With the immediate economic conditions affecting everyones disposable incomes, people are looking for methods to save cash and get something for nothing. We are now observing online an increase in cash-back sites, shopper rewards, discount vouchers and more and more free competitions. If youre like most of us you probably dismiss that chocolate bar competition each time and toss the packaging in the bin. But the internet has given compulsive competition enterers, or Compers, a better channel in which to submit entries and thus improve their odds of winning vieprizes.



Given the financial squeeze it can be well worth trying your luck in these competitions as the prizes can be fantastic, ranging from vast sums of money to brand new cars right down to baby monitors and free restaurant meals. With some commitment, persistence and a spot of luck its not all too hard to win prizes in the hundreds of free competitions out there as the quantity of entrants is comparatively small in comparison to something like the national lottery. Generally a committed strategy towards entering a variety of competitions should in the end reap rewards.

So youd like to take a shot at winning that tropical island holiday, brand new car or that latest ipod or blackberry? Well the first place to start 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 large amounts of time trawling the internet looking for free competitions to enter and break up prizes by type so that you can easily decide on what to enter. These sites usually 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 its time to work out how much effort you want to make. Competition entries range from basic questions to games, quizzes or slogans all of which demand a different amount of attention and effort. In addition they may supply the answers to the competition questions so you dont even have to think about it! Its here where the genuine Compers excel as they know that the more effort thats involved the more chance they stand of winning! So if you are really serious and want to have even greater odds of winning then check out the offline competitions which are often seen beside the online ones. These are more laborious, often requiring mail to be sent to a PO box and you can imagine how many people dont make the effort to buy stamps and post off entries. These can be the real gold for having good odds at picking up decent prizes. If youve got kids then get them involved as there are a large number of childrens competitions like the good old colouring-in competition and its a rewarding way to bond with them.

Dont forget that competition holders are normally marketers and they want something in exchange for the prize giveaways so you will need to provide some personal information like an address and email in order to enter which will generally receive some marketing collateral. So its a good idea to start a different webmail account to receive the competition emails so youve got one location to check regularly to see if youre a winner!

Heres a couple of last tips to help you on your way to winning your first prize from the multitude of free competitions to be found online. Firstly, set up an RSS feed for the websites that post prizes regularly. If youre not certain what an RSS feed is it is simply a method of receiving updated website content straight to your mail program or desktop. You can configure it to be notified of new competitions immediately after they go live on one of the competition websites. Secondly look out for competition scams! There are a few dishonest people out there waiting to scam the unsuspecting Comper. Usually this is seen in the form of a high cost phone number that needs to be called to collect your prize at around £2 a minute which will cost you at least £10 before you hang up. There are some other even craftier hoaxes that we have found that may request Compers to make some sort of financial outlay, 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 ordered in advance for £49.95. This amusing example can be found on the Hoax Slayer site at hoax-slayer.com/poetry-scam.html.

So with a little commitment you can see that prizes from online competitions are within your reach. You just need to get out there, roll up the sleeves and get entering! Good luck!