A lot of people think sweepstakes are scams or no one ever wins them. I can assure you this is not true at all! Companies run sweepstakes to gain more customers and advertise their brands and I have been fortunate enough to win many prizes through sweepstakes. Those of us who enter sweepstakes regularly call ourselves "sweepers" and we talk to each other a lot on social media and forums. There is an occasional prize that does not get received, but it is very rare. Companies do not want to disappoint and create negative attention to themselves.
I am not a dedicated sweeper, but I have won over $10,000 in prizes just in the last 5 months, including a trip to the Super Bowl! I go through periods of very heavy workloads at my full time job and will sometimes not enter a sweepstakes for several weeks or even a few months. When I do enter, I typically spend about 2 hours a day and maybe 4-6 hours a day on weekends. Entering sweepstakes can be very addicting. Once you start entering you will start seeing them everywhere and you will never run out of sweeps to enter. The picture above was taken in downtown Phoenix during Super Bowl XLIX. They were giving away 32 GMC SUV's, one for every NFL team!
TLC had a television show called High Stakes Sweepers and there was one gentleman on that show that enters sweepstakes for his full time job. He spends hours a day entering sweepstakes and sells a lot of the prizes on eBay or Craigslist. This is not uncommon. I have many friends online that are stay at home moms, retirees, and others who just make it a full time job. There are many others that have full time jobs and enter sweepstakes in their spare time like me. Lots of sweepers win so much throughout the year that they don't have to buy a single Christmas gift!
Now if you are thinking to yourself "I don't want to spend all that time filling out form after form", no need to worry. If you use Chrome, it remembers your info so you don't have to type it over and over again. Or you can use Roboform (my personal favorite) because with just a click of a button, it fills it all in for you. You always have to double check what it fills in because it sometimes gets confused, but you can usually just quickly skim over to make sure everything is in the correct fields.
So where do you find sweepstakes to enter? There are many sites out there that list sweepstakes and many have them in specific categories by prizes. My favorite site to use is Sweeties Sweeps. I also subscribe to her Secret Sweeps for $25/year. This is not necessary, but my biggest wins have come from this subscription because she lists local sweepstakes and less known sweepstakes there where you have better odds of winning. My Super Bowl win came from her Secret Sweeps site. If you choose to join, please know that you cannot share the sweepstakes found there.
I also recommend finding sweepstakes friends on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. There are many sweepstakes that can only be entered on these sites so I highly recommend getting an account if you do not already have one. Sweeper friends help each other out and share their wins, which motivates everyone to keep trying if they are having a dry spell.
Now before you run off and start entering there are a few other things you need to know. Most importantly, always check the rules. If you use a site like Sweeties she puts all of the important info on there so you don't have to read through pages of rules. The biggest thing to look for is the entry limits. Some sweepstakes are one time only entries, some can be entered monthly, weekly, or daily. The most common are daily and one time entries. Another thing you may want to look for in the rules is if the trip must be taken on specific dates. I always check that on trip sweepstakes in case I have other commitments that can't be broken. I would hate to get a call that I won a trip that I can't take!
So how do you keep it all straight? I just use Google bookmarks on Chrome. I have a folder for dailies, monthlies, weeklies, and one timers. I bookmark the one time only sweeps in case I come across it again and can't remember if I already entered. Chrome shows a yellow star when you get to the entry page if it is already saved in my bookmarks and that tells me I have already entered and should not enter again. Each day I go through my daily bookmarks. I even have a few sub-folders in my daily folder for things on my wishlist and higher priority in case I can't get through all of my dailies in one day. I always start with those wishlist and higher priority ones for that reason.
So even if you don't have time to dedicate every single day, at least try it out in your spare time while watching television and you never know what you will win!
Labels: side hustles
