Honestly, it was a fluke that I found the contest at all.  I recently got engaged in December and my good friend sent me information on a wedding expo she said I HAD to go to.  (Trust me, once you get engaged, everything is a must do in the eyes of friends.)  I went, thought it was ok, but at the end they drew names for prizes.  After pulling at least 5 names of people who were not present, my name was called and I won $500 worth of cake!  Who doesn’t need cake (whether you’re engaged or not)?!  I was hooked and started researching ways online to win more stuff for my wedding.

I read a post on a wedding website from a seasoned win-a-lot expert and followed her advice to religiously check twitter and blogs everyday for giveaways (note that I was not even thinking about contests yet).  Through this, I was able to win a wedding inspiration book, free services at a name change website, and a year supply of diet supplements.  I entered a lot of contests, even bookmarking ones that you could comment to win daily until the drawing, but even though I was not winning a lot, the cake was spurring me on.

About two weeks ago, I was randomly searching the internet for giveaways when I stumbled upon a contest to win MY ENTIRE WEDDING!  The hotel that was hosting the contest is within walking distance from my apartment.  All I had to do was get the most votes by March 13, 2013 on a picture on facebook.  In my naiveté, I thought how hard could that be?  The city that I live in (St. Petersburg, Florida) has been nicknamed God’s waiting room for the number of elderly that reside here.  Therefore, how many young couples are actually around waiting to enter this contest?  Furthermore, both my fiancé and I went to large public universities (him, West Virginia University, and me, the University of Michigan) so I felt confident that our networks were strong enough for us to win.

How wrong I was.

The Contest

The first night I sent out facebook pleas to everyone I knew.  I grouped them in categories of how I knew them and posted on one person’s wall then tagged the rest.  I had tennis kids, work friends, old dorm mates, school club kids, extended family, etc.  This got us around 100 likes.

(At this point I want to say that the contest does not release how many votes people have until around March 6^th.  Therefore, we can kind of guess what the rankings of the couples are based on how many people have liked the picture, since a lot of people like then vote.  However, it is a very rough estimate, since people can vote everyday and only like one).

We were racing to get to first, since another couple was only a little ahead and had started in the morning.  We had started at 8 p.m. the first night.  Imagine my complete surprise when another couple entered the next morning and absolutely blew ahead.  I was definitely concerned but I kept hard at work doing things such as:

1. Creating a Facebook Event Page and inviting all my friends.  My sister and fiancé also invited all their friends and my bridesmaids invited select friends.  We have over 2,000 people who have been invited in all.
2. I create funny pictures every day and post it to remind people to vote (since it is a daily vote).
3. I started networking my friends so that not only would they vote, but they were in charge of finding three others to vote as well.

Through this competition, I have actually gotten to know people again that I had fallen out of touch with.  I thought we were doing pretty well with over 250 likes (and again, who knows how many votes), but the other couple had over 1,100 likes!  I read all the blogs to see how I could tell if they were cheating, but I like to believe the best and they may have a better marketing strategy.  This is when I ran into the struggle of whether I should bring out the sob story.

Vote for Us

The Sob Story

I think everyone has had major problems in their lives, so I tend not to share this story, but it is easier to share with strangers (you, the reader), than actual people I know.  My fiancé is in a lot of debt from college and I mean a staggering amount.  I know debt, also having gone to a major public university, but I was still shocked by his.  Eventually I learned that his father was going to pay for college originally.  However, while in school, his dad got cancer and all their money and more went into treating it.  His family is still struggling to this day to make ends meat, since his father is on disability and continues to have health scares.

Weddings are expensive.  The average wedding is $27,000 (bet you didn’t know that, unless you’re a girl and engaged).  We’ve considered eloping, but my mother would kill us.  I come from a big family where everyone is expected to be invited to the wedding.  Even the skimpiest of weddings would cost something major, since my family can eat!  Therefore, it would be an absolute godsend to win this wedding.  I am willing to wait the two years we determined before finding this contest to get married, but it would be nice to get married sooner is all I’m saying.

Why do we not share this story with friends/acquaintances to get the sympathy vote?  Because it embarrasses my fiancé and his family.  They are still proud people (as they should be) and although some of their close friends know it is bad, they are still not aware how bad.  I love that all the people we know who are voting are doing so, because of their relationship with us, not because of pity.  However, this does not help us win, so it becomes a struggle of what to do.

If you would like to vote daily until March 13, 2013 you can click this link http://woobox.com/7woa5m/vote/for/238302

If it does not take you directly to our picture, we are the couple in the New Year’s Eve picture.  I am Asian American and he is Caucasian.

Vote for Us!

Other Interesting Posts:

Are You a Contesting Addict?

How Much Have You Won This Year?

My Lovely Trip to Paris

Successful contesting is much more than a one dimensional aspect. In fact, we can compare contesting to that of the Rubik’s Cube which has multiple colors and faces. It seems that we can always complete one color, but the other color completions elude us, and that my friends is where contesting requires climbing the ladder and using the keys to success.

