Three Ways To Make Money Entering Contests

You’ve probably heard of people who claim to make money entering contests, like sweepstakes and draws.  If you’re like most people, you probably thought, “Good for them, but spending hours filling out hundreds of ballots is not for me.”

If so, you may not realize that entering contests is one of the easiest money-making ideas you can try.  There are other ways to make money entering contests without spending half a day hand-filling out entry forms.  It’s a new era of contests, thanks to the Internet, and a new era of ways to win.  You can still write out ballots if you want to, but here are three of the latest ways to make money entering contests:

1) Share your expertise or skills on Prizes.org: Prizes.org was created as a way for users to get their needs met by offering prize money to the general public.  You can make money entering contests on Prizes.org while solving a problem for someone.

Prize.org users can create public contests for all kinds of things.  Some of the most popular contests include:

* Business logo design: Create the best logo for a sponsoring company.

* Name creation: Come up with a winning name for a business, a product, or an advertising campaign.  There are even pet-naming contests!

* Original artwork: If your design is chosen, you win the cash!

Other contests include writing stories, poems, jingles, slogans or even offering the best expert advice on a subject.

You can enter as many contests at one time as you want to. Plus, most contest sponsors allow you to submit more than one entry, which increases your chances of winning.  Best of all, entering is free.  All you have to do is provide your email address.

Prize awards range from $20 to $400 on average, and your odds tend to be better than most contest draws or sweepstakes.  If you happen to be gifted in one of these areas, chances are good that you’ll be able to make money entering contests on Prizes.org.

2) Enter online sweepstakes: Make money entering contests by the hundreds on the Web.  They’re a lot like the draws of yesteryear, except without paper.

Since there are no paper forms to fill out, you can actually complete entry forms much faster.  Start by downloading a form-filler, such as RoboForm.  You only need to enter basic personal information once, and the form filler automatically fills it in for you after that.  You can fill out dozens of entry forms in just a couple of minutes this way.

Next, visit a contests/sweepstakes Website such as Online-Sweepstakes.com.  Sites like this list dozens of different online contests that you can enter.

Here are some tips for entering: choose only contests with the best odds.  It may not be worth your time to chase after a draw with odds of one in five million.  Contests that are restricted to a particular region or demographic usually have the best odds.

Secondly, enter as many times as you’re allowed to.  You might as well maximize your chances of winning!  (This is when RoboForm will come in handy.)

Thirdly, enter contests that offer multiple prizes.  This is another way of increasing your chances of winning something.

3) Phone-in contests: These have been around for decades, but they’re easier to win now that cell phones are everywhere.  These kinds of contests are usually sponsored by radio stations, so the first thing to do is check your local radio stations. They have better odds than most sweepstakes.

The way to win is simply to be the correct caller in a sequence.    To increase your chances of winning, you’ll need to set your phones (landline and cell phone) to speed dial the contest phone number.  (Increase your odds even more by enlisting one or more family members to make calls too.  Be sure to set the speed dial on all your landlines, and have your family set up their personal cell phones.)

When it’s time to call in to win, get both phones going at the same time.  Dial, wait for the pickup, and if you aren’t the right caller, hang up immediately and repeat.

You’ll probably get a lot of busy signals.  If you do, hang up and redial immediately.  Speed-dialing is the key here.  You may not win the first time you try this, but if you do it faithfully you’re bound to win eventually.

Here’s something to remember: not all contests offer cash prizes.  That’s okay.  It’s still possible to make money entering contests that don’t award cash.  If you win something you don’t want or need, or you simply just prefer cash, sell the item.  (We suggest Craigslist or eBay.)  Even if you sell it for less than its retail value, you’ll still come out ahead.