From The Contest Queen

If you have been been a regular reader of my newsletter or blog, you know I am a big proponent of the Law of Attraction. Since I so strongly believe that “half the hobby is in your head”, Sandra Grauschopf of About.com decided to read The Secret to better understand what I have been talking about.

Like many people new to this type of thinking, Sandra did not like some of the points put forth in the book. (Read her review here.) I do agree with Sandra, that on the surface, some of the points do not seem right, fair and do not fit with the common perception of what our reality is as human beings.

I feel there is more to this planet than we (as human beings) will ever know. The Law of Attraction is just one piece of a very large cosmic puzzle. The reason many people can’t see the “big picture” or accept all the points, both good and bad, put forth in The Secret is, it is hard to imagine what the whole puzzle looks like with only one piece. (Read my response to Sandra here, comment #5.)

I list my favourite “puzzle pieces” in the Attracting Luck section of my website. Life is an adventure. Have fun finding all your pieces!

Did you know you could manifest anything? Things you didn’t even know existed? I didn’t know that until yesterday. If you have seen The Secret, read The Attractor Factor or listened to Ask And It Is Given on CD you know that the process of manifesting is to; Ask, Believe and Receive. You have be specific in your request, you have to have faith it will occur and you have to allow it in. You also have to leave the how up to the Universe.

Now, let me take a step back. For most of 2007 I had been entering Dell sweepstakes hoping to win a new notebook. I had asked and believed one would arrive. It did. I didn’t win it. My husband bought it for me for Christmas. I wasn’t attached to the how, just the end result; I would own a “Lucky Green” Dell notebook.

I am not sure if you have seen the particular shade of green that Dell uses, but it is exactly the same colour as Shrek. Our daughter received a Shrek travel bag and squishy Shrek head pillow as a Christmas gift. The notebook and pillow were side-by-side on the coffee table when I noticed the similarity. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool if I could put Shrek ears on my notebook?” I didn’t want to cut up the pillow or glue anything to my new computer, so I released the thought.

Well, yesterday I got a call from Blockbuster Canada. I won a secondary prize pack in their “Shrek the Third” Contest. It includes a Shrek bag, a Shrek Quest Book, a Shrek watch and a set of Shrek ears! I just about fell over.

Now, I wonder what else I can imagine that I could manifest? What can you imagine?

Yesterday, for the first time in eight years, I hired a cleaning service; The Maids. When we first got married, our solution to stop arguing over housework was to hire a home cleaning service. They were great, everything sparkled and the arguing stopped. When we bought our first home, we hired the local branch of the same cleaning service. They were terrible. There was no consistency between franchise owners. (Consistency is key to a good franchise. Just ask McDonald’s.) So, we tried about half a dozen other cleaning services. None would clean thoroughly. I even offered to pay more for a better job, but to no avail.

Last year The Maids had an online sweepstakes and part of the promotion was, you had to watch a demo of how thoroughly they cleaned. After entering everyday for two weeks, I thought, “Maybe I have finally found a service that will clean my home the same way I do.” I checked their website and, sadly, there was no franchise owner in my area. Last weekend I went to a local home show (to enter all the sweepstakes of course) and The Maids had a booth. YEAH! Someone decided to buy a franchise in my area. I took them up on their home show special offer. A team of four people showed up and now my home sparkles.

Sweepstakes are a very effective marketing tool. It made a first time customer out of me. To convert first time customers to long-term customers a company must deliver what promises. Since they have lived up to their claims, they now have a permanent customer out of me.

What product or service have you switched to because of a sweepstakes?

If you have not entered already, The Maids is running their promotion again and it’s open to Canada and the U.S. Ends May 31st.

My friend Richard introduced me to GameTV months ago. I went on the site, entered their Show Us What You’ve Won Contest, once, and forgot about it. Last Saturday night I was doing laundry and watching TV. (Having the title of “Queen” does not get me out of folding socks and underwear!) Anyway, I was channel surfing, (How can one have a bazillion channels and nothing good to watch?!) and noticed Get Shorty was on GTV. (Very funny movie if you have not seen it.) So, I tuned in and they have a contest running every weekend called Watch & Win! Gotta love that. Sit, fold laundry, or better yet, enter contests on your laptop, watch TV and win. I entered online and had my husband enter on his cellphone. (Be aware it is a premium text message.) On Tuesday I was called. I won!! Woo Hoo!! My daughter will be so happy when the Max & Ruby prize pack arrives.

Keep your eyes peeled. You never know when or where you will find a great promotion.

Also, on Fridays they have Bingo & a Movie. (You need to sign-in on Thursdays to claim your bingo card.)

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It’s April Fool’s Day and I thought it would be appropriate to talk about two topics I get asked about on a daily basis: How do I avoid spam? and How do I avoid scams? The reality of being connected to the Internet, whether or not you are entering online promotions, is that you must protect yourself and your computer. I feel it is so important, I have dedicated an entire chapter to each subject in my book along with having an entire list of resources online.

How to Avoid Spam
1) Use an email address dedicated for your hobby. You can either add one to your current Internet account or use a free one such as Hotmail, Yahoo, or Gmail.

2) Have a good spam filter. My filter of choice is Cloudmark.

How to Avoid Scams
1) Never pay money to receive a prize, ever!

2) You will remember the information from a legitimate sweepstakes notification such as: the promotion name, the sponsor, the prizes, etc… and all that information is easily verifiable on the Internet either on the company’s website directly or a sweepstakes website.

3) Scam emails will be very vague, usually have spelling errors and will probably ask for confidential information such as bank account numbers. You can also check sites like Hoax-Slayer to see if the scam has been reported to them.

4) Using a good spam filter will automatically dump most of the scam emails into your spam folder so you don’t even need to address them.

I think entering sweepstakes is the best hobby in the world because you never know what the next email, letter or phone call will hold. It could be a CD, a gift basket, an exotic trip or even a car!

So, play safe and have fun.

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sweepstakes, contests, sweepstaking, contesting, sweeper, contestor, luck, lucky, win, winner