As we stated, contesting is like a ladder that has many steps. We will go through the steps in order so that you, too, may become a better contester using the proper keys to success.

#1 Email Addresses

Begin by creating an email that is separate from your personal email. You will find that while contesting you will be swamped with spam emails on a daily basis. Separating your work and personal emails from contest emails will ensure that your inbox does not become flooded with inappropriate and time consuming emails; just imagine coming home after 3 or 4 days away from the computer to find 600 emails which you will then need to sort to pick your personal and work emails from.

#2 Join a Contesting forum

While we all strive to know and enter every great contest, it is impossible to keep up with all of them. As a new contester it is important to be able to find the contests for you to enter. Joining a great resource like http://www.about.com and looking for the contest forum is one great way to keep up-to-date on entering contests.

#3 Make contesting friends

Every contester needs friends. In order to become successful at sharing contests and earning referral points, you will soon learn that sharing is very important while contesting. Having a group of friends who also share the same interests ensures that your newsfeed is consistently full of contests you will want to enter. Also be sure to make friends in your geographic region so that you can enter those contests which may be geographically restricted. For example, if you are an American who fills your contest friends with Canadians, this will probably isolate you from entering contests specifically suited to Americans or those which are not open to Canadians. The same can be said for those in any country; not just Canada.

#4 Share and Share again

A lot of contests have a share option for Facebook. This option allows others who enter contests to re-share or enter under your link which gives you valuable ticket entries. The more entries you have the better suited you are at winning a prize.

#5 Enter everything!!

Contesting is like a part-time job. The more you sit down to enter – the more successful you will become at randomly being drawn to become a winner. The name of the game is numbers, and although you may win an odd contest with one single entry, you will find that entering the same contest daily will multiply your chances and give you better odds of winning. Now it says enter everything, but this isn’t exactly true. If you really don’t need it, don’t enter it for the sake of entering. A successful contester will enter about 100 to 300 contests daily and keeps track of each contest and the end dates on a spreadsheet. On the other hand, the average contester more realistically enters 20 to 100 contests per day, and those people who someday hope to win are in the 1 to 20 per day.

#6 Read the Rules

Every contest has rules and you should read them. It would really bite to be chosen as a winner only to be forced to forfeit the prize because you failed to see it was only open to the U.S. or it was only open to Ontario residents. Each contest will have in the rules the participants who are eligible to participate. It will also state who is eligible to vote for you or how many times each person can vote.

#7 Join Voting Groups

At times you may enter into a voting contest. It may be a contest that requires you to get “likes” or “votes”. While it is not unethical to join these groups, reading the rules beforehand will ascertain whether or not you can use these groups to trade votes for votes. A good voting group will generate 30+ votes per day for you and this may be the key to keeping you in the top positions. Again, read the rules before using these voting groups or asking for votes as it is simply embarrassing for someone to post that you have been cheating. If you read the rules and it doesn’t state anything about using this type of vote gathering, then by all means go ahead and get votes. Just remember in these types of groups you have to vote for everyone else and then post your link on the wall for them to vote yours. A lot of times those who are not in the contesting world will think this is unfair, but if you read the rules and it doesn’t state you cannot use them, then there is nothing the sponsor can do except change their rules for the next contest.

#8 Don’t Be Greedy

While we all like to win, there is a point when we must face the reality that others need a chance to win also. It is one thing to want to win all the time, but alienating yourself from your friends to enter every contest to steal the prize is much like saying you don’t care about your friends. If you see your friend enters into a voting contest that you know you can win, it is in good taste to go ahead and let them have a chance. Let’s say you do win – what would the cost of your winning be? Having your friends think you’re greedy is just as bad as being labeled a fake account. People will simply avoid you and “forget” to vote, they will then lie that they voted or quite simply they may un-friend you. In the case of a random contest, it is impossible to distinguish yourself from being picked so winning three or four random contests in a week is not something your friends would take the wrong way.

#9 Enjoy your time with your contesting friends

Contesters are people too. Just remember that as you sit on one end of the computer, the world has become a much smaller place with the internet being global. In other words, communication is instantaneous and the others who sit on the other end are real people who have lives and personal stories, sometimes painful stories that can be physical, mental or emotional. These people have feelings and human nature leads us to talking and chatting with our friends. Have a chat with your fellow contesters and actually get to know them. If you live close enough you could go and meet them. You never know, someday that could be your best friend.

#10 Use your Newsfeed

Your Newsfeed acts as a valuable resource. It’s one of those things that many people ignore since it probably brings on an information overload. However using your newsfeed and scanning for contests through it will provide valuable information and many contests you can enter.

#11 Set Your Google Notification on

Google also has a handy little feature which you can set to notify you. You can, for example, set it to weed out keywords such as your name or keywords like “contests”. About every half an hour Google updates this information and if you are connected to it – then you will rarely miss out on good news or good contests.

