Sweeping, A Primer.

[faithellen]

In answer to autumncat's question about where I find sweeps, I offer this long, detailed analysis.

I started sweeping in January 2005, after my mother-in-law left a Woman's Day magazine here. I found sweepstakes listed in the back. I entered a few of these, bookmarking the WD site and typing everything manually. I began to wonder what other sweeps I could find, did a little research, and came up with Online-Sweepstakes.com (OLS). I signed up (free membership), and after 2 weeks, I plumped for the premium membership ($30/year).

I love that site! It allows you to indicate what sweeps you're entering, puts them into a "My Sweeps" section, separated out by frequency of entry (daily, 24-hour, weekly, monthly, etc.). You can mark each sweep each time you enter it, so you can track how many times you've actually entered each one. I keep my My Sweeps section sorted by expiration date, so the first sweeps I see are the ones going to expire soonest (because if I don't feel like entering them ALL that day, I got the "urgent" ones out of the way).

Anyone can enter a premium sweep if you know what the URL is -- but if you depend on OLS to find the sweeps for you (like I do), you won't find their information listed. Both the grand prizes I won were premium sweeps, so it was well worth the $30 for me. All sweeps on OLS are submitted by the users, and then the site moderators go through and determine whether or not a sweep is very mainstream -- if not, they give it the premium designator.

The site displays 15 sweeps per page, and the My Sweeps section has a "Shazam!" button which opens up the entry page for all of the sweeps listed on that page. Makes it very quick and easy to enter...just go through all the open windows, enter your information, and submit each one.

The community is very nice as well. Each sweep has a "notes" section where people list necessary codes or trivia question answers, or whether they're having problems entering a sweep -- the people are generous and supportive. The forums are also a good support section -- I don't spend any social time over there, but I try to post in the appropriate thread when I win something.

The site offers a trial of the Roboform program, which is ID/password tracking software. I *REALLY* like Roboform, and registered my copy (I think it was $20, and it was necessary once I'd exceeded a certain number of stored passwords). You put in your information, and on most sweeps you can just hit one button and it fills in all your information (so not just IDs and pws, but also name, address, phone number, DOB...whatever you want). Saves OODLES of time.

Once sweeps expire, they're still saved in an Expired My Sweeps section, so you can easily find what you've entered. One thing I don't like is that if you remove a sweep from your active list (because you change your mind about continuing to enter), it dumps all past history/entry records you associated with it. I like the ability to verify whether a prize notification is real based on the Expired My Sweeps section, and on the off-chance that I win a sweep that I deleted, I wouldn't be able to tell.

The front page lists new sweepstakes by date entered into the OLS database. I wait until the following day to peruse the recent listings; that way I know I'm seeing everything and not wasting time.

When entering, keep in mind that most sites want to sell you something. You need to be vigilant about opting in/out for whatever it is. Some sweeps are really friendly about this; others are more of a pain. The notes section for a sweep will frequently have comments about whether a particular site/sweep is a spamhaus...it's good to keep an eye on this for unfamiliar companies. Apart from some travel catalogs, I don't have much junk mail -- there's a lot more email that I've chosen to opt in for, but deleting that isn't a problem for me.

I figure at the end of the year, I will have spend about 200 days entering sweeps, at about an hour per day (right now I have 140 dailies in My Sweeps; that fluctuates as I add new ones and the old ones expire). For that, I've netted the following:

Grand prize:
Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau - 2005 Spring/Summer Legendary Shopping Contest (ARV $3040)
Wish-Bone - Martha Stewart Apprentice Finale Sweepstakes (ARV $4975)

1st prize:
Lawry's marinade package (ARV $42.25)
Small nugget tray at Chick-fil-A (ARV $20)
Sally Hansen and La Cross products (ARV $8)
Hershey's Happiness t-shirt (ARV $14.95)
KFC gift certificate (ARV $20)

2nd prize:
Busch soft-side cooler (ARV $26)
Nantucket Nectars T-Shirt (ARV $10)

4th prize:
Three month subscription to Disney FamilyFun magazine (ARV $12)

Early entry prize:
Stella Artois chalice (ARV $1)
Benjamin Moore Studio Finishes DVD (ARV $19.95)
Leather work gloves (ARV unknown)

Instant win:
Dulcinea beach towel (ARV unknown)
CIBA Vision - Music Cash (ARV $15)
25 Snapfish digital camera prints and film developing for one roll (ARV $9)

I've received all of it except the Hershey's t-shirt and the Disney FamilyFun magazine (which I promised to kaliopi), and of course the trips, but those are in process.

Sweeps I've entered this year: Expired sweeps: 1772. Current sweeps: 524.
Wins by frequency (avgs for winning sweeps only): 4 single entry, 4 weekly (avg entries 16), 7 daily (avg entries 27.9), 1 McDonalds (so not really sweep)

Total won ARV (approximate retail value): $8213.15 (and a towel and workgloves).

With the exception of KFC, Stella Artois and Snapfish (from the McDonald's Monopoly game), EVERY WIN was a premium sweep. I am *definitely* going for that option next year. At the moment, there are 6003 current sweeps, and 1826 premium (I assume that 1826 is a subset of the 6003) on the site.


Any questions? Who's with me? :D

Comments

[dfilove.livejournal.com]

That's.......salada detail.

[faithellen]

You thought there wouldn't be a time benefit analysis done? :)

[autumncat.livejournal.com]

Holy crap - I had no idea.

You sound like a professional.

I may have to look into this - since I am home I have time to submit.
Thanks for all of the info!

[faithellen]

Let's just say until the last couple of months, I've been underutilized at work. :)

[autumncat.livejournal.com]

;-p

So, would you like me to use your name as referral at OLS?

[faithellen]

Sure! I'm "faithellen". :)

I'm researching the premium vs. freebie issue -- the 1826 *is* a subset of the total sweeps...they aim for 30% of the sweeps being premium. In addition, "Shazam" and the "Expired My Sweeps" feature are premium only. Details at http://www.online-sweepstakes.com/forums/faq.php?faq=premium_faq

[autumncat.livejournal.com]

I signed up for both the OLS and the roboform.
Have entered over 50 sweeps.

So I take it that you do enter all the daily sweeps every day.
Do you only enter those that interest you or any and all?
Some offer DVD's or the like that I have no interest in.
How many do you enter a day (do you think)?

Does it take a while after the sweep expires before hearing you won (for those you HAVE won)?

I didn't realize you could mark the daily sweeps every time you enter. Much go check that out.

It's a very neat system. And I LOVE the roboform software. Makes it much easier to fill all that in.
And thanks for the info and heads up!

[faithellen]

You can mark any sweep when you enter it, by clicking the "add" button.

I enter ones that interest me -- spa stuff, cash, cars, clothing, shoes, purses, trips, concerts...I go for a low pain in the ass factor though, so no essays or photo entries for me! :)

Right now I have 140 daily/24-hour/unlimited sweeps, but that fluctuates as they expire. It took me a while to build up that many, though! I try to enter them daily, but some days I miss. I probably enter about 10% of the total number of sweeps that get posted, give or take.

I would also take a look at the "expiring sweeps" while you're starting out -- gives you a chance to get in on some quickly.

Yay! I'm glad you're having fun!