Some Comping Hints & Tips

stellajose

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Queen and me are delighted to be helping out by finding competitions, posting them, enjoying a chat about what we've won or what other exciting things have gone on. If you want to add a competition yourself, please use the format "E: 19/11 Win a Lunchbox" or whatever. This helps other users to find competitions that are ending on a specific day, or competitions for items they want to win.

Finding competitions

As mentioned, you can search for competitions by name or end date. Many competitions include the business also, so these would also show up in a search.

Winning prizes

Comping is a hobby more than a way of guaranteeing substantial prize wins, but the wins do come.

For the matched betters around us, it's similar to RTP. If you enter 1,000 competitions a week and on average, 1,000 people enter them, with only one winner, then you are pretty much expected to win one prize per week. However, this depends on what you enter. Some competitions have far fewer entrants, some have more than one prize, and yeah, some have hundreds of thousands of entries. But the more you enter, the more you will win. It's as simple as that.

Different types of competitions


There are several different mediums by which competitions come. Social media competitions might be a good way to start out, if you’re new to comping, as there is less involved and most people already have a social media account.

Social media competitions

Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, among others, are an easy way for companies to get their competition, and thus their business, out to many people. Many groups of people already use social media, so they don’t mind clicking through to a page. A competition via this medium usually requires that you like, comment or share a specific competition post (or all three) and also like the company’s page, for Facebook, or for Twitter you may be asked to follow and retweet the competition. These generally take a few seconds to enter, so it’s not surprising that they are quite a popular entry method for people entering competitions, and even for a small prize, such as a hamper of shower gels, there will be around 1,500 entrants, rising to as many as 8,000 or more for more expensive or luxury prizes such as a holiday or cash.

Website entry
These types of competitions can be hosted by large companies such as ITV.com or smaller, personal webpages. The format is usually a form to fill in, often with an answer to give (the answer can be found by reading the competition itself, or reading around the site, but we will try to give the answers here if we know them). Sometimes you must register/log in to the website to be able to enter.

Blog entry
These tend to be smaller competitions, hosted by beauty bloggers or cooking bloggers, for example, and tend to be for prizes hosted by outside companies. E.g. a beauty blogger may host a competition for 1 of 5 Benefit Mascaras. They then require a comment, a visit to the host’s website, or any mixture of elements, in order for you to enter. Many of these types of competitions use Rafflecopter or suchlike, to enable you to have multiple methods of entry. They tend to be less popular than social media or website entry, because there is slightly more effort, and the prizes may be slightly smaller, e.g. for a blusher brush or a mug. But bear in mind that people can have more than one entry, so 200 people could have 2,000 entries, or something.

Email entry

Of all the free-to-enter comping routes, the email is probably the least popular. This type of entry usually involves you emailing a specific address with your answer to a question, your name and address and telephone number, and typing all of that does take a few more minutes than merely liking a page, so they are less popular. This is good news if you choose to enter these types though, as less entrants mean more chances of winning a prize. To save a little time, you could include your name and address as a signature in your email, and to prevent clogging up your main email, you could set up another that is exlusively for comping.

Some tips on winning!

We all like to win, and that’s why we’re doing this. It can be disheartening to see thousands of entrants for a prize, and you might think it will never be you, but if you enter the competitions, your turn will come. You will win!

1. So the number one tip is: enter as many competitions as you can!
2. Find the competitions you want to enter, by searching. And if you prefer to enter competitions on Facebook, for example, enter those first.
3. If you enter email competitions, consider having a signature with your name and address, etc. But if you do this, remember to delete it when you send a personal email, or one where you don’t want to give out your details.
4. Read the rules! If you have to be over 60 to enter, you are just wasting your time by entering.
5. It might be a good idea to get a separate email address, unless you’re prepared to receive a lot of ‘promotion’ emails. If you do this, remember to periodically check it.
6. Periodically and randomly google your own name, to check for any winnings.
7. Stay motivated by reading the “what have you won” threads.
8. Only enter competitions for things you would really like to win, or could make use of! If you don't know anyone with a baby, you're not going to benefit from winning a baby sling, and your "luck" could have won you something you might have really wanted instead.
9. Last but not least, have a go at the advent competitions. There are LOTS of prizes to be won, and almost everyone will win something.

Some handy tools and add-ons:
Roboform – this enables forms to be filled in at the touch of a button. If you use Chrome, though, this may be done for you also. There are other form fillers too, and they save a lot of time.

Thanks for reading and good luck!
 
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Jacobbarnard

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Thank you for the tips, but how do you know if a competition is legit? I've been entering competitions on the green site, but some of them don't look legit. How would you tell if a company is legit? Some competitions I've entered didn't look legit at first, but it turned out they were.

I currently use https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/ but it takes too long to keep checking, I've only been able to enter 21 competitions in the past 2-3 hours.

Should I only enter a competition if the website has an address on their website, but if I do that what if the address is fake?
 

Topaz

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[member=2593]Jacobbarnard[/member] You should be quite safe entering comps listed on the green site. If it wasn't a legit comp, it would get pulled very quickly. The majority of people who post comps on there can spot a scam comp a mile off, and if they don't somebody else very quickly will. I've never had a problem in all of the years that I've been using it.
 