#12 Connect your Iphone/Phone/Blackberry/Smartphone

Use your phone to stay connected to your social media. Staying connected to your email, Facebook, and Twitter means you will never miss out on messages or statuses. For example, if you win a contest and others see it before you, more often than not they will tag you in a post and you will be notified via your mobile device.

Following these steps won’t ensure that you win every contest, but using them will, at the minimum, ensure you have the Keys to Success to win more often when it comes to contesting. Thanks for reading.

Other Interesting Posts:

Sponsors Addition To Rules – A Cautionary Tale

No Purchase Methods of Entry – What Are They, and How do You Use Them?

5 Ways to Get Disqualified from Sweepstakes

My contest job is great. I get to set my own hours, I get to enter when I feel like it. I can pick and choose my contest entries and applications picking only the cream of the crop. I can work from the comfort of my own home. I can spend time with my children. I can make money. What more could anyone ever want?

Then you can hear it….the shrieking of the brakes as they pull us to a dead stop. Reality check time. Contests are great to enter. They are fun, they are exciting, they are rewarding and yes they provide lots of freebies and prizes. But let’s get to that reality check. Contests are addicting to enter and if you are not careful will interfere with your lives becoming more of a detriment than a blessing.

You see, my contest time is much like that of a part time job. I hover on Facebook for hours on end entering every contest I can find. The reality of it being that it won’t pay my mortgage, it won’t pay for my fuel or for a trip to the restaurant. It won’t pay for all of my families clothing. It won’t buy me or my family members medicines when required. The actual reality of it is that I have to work and that winning is a secondary income for me. Regardless if I win an occasional contest that may give me $1000 cash, quite simply, working gives me almost triple or more every month. The problem here though is that some are so addicted that once they have started regardless of the reason, they have become dependent on contests and that becomes an addiction.

Much like any addiction we need to remind those persons or even ourselves for that matter that we cannot simply survive living on contests. Sure they put a little cash in our pockets. Sure we feel excited at the moment, but this always comes at what expense? That someone would stay home and neglect working for their family to survive on welfare and play contests? To me this is unrealistic and unacceptable. That person would be living off the blood, sweat and abuse I take at the hands of employers.

I hear the same thing all the time with those who claim disability. Disability is meant as a short/medium term fix until a person can be retrained to do something else. I have seen countless people work missing arms, missing legs, missing an arm, missing a leg, missing a finger, and so on. I have seen people work who were in wheelchairs. (At Wal-Mart as a customer greeter). I have seen many people who were on disability rise up and free themselves from that chain.

Again I look at this unless they are on a deathbed that they are soaking up my tax money. Now don’t get me wrong, some disabilities are serious and life threatening and if a person truly has a disability that they can never work in any capacity or in any way, shape or form, then nothing further needs to be said. If you read this and you are not one of those persons, then some soul searching needs to be done and perhaps losing any “poor me”, “woe is me” or “I am so hard done by” attitudes need to be thrown out.

So this is the reality check. While contests may certainly provide some much needed necessities, it certainly (unless you win the Powerball or Lottomax) is not going to allow you the convenience of quitting your day job. Maybe you have seen some shows like TLC’s extreme sweepers. Just remember that these individuals are most likely a .0001% of the population who have done this. They are probably not without financial problems although they may seem like they are doing okay appearances can be deceiving. So I urge you to remember that contesting is what it should be. A hobby and a pastime to be enjoyed on your free time and not full time. Thanks for reading.

Other Interesting Posts:

How to Help Sponsors Learn about Cheating

Sabotage – When your contest entry is being attacked

5 Ways to Get Disqualified from Sweepstakes

Rumor has long been that anyone who wins at contests frequently is a cheater or at least must have cheated somehow to have gained an unfair advantage. Other people may also say those who win contests a lot have somehow skewed the odds or the company hosting the contest is to blame for picking someone they wanted to win. In all honesty only one of these statements is actually correct when it comes to random drawing contests and the other statements are false; can you guess the correct statement?

While some responses may be varied depending on what some people believe, the only correct statement here is that there are some contesters who do gain an unfair advantage over others who simply enter contests once in a while. There are some facts which should be presented to address the issue of how a contester can gain an unfair advantage – and make no mistake this is not a form of cheating when it comes to the unfair advantage.

Simply put, there are two key factors in play when it comes to gaining an advantage over other players who just enter contests occasionally because they are a fan of the page.

Advantage #1 is that the contester who sits and contests on a frequent basis is entering the contests daily. Now, they may be a hardcore sweeper entering hundreds of contests a day or they may simply enter 20-50 a day as they see them pop up on a newsfeed or the web in general. This is the first advantage because while some may enter and have one entry, these hardcore contesters are entering daily and may have 30+ entries depending on the length of the contest. But there is another advantage which must be taken into account also, and this is a persons’ lifestyle at contesting.

