Voting has begun for The Mom & Me Photo Contest. Be sure to vote for your favourite photo today. Voting ends on May 27th. The top 10 vote-getters will be judged. Stay tuned for our winners! NOTE: Although the winners will be chosen on May 30th, they are given 10 days to return the affidavits and release forms. The official winners will be announced as soon as all the documents have been finalized.

Keep your eye on your email inbox. On June 1st we’ll be sending you the link to The Dad & Me Photo Contest. Get your pictures ready to upload!

Recently on my blog and in my newsletter I have been extolling the virtues of being on Twitter to enter contests. Michael Hyatt (@MichaelHyatt) wrote a good article citing 12 reasons you should be using Twitter other than just using it to win (which is my favourite reason of all!).

I am featured in a new book, 10,001 Ways to Live Large on a Small Budget. Enter here to win a copy of your very own!

Bud Light Lime has an interesting promotion running on Facebook. You set-up a virtual party and invite all your friends to join you. Once you have 300 people attending your virtual party, you qualify for the random draw to win a real party. Please join my virtual party. (Free beer and beer bunnies. I think would be the world’s best wife if I win!)

On Monday June 18th at 9:00pm ET, my guest was Sharon Elaine (@UnleashedMinds), author of Ready, Click, Win! and The Book of Affirmations. Sharon and I are kindred spirits and believe in the same things: you have to be in it to win it, you have to believe you are going to win and you have to have fun! As Helen Keller said, “Life is a daring adventure or nothing.” Make sure you also sign-up for Sharon’s monthly contest! I posted a review of her book Ready, Click WIN! for you too.

If you missed the show, you can listen to it here.

On Monday June 1st at 9:00pm ET, my guest will be Tommy Rollins (@TommyRollins), a past sponsor, creator of sweepstakes and owner of Online Marketing Fanatic. Sandra Grauschopf (@ContestsGuide) of Contests.About.com posted a short interview with him. Listen in to hear how sweepstakes concepts are created and executed.

On Monday June 15th at 9:00pm ET, my guest will be Nick Lee, owner and creator of Contest Life. (@technicklee)

SPECIAL DATE & TIME: Since I will be travelling to the 20th Annual National Sweepstakes Convention, my show normally scheduled for Monday June 29th will be held Saturday June 27th at 9:00pm ET. My guest will be Wendy Lemauge (@SweetiesSweeps), aka Sweetie Sweeps. Wendy also writes the MyLifetimetv.com sweepstakes blog; Sweeps Hunter and teaches you how to Twitter! Tweet! Win!

On Monday July 13th at 9:00pm ET, my guest will be Rachel Faulkner, author of The ABCs of Entering and Winning Sweepstakes. Rachel also submitted a great story about her sweepstaking adventures that I used in the American Edition of my book. (You’ll have to listen to the show to hear it!)

Our interview with Dortha Schaefer and The Affadaisies, originally scheduled for the Monday May 18th show, has been rescheduled to the weekend of June 6th & 7th. Since it is pre-recorded, it will air on Monday June 22nd at 9:00pm ET. I will be visiting with The Affadaisies in Payne OH and recording the show during my visit. (You may remember Dortha as Evelyn Ryan’s best friend from The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio.) Since this show will be pre-recorded, please email me any of your questions before June 4th for Dortha, Alice, Maureen or Maria.

You can listen live online and to ask questions you just enter the show’s chat room. You can also dial-in, (646) 200-4857, to listen to the show and ask questions. If you want to ask a question but are not able to listen live, email it to me in advance and you can hear your question(s) answered in the archived show.

Do you know someone that you think would make a fantastic guest for my radio show? Email me your suggestions and we’ll see if they are a fit.

For the June 1st show we have a golf shirt donated by Aldo Piccioni of Richmond Hill Pontiac Buick to give away along with a signed copy of The Book of Affirmations by Sharon Elaine.

Are you interested in an inexpensive way to advertise your business? Donate a prize and I will promote your company, product or service in my e-newsletter and on my radio show for only $39 per issue/episode. Please contact me directly.

CONGRATULATIONS! To Marlane of Valencia PA who won the Creo Mundi Sweatshirt.

Make sure you sign-up to receive From The Contest Queen blog posts either via RSS Feed or email and never miss a single post.

Make sure to watch Wendy Limauge (@SweetiesSweeps) and Heather Hernandez (@Freebies4Mom) on The Tyra Banks Show on Friday May 29th.

Have contestor news you would like to share? Send any news and announcements to: news@contestqueen.com.

HAPPY CONTESTING,

carolyn@contestqueen.com

Vicki of  Maple Ridge, BC has had an amazing winning streak in 2009 and the year isn’t over!

At the beginning of the year my husband asked me what my passion was. We have been married eighteen years and have two wonderful boys (ages 15 and 12). I haven't really thought about my wants in a very long time. I told him that before I met him I had always wanted to travel the world. Money is usually pretty tight so traveling didn't seem like a possibility. Anyway, to answer his question I told him I could picture myself on a white sandy beach in a hammock sipping a fancy drink with a paper umbrella. In January I qualified for a trip to Mexico with a local radio station. For eight weeks, on Monday morning, the radio hosts would call one qualifier giving them a trip. I won on the very last week! I had two weeks to get a passport and get ready to go. It was for a week and it was absolutely awesome. It was the honeymoon we never got to have. We met fantastic people and couldn't believe our good fortune. Then last Monday I got a call about a contest I had entered with Breakfast Television and Reach Total Care. It is a trip to Turtle Island in Fiji for four people, so now I will be able to treat my kids to a vacation as well. They have never been on a plane and are very excited. I firmly believe if you put a thought out there something magical can happen. I always wanted to see the world but I never thought it would happen in one year.

