing affidavit of eligibility (compliance with official rules) with sponsor's sweepstakes promotion agency
• Winner filling any required federal or state tax forms with sponsor's sweepstakes promotion agency

WINNER RECEIVES PRIZE

By law, the sponsors of sweepstakes must not require the prize winners to pay any shipping or handing charges in order to win or receive their prizes.

Sweepers frequently send out SASE (self addressed, stamped envelopes) to receive free game pieces, official entry forms, and copies of the official rules that are unique and pertaining to individual sweepstakes promotions.

What are the best sweepstakes to enter? There are so many sweepstakes out there, and you or I can't enter all of them every day. Of course, we'd prefer to spend our time entering the sweepstakes that we’re most likely to win. So how can you or I decide which are the best sweepstakes to enter, and which have the best odds of winning? In general, you can say that there are three aspects of any sweepstakes that can increase your chances of winning: 1) fewer competing entries 2) boost your number of entries 2) Better odds and 3) Prizes

FEWER COMPETING ENTRIES

Some sweepstakes have an astonishingly low number of entries. When you have a 1 in 50 chance of winning as opposed to a 1 in 50,000, your odds are obviously much better. So how can you tell if a sweepstake has a lower than average number of entries? While it's impossible to know for sure how many entries a sponsor has received, we can make a guess based on the sweepstakes rules. A sweepstake that is void in Florida automatically rules out the 18,089,888 residents of that state (based on the 2006 population estimate). The more states that are prohibited, the more your chances rise (assuming, of course, that you are not a resident of any of those states!) Sweepstakes that are only open to your local area have the best chances of winning. Similarly, a sweepstake that is only open to men rules out roughly 50% of your competition (or more, since a lot of women enter sweepstakes!)

In general, some signs that a sweepstake will have fewer entrants include:

• Entry is restricted on the basis of state of residence, age, gender, etc.
• The sweepstake is annoying to enter - it has a long survey, for example, or requires multi-page registration. Not everyone will bother with it.
• Some element of skill is required to enter. Fewer people even attempt to enter video, writing, photography, or poetry contests.
• The prizes are attractive only to a certain subset of people - for example, a gift certificate to a local restaurant, or a high-tech gadget that only engineers will understand or crave.

BETTER ODDS

The best sweepstakes odds come when you can get more entries than other people. For example, most people don't really enter daily sweepstakes every single day. If you are diligent about entering daily, your chances will rise. You can get the best odds of winning sweepstakes by:

• Entering the maximum number of times specified in the rules
• Using sweepstakes referrals when available.
• Keeping your eyes open for other chances to get extra entries that the sponsor may offer. Some will give extra chances to win for watching an advertisement or completing a survey.

BEST SWEEPSTAKES OFFER MORE PRIZES

The best sweepstakes to enter for really high chances are those that offer a lot of prizes. Sweepstakes that are giving away 100 prizes have 100 times the odds of winning compared to those giving away just one prize. Even if the prizes have a lower value, the motivation that comes with winning makes them worth entering. While I love to win high-value sweepstakes, it's those little prizes which arrive frequently that keep me energized to enter every day.

SWEEPSTAKES WITH POOR ODDS

Some sweepstakes generally have quite low odds of winning. If the prize is good enough it might be worth the long shot (for me personally, the HGTV Dream Home Giveaway is a good example!), but it's generally a better bet to focus your efforts elsewhere. Some of these types of sweepstakes include:

• Creative Presentations
• Sweepstakes that are advertised across the nation.
• Sweepstakes with few prizes awarded.
• Giveaways with a very long entry period.
• Contests with unlimited entries
• Prizes that are not guaranteed to be awarded

By comparing these three aspects of each giveaway, you can decide which are the best sweepstakes to enter, and focus your energy on winning more prizes.

I wish all of you lots of Luck and I hope this information will help YOU to be a winner!

 

Shirl