Advantage #2 is how the majority of contesters can win quite frequently also. It allows them to gain entries far faster than those who enter a contest once in hopes of being the one chosen. This advantage is nothing more than befriending and having fellow contesters as friends. Befriending fellow contesters ensures that every time you share a contest on your wall it will show up on another contesters’ newsfeed or they may simply see the wall status as it is posted. This allows other contesters to enter and considering that the average contester has 300-500+ contesting friends, it isn’t any wonder that those friends, and friends of friends, who enter will gain an additional ticket entry into the draw for the first contester who posted the contest originally. It isn’t unusual for someone’s share for entry ticket contests to run in the thousands. In one particular contest I had 4,000+ tickets through sharing where my friends who are also contesters would enter through my link.

Just recently this issue was brought to light with a company called PDXLAN on Facebook who made a statement against a contester. The original statement implied that the winner was a contester and that although they were not disqualifying her – they had bad news. This statement they released opened up a heated debate on the Facebook page of PDXLAN and started a controversy over whether or not this person should be chosen as the true winner because of their contesting lifestyle.

For anyone who doesn’t actually know what PDXLAN is – I copied a brief description from their webpage for you:

“If you have not been to a PDXLAN before, prepare to have fun. PDXLAN is a very unique type of event for 550 Gamers from all over the country. The event goes for 4 days, and is a truly a “LANSTOCK” of its time. Some come to compete in tournaments, some come with groups of friends as part of a road trip, and some just live local and come to have fun.

You’ll find that PDXLAN has more prizes than any other sole LAN Party in the United States. PDXLAN believes that all gamers deserve to win products, not just the good gamers. This is why we split up all prizes so that at the end of the event we have a mega raffle where random raffle ticket chance decides who wins.

Our sponsors include the best companies that make PC-Gaming unbelievably awesome. Intel, Nvidia, Logitech, Astro Gaming, Patriot Memory, Asus, Crucial, Seagate, AMD, Sapphire, Antec, Cooler MAster, Comcast, Danger Den, EVGA, Future Mark, Gunnar, Trendnet, and many, many more. ”

So what exactly was the controversy? Well the winner of this contest had over 500 tickets into the contest that were gained from sharing through her friends. A lot of the fans on this page are hardcore “gamers” and not contesters, so the odds when they were allowed to share helped them gain between 1 and 20 tickets on average. So, as you can see there was a huge advantage with the winner having, in some cases, more than 400% more ticket entries than some of her competitors. The debate was heated to the point where PDXLAN had to remove a post where name calling became out of control. They simply posted a new status which again sparked some minor controversy, although not as much as the first post. You can read it the post here:

http://www.facebook.com/PDXLAN/posts/413610565358885

In the end, PDXLAN decided to go ahead and award the winner as they agreed that changing the rules after already choosing a winner would be unfair. However, the point remained that their original status called the winner’s “ethics” into question, which is what the point of the second post was all about.

Yet, this isn’t the only time when I have seen rumors fly. At times, I myself have been caught up in rumors that he/she is cheating or did cheat. I then have to remind myself about the information I am writing here and the fact that some spend more time as a contester than I and that some enter nearly 200 contests per day while I simply pick and choose contests to enter from my newsfeed on Facebook which puts me entering into the 10 to 50 contests per day range. Therefore it shouldn’t be surprising to me when I see the same names posting their wins on Facebook; instead I must simply remind myself they play more often than me!

Thanks for reading ContestMob!

Other Interesting Posts:

The Hacker, Me and 42″ TV

Facebook Chat – How it Can Help You Get More Wins

How Not To Annoy Facebook Friends Who Don’t Do Contesting

Twitter

Many contest organizers require contestants or participants to tweet about the competition to signify their participation. Usually, you get more “raffle entries” the more times you tweet. If you don’t see any reason to create a Twitter account, then joining online competitions should give you a good one.

When you get to Twitter, you should also know how to navigate around the Twittersphere.
Retweets – This is an option to “forward” the tweet of other people and share those following your tweets.
Quote – Quoting another person’s tweets would place them in quotation and you can add your own message with it. Just make sure you limit it to the maximum number of characters that Twitter allows per tweet.
Hashtag – This simply represents the subject matter or topic of your tweet. To create a hashtag, just add a # or number sign before the word or phrase that represents your tweet’s subject. Many contest organizers require their participants to use a hashtag for their entries in order to have an easier time monitoring contest activity.
Mentions – You can make sure that your tweet appears in another person’s network by mentioning his or her Twitter username in your tweet. Just add a copyright or @ before the username of the person.

Facebook

Numerous contests run over on Facebook every day. Internet marketers prefer this platform for running contests as it gives their customers an easier way to share content about their products and services.
Like – Sometimes, you may be asked to click the Like button of a Facebook page or a particular photo, video, or wall post.
Wall Post – You may also be asked to create your own wall post to serve as a contest entry. However, you’ll likely be asked as well to mention the company’s name and makes sure a link to the company appears by typing an @ sign before the company’s Facebook page title or name.
Tagging – Tags basically serve as links in Facebook. Every time you tag another person or entity for your wall post, video, or photo, the content you have posted will also appear in that person’s Facebook page. You can tag another person in your comments and photo descriptions as well.

