End of Month

Goodluck to everyone today, whatever your deadline is!

Meanwhile...

Rafflecopter

Ah, Rafflecopter competitions!

What I love about them is:

• you can see how big the entry pool is 
• they are easy to enter
• multiple entries are often available

The downsides?

• When the promoter requires entrants to 'like' each and every sponsor (all 100 of them)
• When there is a great prize on offer...but you are unable to enter because your facebook account is disabled from liking too many pages (usually from previous rafflecopter comps!)

Rafflecopter comps.  What are your thoughts?

The importance of sticking at it

Every now and then a 'Competition Winners' segment in shown on Australian TV.

Generally these segments are positive and show how rewarding comping can be...however, the one criticism I always hear from fellow compers is, "They make it look so easy!  They never say how much time and effort goes into it!"

And I tend to agree.

While I believe that there are definitely certain strategies that increase the odds of a win (and this article has some of my favourite tips), the best advice I always give to people starting out is to enter, enter, enter!



What do you think about 'Competition winners' segments on TV?

Online Comping clubs for Australians

A great way of finding competitions is via a competitions club or website.  There are several online competitions clubs and websites for Australians, which can basically be broken down into forums  and websites.

 - Forums are great for meeting like-minded people and discussing tips, sharing entries and discussing comping problems (missing prizes, scams etc).

 - Comping websites are often clearly set out, easy to navigate and good for people who just want to view competitions (but not things like offers, general chat, movie reviews etc)

Forums

OzBargain competitions

OzBargain is primarily a deals website, however it also has a fantastic competitions section.
The competition section is completely free to use, so you can view competitions without having to pay for a membership or make a donation, like some other websites and forums.

If you decide to become a member (it's free to join), you can change your settings to exclude international competitions for example.  You can also set reminders for daily competitions, or competitions that allow entries once a month etc.


Pros:

• There's a large list of competitions available, especially international competitions for those who are interested. 
• You can change your settings to exclude gleam and international competitions.
• Referrals for extra entries are permitted in the comments (just make sure you use the last person's before adding yours)
• OzBargain do not allow competitions that are run with the sole purpose of marketing.
• The site is transparent about who runs it, where it is based etc.
• You can register using any email address, including free web-based email, such as hotmail and gmail.
• It's a very friendly and supportive comping community.

Can you 'mark' competitions? Yes - if you're logged in you can mark a comp as 'Entered', 'Won', or 'Seen', and view a list of all of the competitions you've entered.

Cost: Membership is free but you can view competitions for free if you don't wish to join.

Privacy Policy: Yes

Lottos Competitions

Lottos is a forum-based site that has been around since 2000.  Created by Australian Andrew Lindner, it has an active member-base, and lists a large amount of competitions.  Lottos has an extensive list of competitions which can be sorted into various 'reports' (eg. Instant win competitions, mail-in competitions etc)

Pros:

• There's a large list of competitions, and they are usually posted very soon after the competition first appears online. 
• Lottos are very careful not to list competitions from promoters that ask for a lot of info and then engage in heavy marketing, such as planet 49 and Ola prizes.  They also have a list of 'banned' sites (from which competitions can't be posted).  
• The site is transparent about who runs it, where it is based etc.
• This is one of the better sites if you're looking for competitions that require purchases.
• You can register using any email address, including free web-based email, such as hotmail and gmail.

Can you 'mark' competitions? Yes - lottos has CompTracker, which allows you to mark competitions with a tick, cross etc.

Cost: Membership is AU$44 for 1 year, $82.50 for 2 years and $120 for 3 years.  There is a free 3-day trial available.

Privacy Policy: Yes

Websites

Competitions Guide is run by Craig and Helen Seitam.  It's a free site that lists competitions and also has a great blog that's worth reading for competition news, tips and articles.
Pros:

• The pages are clearly set out and easy to read, and featured competitions are clearly marked as such.
• Craig has worked as a promoter before, so has excellent information and knowledge about comping from a promoter's perspective.  
• The free ebook is great and definitely worth reading for those starting out (and for experienced compers too!).  There's some great information in there.

Cons: -

Can you 'mark' competitions: Yes
Cost: Free
Privacy Policy: Yes (Under Terms of Use)

Competitions.com.au is an good, easy-to-navigate comping website.  

Around 20 new competitions are added to the site per day, with the aim to build Australia's largest and most comprehensive competitions website.  It has a great list of competitions, and has a free guessing game for members (a $50 Giftcard is offered as a prize at the moment).

Pros:

•  Nice, clear layout.  Easy to navigate
•  The list of competitions can be filtered (eg. you can just select competitions open to your state)
•  A good selection of competitions listed.

Cons: -

Can you 'mark' competitions? Yes
Cost: Free
Privacy Policy: Yes

The Competitions


The Competitions is another great comping website.  It has a different layout to the others, with images attached to each listing.  It also clearly lists each competition title, and how many days are left to enter.

Pros:

•  I've noticed that this site often picks up a few competitions that aren't listed on other comping sites.
•  You can sort by category from the list (eg. 25 words or less competitions, Ending soon etc)

Cons: -

Cost: Free
Privacy Policy: Yes

Images of Comping: the 'Congratulations' email

I'm sure the promoters do this on purpose!