From The Contest Queen

Gyutae, the Winning the Web blogger, commented on my last posting. I emailed him back instead of posting a reply and I thought my answer was appropriate enough to post for everyone.

“The audience I write for are sweepstakers and they like to enter anything and everything. I am trying to get them to look at the promotion before they enter and unless they could really use the prize, enter elsewhere. This saves you from getting people subscribing that just delete your emails and they don’t get an inbox of useless information (to them) nor do they win a prize they can’t use allowing you to give it to someone who can.”

The reason I wrote the first posting is there has been an explosion of blog-based contests and I think this is the forum to discuss it. Also, in the U.S. all winners must pay income tax on their prizes, so it is very important to only enter contests and sweepstakes where you really want the prize, and are willing to pay the tax on it.

Check my Blogroll on the right to find links to blogs that list and/or host contests. You will find two types: 1) blogs that list contests with prizes of value to the general public, and 2) blogs that list contests with prizes of value to businesses, specifically those with an Internet focus. Sign-up for the RSS feed of those you find interesting and the contests will come to you.

I received an updated publication schedule from my printer for You Can’t Win If You Don’t Enter. Everything has been moved forward 2-3 weeks. Due to the slight delay, I have extended the pre-order period until April 15th. All orders received (or postmarked) by April 15th, 2008 will be autographed and shipped for FREE!

Order online.

Order by mail.

Furl Tags:
sweepstakes, contests, sweepstaking, contesting, sweeper, contestor, luck, lucky, win, winner

I have set up my RSS reader to collect new postings from contest blogs (see my Blogroll on the right side of blog home page) and marketing blogs. I have noticed there is a glut of blogs running blog contests offering virtual prizes to enhance your blog, Internet business, website, etc. The prizes, although virtual, have dollar values attached to them, but are they worth it and would they really benefit you?

Take, for example, the Craziest Marketing Contest You’ve Ever Seen. They are giving away $13, 647 in prizes. Everything from a year of web-hosting, to online advertising to books and t-shirts. One way to gain entries into the contest is to subscribe to the blog’s emailing list and RSS feed. That’s a great way to get people to sign-up to your blog, but what’s the point of having people sign-up if they don’t care what you have to say and won’t read what you have written?

I think this is the virtual version of the paper customer list. When I started my career in sales and marketing 20 years ago as a junior sales rep., I remember being handed a database list of all their clients and told to call each and every one. Guess what? The 80/20 rule was alive and well. 80% of the companies listed were people that only bought from us once, had since left their position, didn’t remember who we were, etc. and the other 20% were our good customers.

I think these types contests are creating hundreds of virtual 80/20 customer lists. The websites and blogs can boast, “We have X number of people signed up.” Giving the false impression to their advertisers that all those connected to them are real customers. The real measure of success in any business, virtual or otherwise, is the profit margin, plain and simple.

So if you have a blog, website, or Internet business and you feel you could use some of the prizes listed, enter. If not, stick to entering good “old-fashioned” online sweepstakes.

(To learn more about RSS feeds and readers, checkout the Tips & Tricks section of The Winning EDGE Vol. 4 Issue 2.)

How to Win Lotteries, Sweepstakes and Contests in the 21st Century by Steve Ledoux (aka America’s Sweepstakes King) was originally published in 2000 and the second edition was published in 2004. This is one of the few sweepstaking books I review that is still in print.

Our books do differ slightly. Steve covers the hobby as a whole writing much more extensively on lotteries and mail-in promotions, plus he also writes about how to win from game shows. I too cover the hobby as a whole, but focus on entering via the Internet and your cellphone. I even quote Steve in my book as his definition of the differences between lotteries, sweepstakes and contests is the best I have ever read.

How to Win is one of my favourite sweepstaking books because both Steve’s writing style and his philosophy on life and the hobby are similar to mine.

“If you only remember three things from this book, they should be: (1) follow the rules exactly; (2) enter as often as possible; and (3) have fun!”

If that advice sounds similar it was also written about in And The Lucky Winner Is… As I stated before, good advice never changes.

Can you create money out of thin air? No? Did you know the banks do? Watch Money as Debt to see how they do it. (Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5)

To me, this once again, proves everything is energy. Money does not actually exist. It’s a thought, concept. If you think about what you want in life, you really do not want money. You want what the money can be traded for: a house, car, travel, electronics, clothes, food, etc., which you think will bring you what you really want: happiness.

So focus on what you want, the end result, and forget about the money.