Blogs

Last but not the least, contest organizers may also require their participants to write a blog post about a particular subject. Again, it’s another way for contest organizers to use competitions as an opportunity to increase exposure for their products and services.
If the contest you want to join requires this then you would definitely need your own blog account. You’ll also need to know how to create links and post images and videos on your blog entries. Take advantage of guides like this one and get guidance on quality internet service.

Other Interesting Posts:

What are the odds of winning sweepstakes?

Your Best Odds Sweepstakes – Local Giveaways!

How Much Have You Won This Year?

READY, CLICK, WIN! How to Find, Enter and Win Online Sweepstakes

Summary: This book is written as a memoir and is targeted at beginner sweepers. It explains how to find and enter legitimate online sweepstakes, how to download free sweepstakes software, how to organize your sweepstakes, what to do when you win, how to avoid scams and how to keep your computer and identity safe.

About the author: Sharon Elaine has been a student of self-improvement, metaphysics, spirituality and journalism for over 25 years. She is a Reiki Master and teacher, a popular public speaker, and sends out affirmation/motivation emails regularly to a group of hundreds on the internet.

How to Win Lotteries, Sweepstakes, and Contests in the 21st Century

Summary: The book gives a brief history of the games and explains how to maximize your chances. The author describes the process of dealing with game shows, the IRS, frequently asked questions regarding winning contests and how to deal with your new found wealth. He offers some useful tips on how to focus on the types of sweepstakes and contests that offer the best odds.

About the author: Steve Ledoux has won more than 500 sweepstakes and contests and has collected tens of thousands of dollars in winnings. He has been a winning contestant on Wheel of Fortune, has won all-expenses paid trips for two to the Caribbean, Hawaii, Jamaica, and Las Vegas, and has won a year’s supply of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

You Can’t Win If You Don’t Enter

Summary: Even the most experienced sweepers will find a ton of interesting insights and advice in this book. It covers the promotion types and different ways to enter, lists the online tools for faster entries and has great chapters about increasing the chances of winning and attracting luck.

About the author: With tens of thousands of dollars in annual winnings from hundreds of sweepstakes, Carolyn Wilman truly is a Contest Queen. She produces a free e-newsletter called The Winning Edge that includes contesting stories, tips, tricks and links to new contests. Carolyn was a featured speaker at numerous promotional events and U.S. sweepstaking conventions. She is also the co-founder of the Canadian Contestors Association.

Contesting: The Name It and Claim It Game, WINeuvers for WISHcraft

Summary: If you’re into the Law of Attraction, then you’re going to enjoy this book. It covers the secrets for confidence and success and explains how to visualize your dreams for you to start winning. Of course, it also describes the nuts and bolts of contesting mechanics. This book has sold over 3 million copies.

About the author: Helene Hadsell won every contest she ever entered, including winning her house. She follows specific methods, which she calls ‘Wish Craft’. Her uncanny ability to win anything she desires has been covered by many newspapers and magazines.

Win Your Way To Wealth: Win Competitions And Sell Your Prizes Online

Summary: Have you heard about compers? That’s what they call sweepers in UK. The author tells her story of success, provides hints and tips for contesters as well as answers to frequently asked questions. She suggests to sell all prizes that you win, to earn extra income. This is a very controversial subject among contesters, therefore this book is a very interesting read.

About the author: Debbie Loton is an experienced comper from England. She keeps a winnings diary, where she provides the statistics of how many contests she entered in a given month, how many she won and what was the total value of prizes.

_____________________________________________________________________________

If you’re looking for more books beyond those mentioned above, we will be covering published eBooks for sweepstakers, later on.

Other Interesting Posts:

Sweepstakes and Contests Forums – Top 10

How to Avoid Being Buried by Sweepstakes Spam

Comic Strip: A Day in Sweepstaker’s Life, Episode 1

So you’re in a contest. It is based on likes. You get everyone to vote for you and you think to yourself, “I am doing so well”. Maybe you have 200-300 friends and you’ve counted on them for one vote each. Maybe you have a 1000 friends and you get at least 500 votes from them. But then you start getting curious and you check out your competitors’ photos…”What!!!!! 1000 Likes, Impossible!”. You think to yourself, “How can that be?.. Incredulous”. No matter what your reaction is, we’ve all been there and seen it. Maybe you’ve swapped  1 or 2 votes with someone else. Maybe you’ve created a couple of accounts to vote for yourself with. Yet you’re still losing. “Why?..” – you’re starting to feel a little down or let down.

The Disclaimer

ContestMob, Facebook and the author are not responsible for disqualifications based on utilization of these procedures nor does Facebook, the author or ContestMob endorse this method of contest play. The information here is provided to help you learn to quickly identify others that utilize this style of contesting ethics, and make a decision on how to act/respond to it.