Turtle Island is where they filmed The Blue Lagoon. Wear lots of sunscreen and have a wonderful family holiday!!

Have a great story to share? Send me your story to share with the contesting community. winner@contestqueen.com.

Always support the sponsor. I have always loved and been a consumer of Old Dutch chips, along with a variety of other brands. However, since we won the trip from Old Dutch to the 2009 Memorial Cup, I have only bought Old Dutch chips. That is not to say I will never buy other brands again. There are just far too many great munchie snack foods out there. What I am saying is that when in the chip isle, my heart will now lean towards Old Dutch, and more than likely, my pocketbook.

Companies do not run contests and sweepstakes out of the goodness in their hearts. They run them as part of an overall marketing plan to: maintain and increase sales, customer loyalty, along with creating excitement and fun around their brand. If you support them and they see their marketing plan is working, they will run more promotions.

Have a great tip? Send me your best tips to share with the contesting community. Remember “You Can’t Lose Helping Others Win”. tipsandtricks@contestqueen.com

The Issue 08 Winning EDGE subscriber winner of a Medium Lucky Dzi Bead Necklace is: France of Quebec, QC! Congratulations!

The Issue 09 Winning EDGE subscriber winner of a Small Lucky Window Crystal is: Diane of Cambridge, ON! Congratulations!

Get the Winning EDGE on Today's Contests and Sweepstakes!
Win copy of You Can’t Win If You Don’t Enter in our next draw.
Would you like a pocket full of mad money? Would you like to cruise around town in a brand new set of wheels? Would you like to bask in the tropical sun? These are just some of the prizes available to be won in sweepstakes and contests today. In You Can’t Win If You Don’t Enter, learn how to take advantage of the different ways to win cash and prizes everyday by learning the modern methods and technologies of sweepstaking.

If you are receiving this e-newsletter directly from me you are already entered! Please forward this newsletter to your friends so they can sign-up and have an opportunity to win too!!

Many new subscribers are asking similar questions to ones I have already answered. To read those answers, check our 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 & 2009, archives of Your Questions Answered.

Dear Carolyn,
Any updated on information concerning RoboForm Companion? You wrote earlier a gentleman was in the process of updating it and was wondering if there was any progress?
Thank you for your great site.
Lennard
Ancaster, ON

Dear Lennard,
Vincent Lavoie sold RoboForm Companion, the software package he developed, and I have not heard anything from the new owner(s) yet. I am working with another developer on a different auto-submit package, but it is very slow going. Sweepstakes Tracker hopes to have an auto-submit feature added to their software this summer. If they do, I will be subscribing to their package. Rest assured, I will be posting any updates in the Contestor News section of this newsletter.
GOOD LUCK!!
Carolyn

Dear Carolyn,
Thank you for the quick reply. Look Contests has implemented a lot of my ideas into their application, but have been very slow to integrate an auto-fill capability. A full package with an auto-fill and auto-submit would be wonderful. Right now I use Macro ToolsWorks for flash contests and auto-fill software for standard forms. The Look Contests reports and tracking system can't be beat so I don't want to give up on them. I won a trip to Europe using Look Contests so I can't complain!

I think Look contests really need a separate "pro" version to handle automation. It needs to be separate as it would be in the grey area of contest rules (probably breaking them) but in- noticeable.

Perhaps a nudge from the Contest Queen would speed thing up. Maybe a poll on your website to see how many would be willing to pay for a "pro app" would provide incentive? Of course your position is tough not wanting to promote a "grey" area contest application. Sorry, just thinking out loud...

Also, any suggestions on how I can enter 24hr contests using RoboForm Companion?
Again, thank you for your time.
Lennard

Dear Lennard,
Yes, you are correct. I do not want to promote any “grey” areas of the hobby. However, if a software package or entering tool is legal, I will encourage contestors to use it as it speeds up entry time and the number of sweepstakes on can enter in a short period of time.

Set up a folder called 24hrs. Place all your 24hr contests in there. RoboForm Companion time stamps each entry so you can easily see the next time you need to submit.
GOOD LUCK!
Carolyn

Dear Carolyn,
But the answer although workable, isn't really an automatic solution. You still would be required to open RoboForm Companion and check the timestamps etc... Yes, I'm probably the laziest contestor you now know... In a perfect world the program would auto submit automatically once the 24hr timer engaged... Yup, lazy.

Look Contests is nice in that it won't list a contest unless it can be entered within its time category. I think Look Contests is awesome, but its Achilles heel is the language it’s written in, Ruby. Great web application, but doesn't allow for external applications due to security. Which means I can't click on a contest in Look Contests and launch a RoboForm script (open URL, fill and submit). Imagine if they could incorporate that?! Not only could they provide the updated contests, but also the scripts needed for RoboForm. A general script would go to the URL and use your RoboForm data to fill and submit. Right now via macro scripts you could basically do that. I assume an auto-sweepstakes site that auto-enters contests for paying customers uses something like that.
Anyways, I'm babbling again.
Lennard

Dear Lennard,
I love all your feedback and ramblings. You wrote down what many entrants are thinking, wishing for, etc... I think we’ll see many changes in the hobby in the next few years as entry methods change, new software coming on the market and innovative marketing ideas from the sponsors. I’ll keep everyone posted...
GOOD LUCK!
Carolyn

Send me any sweeping or contesting questions you would like answered. questions@contestqueen.com

Please send all your comments and suggestions to feedback@contestqueen.com