Are you a Grand Prize Magnet? If you are having a bit of trouble with the law of attraction, I just downloaded a great free e-book called Getting What You Want To Want You by Dõv Baron. In it Dõv talks about the law of resonance, which states “You attract to you what you are at a vibrational match with, not just at a thought level. That’s why positive thinking doesn’t work for very long.” Therefore, if you feel in your heart that you are a winner, you will be.

I am frequently asked, “What can I do to win more?” Besides entering, entering and more entering, I believe half of this hobby is in your head, and heart. What I mean by that is; you need to think you are lucky and a winner before you are lucky and a winner. You also need to feel lucky and like a winner before you are.

To give you a real life example, I attracted in two wins on St. Patrick’s Day. How did I do it? I had entered a postcard with five trivia answers to a local TV station as they were giving away a holiday in Ireland. I happen to be near the TV that morning so I tuned in to see who had won. They had yet to do the draw. I started to get excited (feeling lucky in the pit of my stomach) as I could still be a grand prize winner. When it came time to do the draw, they pulled out a big box covered in green paper and shamrocks. There were only about 500 postcards in there. My odds were good. I began to get butterflies in my stomach. The host drew out a card, and so not to give it away while the sponsor described the prize, he folded it and put it under the desk. My butterflies were getting much bigger. When the host pulled the card back up he tipped it up, ever so slightly, it looked like the one I had mailed in. I felt as if my name had just been called. In my mind, were already on the plane. It seemed like an eternity while the host checked the answers, and called out someone else’s name. I was so excited, and had been “vibrating at the same frequency” as a grand prize, that I knew I was winning something that day. At 11:30am I got a call on my cellphone. I won four tickets to see the Toronto Rocks from Molsons. I was so happy because I knew I had attracted in the win. Then to my surprise, at 5:30pm I got a call at home letting me know I won two tickets to see a play, Rose, from The National Post.

It was because I held the feeling of being a Grand Prize winner for so long that I attracted in two prizes that day. “If you can hold a particular vibration—feeling—for a minimum of 17 seconds you can manifest it into creation.” (Read full blog post—Abraham-Hicks—or watch the video below.)

Try this at home today! If you have ever won a grand prize, remember the feeling you had, bring it into your body, and hold on to that feeling as long as you can. If you are new to the hobby, remember a very exciting time in your life, bring that excitment into your body, and hold on to that feeling as long as you can. Better yet, hold on to that feeling while you are entering sweepstakes. Now, let me know what you win.

If you have read my book, You Can’t Win If You Don’t Enter, you know that my contesting journey began when I read an article about the hobby in the August 2001 issue of Reader’s Digest Canada. My story came full circle when a journalist from Reader’s Digest Canada attended the 1st Annual National Contestors Convention and wrote about me, the hobby, the attendees, and the convention.

Yesterday, I was called by a Reader’s Digest fact checker and was told the article will run in the July 2008 issue. I think it’s great that the article will run almost 7 years to the day I began one of my life’s great adventures. I hope the article will inspire others to take up the hobby and have more excitement in their lives too.

(Also, check out the Reader’s Digest website as they run very good contests!)

Technorati Tags:
sweepstakes, contests, sweepstaking, contesting, sweeper, contestor, luck, lucky, win, winner

This is the holiday made for contestors. A day all about being lucky!!

Check out all these fun and lucky links and articles: Attracting Luck, 8 Ways to Improve Your Luck, How to Create Your Own Luck, How to Find a Four Leaf Clover and The Luck Factor.

GOOD LUCK!!

Do you ever get frustrated? Wondering where the new job is? The new romance? The big win?!

I have been frustrated the past couple of weeks because the American Edition of You Can’t Win If You Don’t Enter has taken 2x longer to write than I originally thought. I am in the final stretch of edit after edit and I was feeling as if the book would never be finished. I knew for the book to be a success I needed to surround it with positive energy. The same energy I began my journey with.

I enjoy listening to uplifting motivational and inspirational speakers. So, I went online and found some new recordings I had never heard before. My favourite was a 3-part recording of Esther Hicks channeling Abraham with Oprah’s on XM Radio. (Listen here.) I realized I was focusing on was, what wasn’t done (the negative), and not how much I had written, how far I had come, what I had learned, who I had met, etc. (the positive), on my writing journey. Like a veil, the frustration lifted and I envisioned myself mailing out thousands of books to fellow sweepstakers who loved reading what I had written. They were learning new methods of entering, tips, tricks, ideas and concepts that were helping them feel like winners and be winners. You can’t lose helping others win!

To find your inspirational favourites, type your favourite author’s or speaker’s name into Google and see what your search brings you. It just may be the message you need.