The Setup

So you want to learn the secrets, of how the cheaters do it? You want to learn, how they get more likes in a short period of time?   Well, there are 2 methods that they use.

The first method is the easiest. It involves them finding those, who share a passion for exchanging votes. Exchanging votes is as it sounds. Exchanging a vote one for one with someone who has multiple accounts. Multiple accounts can range from as few as two to as many as 100 or more. These accounts are generally used for the strict purpose of voting for others to inflate their “likes” on a particular picture or comment.

The second method is to create their own multiple Facebook accounts. This is difficult, slow and methodical approach.

Whether they find someone who owns multiple accounts, or they create multiple accounts themselves – it is considered cheating.

More on Creating Fake Facebook accounts

As we all know when anyone creates a Facebook account, the rule is that the name of the Facebook account must be that persons name or they may according to Facebook rules include a first name-nickname-last name account. Creating any other name is a violation of Facebook rules.  However, there are some people have actually taken the time to create many alias Facebook accounts. The actual creation of multiple Facebook accounts is painstakingly slow, since they must verify the email address, post pictures, gather friends, etc. Only after all these steps they are ready for exchanging votes with. For this method, they created many email accounts as well, and keep records of each account name with corresponding email addresses.

Looking for Vote Exchange “Customers”

So they’ve created the accounts…now what? Where do they go…again that same question pops up. Well Facebook has a wonderful search tool. All one has to do is search certain key words like Vote, Contest and Exchange. Group pages will appear much like a sponsor page that you may already like. The only difference will be that these are voting groups. Oftentimes, within the page, once they have liked it, they will find people there that are looking for a few simple vote exchanges or one mass exchange. It all depends on what they are looking for and how does their contest organizer feel about this type of behavior. Is it a diligent sponsor who may verify the “likes”. Do they favor a situation where more people have “liked” their Facebook page even though the “likes” may not be a true statistical representation of the actual number of people. Perhaps the organizer just turns a willful blind eye. Maybe the sponsor just doesn’t know. Usually it is the latter and the sponsor doesn’t realize that a lot of people are effectively scamming others out of any chance of a prize.

So let’s just assume for a minute that a person has searched “exchange” on Facebook and a page of “Vote Exchanges” comes up. So the person “likes” the page and enters the room. It is a forum much like any other page and yet the wall has users who have posted 10-100+ pm me or need 20 votes now pm me…what do these mean? These are indicative of persons who have accounts to exchange. They are looking for others with whom they can swap their votes. When the other person sends them a PM it will start the action of exchanging votes.

The Exchange Takes Place

So what happens next? They have found someone that is willing to exchange votes. They have sent the PM and are waiting for a response. Once the message has been received by the other party who originally posted that they have votes to exchange, they will message back that person and ask them to vote or like a certain picture or comment. It is at this time that the other person will send their link too for the other to vote back on theirs. Once this happens, generally an exchange of names takes place as proof that each party has submitted the proper number of votes or voted correctly.

An alternate method that exchangers use instead of swapping names, is liking the comment, but also liking a commenter in the likes section. For example, if they were exchanging 20 votes on a picture, then one of the commenter’s would be clicked 20 times. The reason for this, you may be wondering, is so that the person who wanted the likes can simply go and click on the likes and see who voted and count the number of people that he/she was given.

Trade Vote Exchange Rates

A one-to-one exchange is not always the case. Oftentimes people require votes so desperately that they will exchange a higher number of votes to the other for a few less on their own. For example,  a contest may be ending soon. They may need a lot of votes and by reducing their exchange rate to half of the one for one will increase their chances at getting more people to trade with them. Lets say that one persons contest is ending soon. He/she has 100 votes to trade. They post on a forum 100 Votes to trade 50% off now! So essentially what that person is saying is they will give the other person 100 votes if they get 50 back on their own. This is done to get more votes now since doing 100 votes for some is tedious and a big undertaking to many since they need to sign in and sign out of each account. For some contests they even need to clear their computers cache memory in order to vote again. Over your contesting period you will see this time and time again. People suddenly getting lots of votes. How can you tell? Where do you look? What do you do?

How to Catch a Cheater

Catching a cheater is a very complex, skillful art of mastering Facebook. As we looked at previously, one of the more subtle ways is to keep refreshing a page and watching the number of votes go up and by how many. Perhaps you will see a number of thumbs up signs on a comment made which isn’t necessarily required. Maybe you want to see the people who are voting. There are a number of methods that you can do which will certainly flush out cheaters.

When you see a large number of likes on a picture or a comment, simply go to the thumbs up sign and click on who liked this picture/comment. A box of names will come up and most times they will not be your friend(s). You can simply go through each name. As a general rule, people make mistakes. They make mistakes because creating a true account of a real person takes too much time and effort and certainly cheaters cannot take this time to do it that eloquently. Fake accounts can be found all over Facebook. All one has to do is know where to look. You can also Google names and Facebook search the names to get more information on your competitor. As a general rule when I contest I look for five major mistakes cheaters make.

