Preparing to Comp
Comping
There are many reasons why people enter online competitions or giveaways. My main interest started when I was unwell and had lots of spare time and unable to do much else and now I’m hooked.
Where it all started
My first taste of competitions was when; our honorary Aunt used to come by every week and bring sweets with her. One Saturday (when Freddos were only 10p! haha) they had a competition on the packaging. All of my siblings received the same sweets, but I clearly picked up the winning Freddo wrapper and it revealed that I had won a choice of Playstation game from the list, of which I selected ‘Crash Bash’ a game full of fun mini games for a maximum of 4 players. We had so much fun!
Years later in my teenage years, when we finally had access to the internet. I entered a free competition with Heart Radio online and I received a letter through the post saying I had won a large, flat screen Television and all I had to do was call the number in the letter. Being the sceptical person I generally am, I didn’t believe it and my mother rang for me, it all got arranged and to my surprise it turned up!
I then didn’t really enter much after that, I got together with my partner in my late teens, moved in with him, found myself a great job, got engaged and started our life together. Until illness hit, life became a lot more difficult and I felt so useless as I was finding it hard to work and sadly had to give up work. This is when I had a lot more time on my hands and started to hunt around for things to do that didn’t mean going out or I could do on fairly bad days and not be stuck just watching TV. That is when I found the comping world, I joined challenges, made friends and won some great things. I only entered the free competitions as we were living off one wage. I would enter for items that I would like, could use or could gift on special occasions to family and friends. One of my earlier wins was a young crafters magazine of which I actually chose to send to a little girl who had life long conditions on a children’s charity site, Post Pals, who was currently under the care of the hospital.
Preparing to start comping
To prepare to start comping, you need to think if there is anything you’d like to enter for in particular and if there is anything you will completely disregard. For me, spa breaks and holidays out of a certain radius is something I often give it a miss. Spas aren’t usually a thing that I would personally enjoy and it would depend on how long the holidays were, to how far I would go and if travel and what is included.
You need to decide this as then you won’t waste your time, as there are loads of competitions out there.
Make sure you know that wins are not guaranteed. Some people will enter 200 competitions and win 50 of them, which is a quarter, other people may only win 1 or 2, or might not even win any. So please don’t get your hopes up or think this is a form of a good income.
I find recording my wins to be helpful, just what I won and where from, if I get deflated it is good to look back on them to boost my comping mojo.
The only way I record what I have entered is on my chosen forum or website, by using their tick/entered features. You can find your own competitions, but it helps to choose a site that shares them and work through the ones you want to enter. There are a fair few sites out there, but stick to one at first. It will help you not get overwhelmed and it will help you keep track of what you have entered. Some competitions will disqualify you if you enter more than once, so good to keep track.
Some competitions you will already be able to see if you have already entered though like Gleam, Rafflecopter, most social media etc.
Money Saving Expert's, Competitions Time Forum
Feel free to join any, they were all free at the time of me posting, if you wouldn't mind using my referral code for Latest Deals, that would be amazing, thanks. Your details Now you need to decide what details you are happy to offer us for a potential win. I would say to set up an email address especially for competition entries, this is because some competitions ask you to sign up to their newsletters and although you can unsubscribe at any time, you will often need to be on their mailing list at the time the competition winner is selected. You want your email address to look as ‘normal’ as possible, like a genuine email address, so not ‘yourname.comping@whatnot’ so don’t add words like comping, comper, competitions, giveaways etc. just a simple standard email address works well. This is because some people or companies will not allow compers to win, as this may be classed as un-genuine or deceiving, but I don’t think they can disregard you if you entered the competition yourself with your genuine details.
You can also redirect emails with certain words included to a separate folder, so you receive an email containing 'Congrats' 'Congratulations' or even 'Winner' 'Selected' you can then scroll through that folder easier to see if you may have won, as the winning messaging will likely be in that folder. Always check your Junk/Spam mail though, you may get some genuine competition wins that make it into your Junk folder. You may choose to have another mobile purely for comping, maybe a pay as you go phone, but I’ve not had many more spam calls or postal mail than the average person and I’m happy to block, report or even change my number if really necessary. Always check that the entry information is necessary though, some competitions will have a box for a first name, last name, phone number, email and postal address BUT only your first name and email address is required. Many will also have a tick box for you to get more information from certain companies and a tick box for accepting terms and conditions, when only the terms and conditions box is required. They often have an asterisk/star* next to the required options. Whatever you do supply, it usually has to be your official name and details, as some competitions will ask for ID or proof (Rarely, but some may do, usually to check you are who you say you are and to make sure you are the required age) If your details are proven to be fake then they have the right to redraw.
You also need to work out if you are happy to use your personal social media, as Facebook specifically only allows users to have one account and it has to be set up with your actual name and details, otherwise they can close your account without warning or delete them. So check the terms of each site and decide if you want to use your personal accounts or set up a separate one, if terms and conditions of the sites allow. Although some competition hosts will only select those accounts that look genuine anyway.
Still to come: Comping (2) Types of Competitions
Comping (3) Tips and Tricks
Comping (4) Be Aware of Scams
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