From The Contest Queen

On Saturday March 27th I am holding another full day session on  How To Win Cash, Cars, Trips & More!, in Toronto ON, in the Piccadilly Room at the Bond Place Hotel, 65 Dundas St. E. What makes this particular seminar so exciting, is I am also holding a concurrent webinar.  Therefore, if you are not able to attend in person in Toronto, you can attend from your own living room!  Those attending via the webinar will see everything I show and demonstrate on my computer screen on your computer screen, along with hearing all I say on your computer speakers. There are even special prize draws for webinar attnedees.

Well, I can’t be the Contest Queen without having a contest!  Win your way into my seminar or webinar.  I will be giving away 4 prizes: 1 In-Person Seminar Pass and 3 Online Webinar Passes.

If you live in the GTA, are willing to drive to Toronto ON, or have air miles wanting to be cashed in, then enter to win a In-Person Seminar Pass, plus an autographed copy of You Can’t Win If You Don’t Enter, ($99 value) or enter to in an Online Webinar Pass, plus an autographed copy of You Can’t Win If You Don’t Enter, ($59 value).

Have you already paid to attend the seminar or webinar? Enter anyway! I will refund your registration fee if you are selected as the lucky winner.

The contest is open to all residents of Canada and the U.S., and runs from Tuesday March 9th, until 11:59pm ET on Tuesday March 23rd. (IMPORTANT NOTE: Travel, accommodations and any additional expenses are not included with any prize.)

There are several ways to gain entries. (Listen to my interview with Valerie (@valerie2350) of Sweeps 4 Bloggers to better understand how to enter blog contests if you are new to this method of entering.)

For your first entry (required):
1. check out the seminar/webinar overview and leave a comment (on this post) on why you would like to attend.  Also state in the comment wheather you want to win the seminar prize, the webinar prize or either prize.  (NOTE: If you are not a blogger or if your email address is not publicly available when you comment, please post it in your entry so that I may contact you if you win.)

For extra entries, do the following, then come back to this blog post and post additional comments for each action you took:
(NOTE: If you already do any of the following, leave a comment saying you do so.)
2. follow this blog either by RSS feed or email,
3. subscribe to The Winning EDGE,
4. mark my online radio show With The Contest Queen as a favourite,
5. connect with me on LinkedIn,
6. be friends with me on Facebook,
7. follow me on Twitter,
8. tweet about this contest.

SAMPLE TWEETS:
I entered 2 join the @ContestQueen in-person in @ her How To #WIN Cash, Cars, Trips & More Seminar! bit.ly/4zD9Fu 0pen CAN & US, ends Mar 23
or
I entered to join the @ContestQueen online at her How To #WIN Cash, Cars, Trips & More Webinar! bit.ly/4zD9Fu open CAN & US, ends Mar 23rd

Potential winners will have 24 hours to respond to an email notification. If no response is received, another potential winner will be drawn.

ENJOY, GOOD LUCK & HAVE FUN!!

Yesterday afternoon my daughter was watching Johnny Test on Teletoon, and as I was passing through the family room I heard the character Dukey say, “Well, it’s true, you haven’t won anything, but you have to enter a contest to win or lose, and you never enter contests, so basically, you’re nothing.”

WOW! What a message targeted towards kids!  What I got from the statement was; it’s OK to win or lose, but you have to take action.  Similar to; you have to be in it to win it, or my favourite, you can’t win if you don’t enter.

What did you get from Dukey’s statement?

I really dislike the cold. In 1991 I lived for a year in Sydney Australia.  Every winter since then I keep wondering why I came back.  Then in 2006 we attended the Annual National Sweepstakes Convention in Scottsdale Arizona.  I now say I want to move to Arizona as I was happy in the daily 110+ degree heat.  That said, I would never enter the following contest.  Not to meantion the fact that the grand prize is a trip HERE!

Participants of a winter competition clothed in beach wear sit in beach chairs in temperatures around the freezing point at the water’s edge of the famous landmark ‘Aussenalster’ in Hamburg, northern Germany, on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010. A Hamburg radio station awards the participant that endures the icy temperature the longest with a trip to Canada.

Like the Brain, Ellen has decided to take over the world!

Watch the above video until the end and you will see, FINALLY, Ellen has opened up her contests to Canadians!! WOOT!!  Plus she has a contest open ONLY to Canadians.  (On the entry page, in the Tell Us A Story section, type in the answer to the Skill Testing Question: What is the square root of 64? BTW, the answer is 8.)

Also, both Canadians and Americans can enter all of Ellen’s other giveaways.

HAVE FUN & GOOD LUCK!

At the beginning of December the FTC announced its revised guidelines concerning endorsements and testimonials with the changes and updates specifically targeted towards online commenters, bloggers, tweeters, etc.

I decided to write this blog today because this week I posted: Contests With a Voting Component.  American Standard had hired me last fall help them with their contest.  Two years ago they had a problem with the promotion they ran, I had offered my advice and they liked it enough to hire me to ensure they didn’t run into similar problems again. I didn’t disclose they were my client in the blog post because it was not within the scope of work I was hired for.  I blogged about the contest because I wanted to ensure the voting was fair.  (If you read the post, you know my thoughts regarding voting contests.)