5 Mistakes that Cheaters Make

#1 The liker has nothing on their wall or profile except for the interests of contests

#2 Birthdays are the same as the entrant or a group of “fake” accounts have similar birthdays

#3 Mutual friends all link back to the entrant

#4 Email address is similar on the bottom of the profile

#5 Similar name spelled differently (example Andy, Andrew, Andre)

To Tell or not to Tell

Essentially when you have the proof, the ultimate responsibility of addressing the issue lays with you. Cheaters will always come and go, but the winnings may not if you cannot stop them. So how do you go about informing the sponsor? There are many ways. Gather all the evidence and place all the links of suspicious likers (URL’s to their profiles) in an email to the sponsor outlining why you believe they are cheating. Call the sponsor privately. Send a general message for the sponsor to contact you on the Facebook wall. You can also click on report to Facebook on the bottom left side of a profile page and you can click “Not a real person” in the box. If you stand your ground and say something, cheaters will never win!

Benefits to You or Benefits to the Cheater

If your decision is to be quiet and say nothing, the cheater will win. He/she will pocket whatever prize has been offered and with no one saying anything, why would the sponsor care. They now have amassed a larger database of potential clients. The cheater walks away with a great prize. Maybe it was a prize that you certainly would have earned if you had said something. Cheaters need to learn that this is unfair to everyone else. If you do stand up and stand your ground you may be the winner. You will have stopped a cheater. You will have helped a sponsor to weed out those who are not real persons and of no benefit to the sponsor. You will have assisted other Facebook users to be true winners and not have to deal with the same cheater elsewhere.

Good Luck!

For more great tips and techniques on legitimate contesting – sign up to receive new posts by email or RSS (you can use the orange signup box below).

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I am addicted to Second Life.

Most of you will ask, what is Second Life? Well, it sorta looks like this:

This is how the beginner’s location looks like – simple, not too many buildings, not too many activities, people with standard avatars. Each of these avatars have real people driving them. To make it easier to figure out what Second Life is, you can think of it as a chatroom where you have a 3D avatar. But that is not all that Second Life is about! You can teleport to thousands of locations, chat, dance, eat at restaurants, do shopping, get a haircut, get a job, make money, go gambling, have sex, have a drink at a beautiful beach resort, etc, etc. People actually own property there, have their own houses, and so on. It’s like real life, but virtual. You can hang out, meet people and do all types of things that you do in real life.

Making Money on Second Life

I am not a very chatty person, so for me the chat feature wasn’t super appealing. I started by going to places where you could make Linden Dollars (Second Life Currency) – I filled out surveys, completed tasks (like dancing or camping), got small jobs and earned some virtual cash. Then, I converted virtual cash to real money. It wasn’t much, it was about 25$, but I got it for free! Well, I had to work for it a little.. Ok, I had to work a LOT. But it was fun! Still, I became bored with it quickly. You can make some money this way, but not a whole lot of money. I almost quit Second Life at some point.

Until I discovered this place.. A location on Second Life, called ‘Parrot Island’. It was a small location, with about 80 people hanging out there.  They would all meet to play a game, very similar to Bingo, but better. I tried it several times, and then I was hooked. When I started winning some more Linden Dollars, I started coming back to Second Life every day.

Later on, I started loosing more often than winning, and stopped going there so much. Nowadays, I don’t have time for it much anymore. But the idea of virtual worlds like this, still fascinates me. You could be anyone you want, you could make your avatar skinnier, prettier, you could try skydiving, drive a Ferrari, meet a celebrity. You could do so many things!. Such a great idea.

Sweepstakes on Second Life

Now, back to business. Once in a while (every 3 months or so), some company pops up that offers sweepstakes to Second Life members. For example, they would offer a chance to win $50,000 Linden Dollars. That translates to about 193$ real cash. It’s not much, but the odds of winning are so much better than the common sweepstakes that we sweepers are used to seeing. All you have to do is register for Second Life, and then just wait for their promotional email. If you hate emails, you can google ‘second life sweepstakes’ once in a while.

If you would google for it now, you would see many expired Second Life sweepstakes, but you would get an idea what they look like and how many there are. They’re run exactly the same way as normal official sweepstakes with Rules & Regulations, except that eligibility is as following: “(…) The Sweepstakes is open to all Second Life Residents (“Residents”) whose accounts are in good standing, and are 18 or older as of the start of the Sweepstakes.” Therefore, having an account on Second Life opens you the doors to some good odds sweeps!

What You Will Experience

And if you have the time, I would encourage you to explore it, to see what this amazing virtual world is about. They have an easy beginners place, where you can walk around and see how it all works & they give you some free Linden Dollars to spend. If you want to visit my favorite location, search for ‘Parrot Island’, and teleport there. You can teleport to different worlds, do some shopping or earn money by doing different things. Just use the search field and you will find virtually anything you’re looking for. LOL, try the nude beach. xixi:) – You will feel like in Europe! When you’re tired of it all, hit casinos and spend the last Linden Dollars that you have left! Just be careful – Second Life is very addictive. It could become your second life!

