What you need to know to win giveaways and sweepstakes. A definitive guide to finding, entering and winning online sweeps and giveaways. Resources and tips

1. give awaygat o r.co m http://giveawaygato r.co m/win-o nline-giveaways-and-sweepstakes/
The Online Sweepstakes and Giveaway Guide – How to enter
and win
by Steve Po ts
Want t o win giveaways and sweepst akes? This is t he ult imat e guide t o winning more of t en.
Sweepstakes and Giveaways are f ree and very easy to enter. I like to win prizes and I think you might like to
win prizes too. I want to share tips and strategies with you to help you win cool prizes in sweeps and
giveaways.
Today blogs and companies are running giveaways all the time. In f act there are so many giveaways going all
the time that participation on giveaways are actually very low. If you enter a giveaway on a blog chances are
that you are competing with f ewer than 300 other people f or the prize.
Consider the lottery. Millions of people enter the lottery and so your chances of winning are not very good
but if only a f ew hundred compete f or the prize your odds f or winning are actually very good.
T here are so many giveaways to enter that you could easily enter two or three giveaways a day dramatically
increasing your odds of winning something.
With so many giveaways and sweepstakes going all the time you can even af f ord to be picky about what you
want to enter. You could also go all out and enter every giveaway you come across.
Okay..so, if you go f or it and win prizes you don’t like what do you do? You can donate the prizes you don’t
want or you can make money f rom them by selling them on ebay. You can even stock pile them and give them
out a presents during the holidays or birthdays.
Let us get down to it.
If you don’t want t o read t he ent ire post f eel f ree t o jump t o f ollowing subject s:
Go t o – What are sweepst akes and giveaways
Go t o – How are t he winners picked f or Giveaways and Sweepst akes?

2. Go t o – What do you need t o ent er Sweeps and Giveaways?
Go t o – Where can I f ind Sweeps and Giveaways t o ent er?
Go t o – Being organized is very import ant t o winning
Go t o – Searching f or giveaways on Twit t er
Go t o – Video How t o use Pint erest t o gain ent ries in a Raf f lecopt er giveaway or
sweepst akes
Go t o – Video How t o use Twit t er t o gain ent ries in a Raf f lecopt er giveaway or
sweepst akes
Go t o – Video How t o use Facebook t o gain ent ries in a Raf f lecopt er giveaway or
sweepst akes
What are sweepst akes and giveaways?
Pe p s i Billio n Do llar G ive away Swe e p s take s lo g o wikip e d ia.o rg

3. Entries in the sweeps can be earned by
perf orming tasks such as Liking a company’s Facebook Page or Following them on Twitter.
A sweepstake or giveaway is run f or a predetermined time period. Flash giveaways can be as short as 1 hour
or 48 hours while the greater majority last f or 2 weeks to a month.
Your odds f or winning giveaways is directly related to the amount of entries you have in a giveaway. If you
were given 10 entries f or liking a Facebook Page and ten entries f or f ollowing a Twitter user you would have
20 entries. If I were to only f ollow the Twitter user and only have ten entries you would have twice the
chance of winning compared to me.
Sweepstakes or Giveaways winners are chosen at random meaning the winner is picked f rom all the entries
so it is possible to win a sweeps if you have only one valid entry.
Logically, you want to make sure you have all the available entries to stand the best chance of winning.
How are t he winners picked f or Giveaways and Sweepst akes?
Most online sweepstakes or giveaways are run with giveaway widgets or websites Raffle c o p te r
that have f ree tools available.
T he most common giveaway widget is Rafflecopter because it is easy
and available to all f or use. You also have Giveaway Tool.
Giveaway Tools is not available f or everybody to use. Access to the
tool is by invite only. I think it might have something to do with their
server capacity but I’m speculating.
Both these widgets are embedded into a giveaway post and can be G ive away To o ls
shared with many other bloggers or sites while collecting all the entries
on the user’s account. T he user or host simply has to use the “Pick a
winner” f unction on the site to let the site’s sof tware randomly pick a winner.
Random Picker is sometimes used to pick winners but the giveaway organizer or host has to enter the
participants names and the prizes on the site in order to pick a winner. Random picker does not collect
entries like Raf f lecopter and Giveaway Tools. Random Picker is just a random generator.
Random.org has a paid service that can be used to pick winners. I have not used Random.org’s paid service
but I have played with their True Random Number Service widget to settle arguments between the kids.
If there is only one cookie and all three kids want it I will let them pick numbers f rom 1 to 10 and use the
random number picker to pick a number. Who ever is closest wins. If it is a draw we run the numbers again. lol
Here is the Random number tool. You can change the High and Low numbers and run your own raf f les at
home.
What do you need t o ent er Sweeps and Giveaways?