I feel that helping others win is my purpose in life, so sharing contests and sweepstakes is a natural way to do fulfill that purpose.  I have always disclosed if a company hired me to promote their contests or sweepstakes and the new FTC rules do change how I always chosen to conduct my business or my hobby.  It always made sense to me to be up front with my contest buddies on what I was getting paid to post/blog/tweet about.

So, unless you see a specific comment or note about a particular company being my client, I am just sharing tips, tricks, news and sweepstakes links.

GOOD LUCK & HAVE FUN!

I am not a fan of contests with a voting component.  Why?  Because it’s usually the person with the widest social network that wins, not the best submission. (Read From The Contest Queen October 24, 2005 or my blog post Casting a Wider Winning Net.) That is the reason for today’s blog post.  I want to shift the “net” away from the individual and towards the general public.

From October 15th until November 30th American Standard Canada accepted entries into their Win Your Dream Bathroom Contest.  From December 1st until December 15th, all entries were screened to ensure they followed the rules and were eligible, then a judging panel narrowed the selection down to the top 25 entries.  (See rules for specific judging criteria.) From December 16th until January 3rd the designers Cecconi Simone selected the top 10 entries.

Now it’s your turn.  From January 4th until January 9th the public gets to vote for who they think deserves to win their dream bathroom.  Note that I said deserves vs who has the ugliest bathroom.  The contest was to see who could convince, first the judges, and now the public they deserved the makeover.  They might only have an OK bathroom, but a very compelling argument for why they should win.

So, please check out all 10 entries and vote for who you feels deserves to win vs which entrant can get the most friends and family members to vote for them.

Originally for the Toronto seminar D Films had donated passes to see the movie Creation.  Unfortunately, the release date was changed from the end of November to early January, so the prizes were unavailable.

However, they did send me two double passes for the advanced screening on Thursday January 7th at 7pm at the Varsity Cinemas at the Manulife Centre (at Bloor & Bay in Toronto).  I thought it would be fun to hold a contest to give away a pass.  Well, not just a pass, a whole date, with me!  I will ensure we have tickets to the movie (as passes are not guaranteed seats), I will pop for the popcorn and drinks along with dinner (either before or after the movie) for the winner and their guest.

To be in to win, please leave a comment on this blog post as to why you want a date with the Queen.  Be creative and have fun!  (The winner will be selected by random draw, but this hobby is all about the fun, plus I love reading all the comments.)  The contest ends at 11:59pm on Tuesday January 5th.  I will draw the winner the morning of Wednesday January 6th.

Ensure you can respond ASAP if you are selected as the winner, as the time frame between winning and attending is very short.  The winner will also need to be downtown Toronto at 6pm, at the latest, next Thursday evening.

I look forward to having a great evening with a fellow contestor.

GOOD LUCK!

A contest buddy just rang me up stating he had been in a local Asian supermarket in Canada and they were holding an in-store contest.  I checked it out online and the contest information page was so interesting, I had to share it with you; Lucky Draw!

NOTE: You get an entry form with every $35 purchased and the rules are in-store.  (If anyone knows what the No Purchase Entry option is, please post it in the comment section.)

I just had to blog about this amazing story.

When Heidi Kay Werstler was 6-years-old, she entered the Message in a Bottle contest when her family was on vacation in Ocean City N.J.  Last week her entry was found and the city decided to honor her prize!  Heidi and her family won a stay in Ocean City for their First Night New Year’s Eve celebrations along with box of saltwater taffy.  She was also offered the opportunity to participate in the annual polar bear ocean dip, but Heidi declined. (Smart girl. Far too cold!!)

Learn more about Heidi’s amazing contest win in The Philidelphia Inquirer or on ABC News.

ENJOY, GOOD LUCK & HAVE FUN!!

Here is a sampling of the prizes given away at the How To Win Cash, Cars, Trips & More! I held in Toronto.  Companies generously donated over $2000 in prizes for me to give away to the attendees.  I have three prizes to share with you; a men’s large t-shirt donated by TCCN (@tccn), ladies large t-shirt donated by Yummy Mummy Club (@yummymummyclub) and a mug, baseball cap and a $25 gift voucher donated by Use My Bank.  (NOTE: Ensure you visit the website for each prize sponsor as they each of them also hold contests!)

This contest is  really simple.  All you have to do is leave a comment on this post about what you think you would learn from attending a How To Win Cash, Cars, Trips & More! seminar, along with which prize you would like to win: men’s t-shirt, ladies t-shirt, mug or all three.  (Winners will be selected via random draw.)

So who can enter?  Anyone, as I can ship these prizes, well, anywhere!  I will close off the comments at 11:59pm ET on Sunday December 13th.

Only one comment per person please.

Stay tuned for my 2010 How To Win Cash. Cars, Trips & More! seminar schedule.

NOTE: If you have never left a comment on my blog before, your entry won’t appear until I approve it.  It’s an anti-spam feature.  Please be patient as I am not at my computer 24/7, even though it sometimes feels like it.