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Essentially, automated sweepstakes entry services and programs charge a fee to use your personal information to enter you into various sweepstakes online. The program Roboform and the browsing tool Autofill are not thought of as automatic sweepstakes entry services, since you still have to visit the webpage for each sweepstakes and submit your own entry. We wrote about these programs in our Top 5 Software Tools article.

Sweepstakes fans are so divided on automated services! Those in favor say tools make this hobby easier to enjoy, while those against them say tools make sweepstakes less fun for everyone.

In this article, we’re going to show you both sides of the debate so you can make an informed decision on whether to use any tools or not.

Is using software tools considered cheating?

Well, it depends. Some sweepstakes allow automated entries, while many do not.

For example, WinForMe, Yoursweepstakes, or other tools like those supposedly only submit your information to sweepstakes that allow these types of entries.

WinForMe’s website says, “if the sweepstakes rules prohibit entry by third parties, commercial or automatic sweepstakes entry services, scripts, bots, or macros, we do not enter those sweepstakes for our members. However, many sponsors see the benefits of receiving entry from services like ours, and allow us to enter.”

So, since these programs generally don’t submit your information to sweepstakes that don’t allow automated entries, they can’t be considered cheating in that context.

However, some sweepstakes fans think such software programs are “cheating” because they might violate the spirit of the game, if not the actual rules. They believe people should enter sweepstakes because it makes them happy and gives websites that offer sweepstakes more traffic, not as a quick way to win prizes. Whether automated sweepstakes submission is “cheating” in a moral sense, is your call.

As a side note, the service Yoursweepstakes also gives you a list of sweepstakes that don’t allow automated entries so you can enter by hand, if you would like.

Will I be able to control which sweepstakes I enter if I use automated sweepstakes entry services?

That depends on the service you use.

First of all, services like WinForMe and Yoursweepstakes are only supposed to enter you to games you are eligible to win, based on your personal information. So, you generally don’t need to worry about picking which sweepstakes you’re qualified to enter.

However, as Lots of Luck Advertising reports, certain players may want to “boycott some contests or sweepstakes due to personal, ecological, moral, religious, or other reasons.” For example, if you’re against a company’s business practices, you may not want to enter their sweepstakes.

According to Lots of Luck Advertising, most services do not let you pick which sweepstakes you want to enter.  Some sweepstakes fans say this makes playing less fun.

However, some services do give you more options. The program SweepsWizard, for example, lets you either be entered into new sweepstakes automatically or decide which sweepstakes you’d like to enter.

Are automatic sweepstakes entry services worth the money?

Again, this depends on the service you use and your personal opinion on the topic.

Prices for the service WinForMe range from $11.98 per month for the month-long starter package to $71.76 for the full-year deal. They promise to enter players into an average of 50 games per month, at least. If after 2 weeks, you aren’t satisfied, you can get a refund.

The service Yoursweepstakes offers their month-long package for $8.99 and their year-long package for $59.88, with different options in between. You’re guaranteed 100 entries per month. You can also get a refund after 2 weeks, if you are unsatisfied.

SweepsWizard costs $5 per month. Their service lets you schedule how often you enter sweepstakes, or even pick which ones to enter, so they don’t guarantee how many you will play.

Some sweepstakes fans consider these fees small compared to the hundreds of dollars in cash prizes they could win from games. Other fans see these services as basically charging for something that anyone could easily do for free. It may come down to how you prefer to spend your time.

Now, many automatic sweepstakes entry services, such as WinForMe, renew your subscription on your credit card when it is about to run out. If you’re concerned that you may want to cancel, but could forget, you could try paying with a prepaid credit card that has just enough funds left. Of course, you should still try to cancel on time, but at least if you’re using a prepaid card, you won’t have to deal with unwanted charges if you slip up.

Now that you’ve learned what you need to know about automated sweepstakes entry services, you can decide whether you’d like to use them to help you play.

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Ed Cohen of Wallingford, Connecticut is one of FreeLotto’s latest millionaires. He’s a 57 year-old electronics technician who discovered FreeLotto in 2005 while searching for online sweepstakes. Cohen has been playing daily and winning ever since. He won a handful of small prizes over the years including $1 and $5 prizes. The $1,000,000.00 win is his first jackpot prize.

When asked how the win would change his life, Cohen told the Prize Team at FreeLotto that he would be able to pay off his debts, begin taking annual vacations and maybe even retire early.

FreeLotto has six free daily games offering users the chance to win a total of over $11 million each day, absolutely FREE! The games include $1 Million Classic FreeLotto®, $50k Win A Car, $100k Pay Off Your Mortgage, $10k FastCash, $100k Giveaway, and $10 Million SuperBucks.

Registering to play and win is easy and 100% FREE. Just your basic information is required so the prize team knows where to send your prizes when you win. Click here to start playing for free.

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