4. Well Sweeps and giveaways are held with the intent to promote a company or a service so the company will
be looking f or you to Like them on Facebook or promote them by Tweeting about them.
T here are other social media sites that are popular too so I would recommend you sign up f or Facebook,
Twitter and Pinterest.
For the most part sweeps just want you to take part in the giveaway so you can learn a bit more about the
company but having you help promote them to your social media f ollowers, f riends and f amily is a bonus so
you will gain extra entries f or promoting the giveaway with your social media accounts.
It’s always recommended to enter as many options as possible in a giveaway so logically having as many
social media accounts to make use of will help you here.
Please make sure you read the rules to make sure but f or the most part sweeps and giveaways are f ree to
enter and you don’t have to purchase anything to qualif y. If there is an admittance f ee or a purchase
requirement, be wary, there are plenty of f ree opportunities available.
Where can I f ind Sweeps and giveaways t o ent er?
You are in luck because we have giveaways available on our sweepstakes blog right now.
T here are a number of other great sweepstakes sites available.
Wildf ireapp.com
Online sweepstakes
Sweepstakes Advantage
Prizey
Blog Giveaway Directory
CashNet Sweeps
Contest Alley
Contest Beat
Contests f or Moms
Prizeatron
Sweeps Goat
Contest Corner
Contest Chest
Giveaways 4 Prizes
Just Sweep
Contest Girl
Giveaway Scout
Sweepstakes Universe
TipJunkie
Searching f or giveaways on Twit t er

5. Twitter is a great resource f or sweepstakes and giveaways. Most
giveaways ask that the people that enter the giveaway Tweet about
the giveaway and they will almost always include the Hashtag
# giveaway in the Tweet. Simply searching f or the Hash tag on Twitter
will give you access to those giveaways.
Imag e re p re s e nting Twitte r as d e p ic te d in
Here is a widget you can use. I already f ormulated it to search Twitter c runc hb as e .c o m
f or #giveaway
Being Organized is very import ant t o winning
T he most important thing about sweeps and giveaways is gain as many entries as possible and being
organized helps you keep track of your sweeps and giveaways.
Being organized is incredibly important. you might enter so many sweeps that you f orget where to f ind half
of them. Go start a Google calendar and learn how to use it. (it’s easy really) a bit of practice and you will a
pro at it.
Add the giveaway to the calendar the day you enter it and enter the link to the giveaway so you can easily go
back to the giveaway right f rom the calendar. Set the start and end date right on the calendar.
If the giveaway has daily entries make sure you set a reminder f or each day the giveaway is live so you gain
all those daily entries.
Learn how to bookmark giveaways. You can create a f ile in your bookmarks and then add all your giveaways
that you are entering into that f ile. Keep the bookmarks organized by deleting the old giveaways.
We int erview a giveaway and sweepst akes vet eran
I managed to track down one of our readers that has been entering giveaways regularly on our Giveaway
Blog
I asked Laura M. if she would be so nice as to be interviewed f or this post and she agreed. While I was
interviewing Laura she got notif ied that she won an entire living room set f or her house. She must be onto
something or know something we don’t right?
Here is the interview.
GG Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself ?
Laura M. My name is Laura. I live in Indianapolis. I am a stay at home mommy of 3. I got into sweeps
and giveaways as a way to save a little money. I f igured since I’m not working anymore my job is to
save us some money!
GG. How long have you been entering online contests, giveaways and sweepstakes?
Laura M. I have been entering contests, sweeps, and giveaways f or about a year now. I started just
bef ore Christmas last to help with buying expensive gif ts!…it worked, I won almost our whole
Christmas, and it was HUGE!
GG How do you f ind giveaways and sweeps to enter? Do you search online? Do you have a list of
sites and blogs you f requent? Do you subscribe to any blogs or sites?
Laura M. I started f inding giveaways by ‘Liking’ my f avorite brands on FB, and entering when they
had giveaways. I then started f ollowing several parenting blogs (since I have kids!) and f ound that they
also of f ered giveaways. I always enter any giveaway I f ind, somebody has to win, it might as well be

6. me!
GG. If you had to estimate the value of all the prizes you have won what would the total value be in
dollars?
Laura M. I think so f ar I have won around $7,000-$10,000. I have won 3 Keurigs, Kindle Fire, Mohawk
Rug, Ashley living room set, Bissel Vacuum, Melissa and Doug Train Table, Black Pearl bracelet, a
Quinny Moodd stroller and so much more!
GG. Do you enter giveaways or sweeps only f or items you would like to have or do you enter any
and all giveaways sweeps randomly?
Laura M. I try to enter giveaways f or items that I want/need f irst. And then I enter f or random things.
Entering giveaways can be time consuming! I have to prioritize!
GG. If you win a prize that you don’t really have a use yet is valuable, would you consider selling it,
donating it or giving it to a f riend or f amily member as a gif t?
Laura M. If I win a prize that I don’t have a use f or it usually goes in my gif t closet…someone else
can probably use it! I have also donated items (especially baby items) to dif f erent causes, like
Hurricane Sandy relief !
GG. Do you have any tips or strategies to share that will help others win more of ten?
Laura M. T he best tip I have f or someone wanting to win is to NOT give up! I hear so many people
say ‘I never win so I’m not going to enter.’ T hat makes no sense! For every 1 contest that I win, I’m sure
there are hundreds that I didn’t! Start by using social media and f ollowing your f avorite brands, it might
take a while, but you will probably win if you enter enough! And be caref ul! Once you get that f irst win,
it becomes addicting!!!
Well there you have it f olks, the trick to winning is entering giveaways and sweepstakes.
I guess you could say it is like f ishing. You can’t catch a f ish if you don’t have a line in the water.
How t o use Pint erest t o gain ent ries in a Raf f lecopt er Giveaway or sweepst akes
Steve Pots on Staree
How t o use Twit t er t o gain ent ries in a Raf f lecopt er Giveaway or sweepst akes
Steve Pots on Staree
How t o use Facebook t o gain ent ries in a Raf f lecopt er giveaway or sweepst akes
Steve Pots on Staree
Re la t e d a rt icle s
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