Free Competitions - Dealing With The Financial Crisis

With the recent economic conditions affecting everyone's bank balance, people are seeking methods to save money and get something for nothing. We are now observing online a rise in cash-back sites, shopper rewards, discount vouchers and more and more free competitions. If you're like most of us you likely ignore that ice cream competition each time and fling the packaging in the garbage. But the internet has given compulsive competition enterers, or 'Compers', a much easier channel in which to submit entries and thus enhance their odds of winning vieprizes.

Given the economic squeeze it can be well worth having a go at these competitions as the prizes can be spectacular, ranging from vast sums of money to brand new cars right down to cinema tickets and free restaurant meals. With some dedication, perseverance and a bit of luck it's not all too difficult to win prizes in the multitude of free competitions out there as the number of entrants is relatively small in comparison to something like the national lottery. On the whole a committed strategy towards entering a variety of competitions should eventually reap rewards.

So you'd like to take a shot at winning that Carribbean island getaway, brand new vehicle or any one of today's gadgets and gizmos? Well the best place to begin is at any one of the online competition sites that aggregate hundreds of competitions such as UK Competitions or competitionsuk.net. These sites can save you hours of time combing the web searching for free competitions to enter and break up prizes by type so that you can easily decide on what to enter. These sites very often offer details on competition requirements whether they be aged limits, restrictions on the number of entries or your geographic location. Make sure you qualify first! Next it's time to work out how much effort you want to invest. Competition entries vary from easy questions to games, quizzes or slogans all of which demand a varying amount of thought and effort. In addition they may supply the answers to the competition questions so you don't even have to think about it! It's here where the real Compers shine as they realise that the more effort required the more chance they stand of winning! So if you are really serious and want to have even greater chances of winning then check out the offline competitions which are often listed beside the online ones. These are more arduous, often requiring mail to be posted to a PO box and you can imagine how many people don't take the time to buy stamps and post off entries. These can be the best for having good odds at winning worthwhile. If you've got kids then get them involved as there are a large number of children's competitions like the good old colouring-in competition and it's a fantastic way to bond with them.

Don't forget that competition holders are often marketers and they want something in return for the prize giveaways so you will need to provide some personal details like an address and email in order to enter which will generally receive some marketing collateral. So it's a good idea to set up a separate webmail account to receive the competition emails so you've got one location to check regularly to see if you're a winner!

Here's a couple of last tips to help you on your way to collecting your first prize from the hundreds of free competitions to be found online. Firstly, organise an RSS feed for the websites that post prizes regularly. If you're uncertain what an RSS feed is it is simply a method of receiving updated website content direct to your mail program or desktop. You can configure it to be notified of new competitions as soon as they go live on one of the competition websites. Secondly be cautious of competition scams! There are a number of malicious people out there waiting to take money from the unsuspecting Comper. Often this is seen in the form of a premium paid phone number that needs to be called to collect your prize at around £1.50 a minute which costs at least £10 before you give up. There are some more craftier hoaxes that we have found that may request Compers to make some kind of financial commitment, for example a poetry competition that promised that the winning poem would be printed on the first page of a poetry book that could be purchased in advance for £49.95. This funny example can be found on the Hoax Slayer site at hoax-slayer.com/poetry-scam.html.

So with a little diligence you can see that prizes from online competitions are very possible to win. You just need to organise your approach, roll up the sleeves and get entering! Good luck!