Jacobbarnard

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Topaz said:
[member=2593]Jacobbarnard[/member] You should be quite safe entering comps listed on the green site . If it wasn't a legit comp, it would get pulled very quickly. The majority of people who post comps on there can spot a scam comp a mile off, and if they don't somebody else very quickly will. I've never had a problem in all of the years that I've been using it.

Hi, thank you, I understand that, but would you say this website is legit? http://www.eyeexperts.co.uk/ there was a competition on the green site for them, but on trustpilot, it's nothing, but bad reviews.
 

Topaz

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I seem to remember them doing a weekly draw many years back. If they have been around for 10 years, I would say they were a legit site and quite ok to enter a comp through. I have no idea what they are like to buy glasses from though. ;)
 

Jacobbarnard

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Topaz said:
I seem to remember them doing a weekly draw many years back. If they have been around for 10 years, I would say they were a legit site and quite ok to enter a comp through. I have no idea what they are like to buy glasses from though. ;)

Oh okay, most say they're scams now, maybe they were legit before.

There's no address, no reg number, nothing and bad reviews lol.

Okay I'll enter any comp on MoneySavingExpert, well any that has an address as I feel as if they're safer.
 

LeanneWils

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Hi,

The original post advises to have a go at Advent Comps...could someone point me in the right direction for these please? I have searched on here but had no joy.
Thanks in advance :)
 

Topaz

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Your best place to look for advents is on a dedicated competition forum. Personally, I like Loquax for entering advents. They are arranged in sections - web, facebook, twitter, Fafflecopter and blog. That way if you don't do social media, it's easy to skip them. They also have handy buttons next to each comp - entered today and hide. The entered today button resets at midnight each day, the hide button does what it says.

There are other sites that also list advents and I'm sure that people prefer the layout of others and will be along to tell you about them. It's just a case of looking and seeing which you like best and sticking to one so that you don't duplicate entries

Each year there are literally hundreds of daily advents and they can become overwhelming very quickly. Pick the ones that have the sort of prizes that you like, and if it all gets a bit too much, step away from the computer. Have fun and good luck :)
 

LeanneWils

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[member=224]Topaz[/member] thanks so much I will take a look this evening. I thought I had read somewhere that there was a thread on here for them but I must have misread.
Thanks again :)
 

Topaz

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I think there were some listed last year, but the sheer numbers of advents make it very difficult for just one or two people to keep it up to date on here. You could enter 24 hours a day and still not do them all!
 

HighHopes

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Some great tips thank you.

The year I was on maternity leave I entered competitions as a hobby. Roboform was a life saver and meant I was able to enter so many more competitions. It also becomes quite addictive, especially when you get unexpected parcels turn up on you doorstep. :D
 

Max

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Since there are so many competitions that require just email address, does anyone recommend making a new email just for competitions?
 

Topaz

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Since there are so many competitions that require just email address, does anyone recommend making a new email just for competitions?

You could, but personally I just stick with my usual one, because I'm bound to forget to check another account. I have a robust filter system set up, which helps to sort out the important stuff from the inevitable spam/newsletters that comping generates.
 

Thrifty Mum

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I tried doing this last year but never won anything! Lol. I want to get back in to it again as I read of people winning some good prizes. How many on average does everyone enter each day?
 

SparklyMum

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I enter about 30 per day. It takes no time at all with auto fill or just to retweet or share something on social media. I usually enter whilst I’m hanging around waiting for my girls to finish dance class! I’ve had several small wins (cinema tickets, massages) but I feel a big one is just around the corner!
 
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Anna

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I enter about 30 per day. It takes no time at all with auto fill or just to retweet or share something on social media. I usually enter whilst I’m hanging around waiting for my girls to finish dance class! I’ve had several small wins (cinema tickets, massages) but I feel a big one is just around the corner!

That's useful to know, I used to enter a similar number for some time but didn't win anything so gave up. I'm feeling motivated this year to get back into it!
 

Thrifty Mum

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I enter about 30 per day. It takes no time at all with auto fill or just to retweet or share something on social media. I usually enter whilst I’m hanging around waiting for my girls to finish dance class! I’ve had several small wins (cinema tickets, massages) but I feel a big one is just around the corner!

That's not too many then, I was thinking people entered 100s a day! I think I can mange 30 :)
 

Topaz

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I enter well over 100 each day and can still go weeks or months without a win. The general rule is that the harder it is to enter, the less people will do so. Some of my best prizes have been from effort comps, such as short stories, slogans or poems. I can't be asked to do the 'make a Pinterest board' type ones though. If you are doing 30 effort ones a day, then the chances of a win will be quite high. Local comps are also much lower entry - local papers for example. If you are just auto filling and moving on, then you may well have to enter thousands before a win arrives.
Comping as a hobby has really taken of in the last few years and big national comps can have tens of thousands of entries. But, having said that, if you don't enter, you can't win - I won a smartphone last Summer from a comp that had over 25,000 entries! :)
 
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cazkins

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I don't comp as regularly as I have in the past, probably because it started to feel like a fruitless endeavour, but I think I might up the effort again. Must admit that across years of comps, I can't really recall much in the way of wins... APART from a year's supply of Oyster Sauce! Yup, huge box full of the stuff. I don't even like oyster sauce so I made the local Chinese takeout happy giving it to them :)
 
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