8 Tactics That Will Help You Win in 2024

Why 2024 is the Best Time to Enter Online

Let’s face it: 2023 has been a tough year. With the effects of a rising cost of living and inflation stressing our social habits, family structures, and economies, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. 

So if you’re isolating at home and you feel like a pick-me-up, why not enter an online promotion? Research shows that winning free stuff has a positive effect on the brain. When you win, your brain releases a chemical called dopamine. As dopamine acts on our brain’s reward system, we instantly feel better. 

Online sweepstakes are low-risk, minimal-effort ways to access that winning dopamine rush, so get entering! 

8 Contest Tactics to Help You Win Big

We all have read about people who make winning giveaways look easy. This week they’ll win a trip to Spain and in a few months, it’ll be a brand new car. They might just seem really lucky, but chances are that person is putting a lot of effort into winning.

If you’re itching to enter online giveaways like the ones we feature here on ContestScoop, but you haven’t been so lucky in the past, we’re going to share some tactics that seasoned sweepstakes winners use to make their luck happen! 

1.Take a Risk

Change your attitude towards entering sweepstakes. We have all heard of the law of attraction by now, and more and more I am starting to appreciate that a positive attitude towards life works in favour of winning as well and here is why.

When it comes to online sweepstakes, you may be one of those people who think “there are so many entries, I won’t even stand a chance”. However according to Ramit Sethi, the best-selling author of I Will Teach You to Be Rich, most people are intimidated by competitors before even entering a challenge.

This means that most people won’t even enter a game of chance, and basically end up eliminating themselves! So, although this may sound obvious, get over the idea of possibly not winning (the I-never-win-anything attitude) and just enter the game. 

You’re never going to win if you don’t enter in the first place. So, going forward, simply set yourself a daily, weekly, or monthly goal and commit to it. You may think that entering one or two online giveaways will do the trick, but winning is serious business. It goes without saying that the more you enter the better. So roll up your sleeves and get to it.

2.Make Entering a Daily Practice

This tip is my No.1 personal favourite and I do actually start my morning with my daily contest list. The trick to building a good habit is to fit it into your existing routine. So once you’ve set yourself some goals, dedicate some time during the day to entering competitions. 

This could be after you’ve checked and responded to emails or just before you take a lunch break. If you set aside time every day to enter online contests, you’ll meet your goals in no time. 

Since I know it’s harder to stick to a list when you first have to create a system to save contests, we have taken care of this step for you. I was very excited to add the MyContest section to our website where you can now add all your favourite daily, weekly and monthly contests. I highly recommend that you get started with the My contest feature before doing anything else and I am sure you will find it makes entering that much easier and efficient for you!

3. Always Read the Rules

This sounds like an easy one, and maybe that’s why many people seem to skip it. I often see it happening on Social Media giveaways where people clearly forget to complete all the steps required for an entry. Some forget to tag, answer a question or include a hashtag and just like that, you are disqualified from winning the prize! So, when you’re entering many competitions, you might be tempted to skip through the terms and conditions for the sake of efficiency. But this approach will do more harm than good.

Plus, some online competitions allow for only one entry, which means, if you are entering a single entry contest too many times (more than once) your extra entries are discarded or worse, some sponsors may actually remove all of your entries from the promotion. In contrast to that are other promotions that allow for multiple and even unlimited entries, so reading the rules might actually increase your chances of winning. 

Therefore, to avoid being disqualified from online contests, always make sure you read the rules of the competition and our article about

Common Contest Rules in Canada and How To Follow Them.

4. Set up a Sweepstakes Email Account 

I use different email addresses to keep my personal, business and contest emails separate and organized and I suggest that you create an account solely dedicated to contests as well. There are several reasons why that’s a must to do!

Managing your entries through a single, separate email account will make entering online competitions so much easier. You won’t have to sift through your personal and work emails to find competition entries. If you get lucky and win, the notification email will be easily visible so that you can quickly claim your prize. Just don’t name it something like “[email protected]”, or “sweeps”, because some companies will disqualify “sweeper entries” coming from email accounts that are created simply for the purpose of entering giveaways.

Another reason to use a “contest email account” is that this will help to keep spam your personal email address free from (most) spam mail and a flood of promotional emails and newsletters.

5. Be Easily Reachable 

While a dedicated email address for competitions is a sure way to know about your sweepstakes outcomes, you’ll also need to make sure that you’re reachable to competition-holders. Often, if the first winner takes too long to respond and collect their prize, they end up losing out.

To make sure this doesn’t happen, set up alerts for your sweepstakes email account or check into your emails at least every 5 days, as sponsors give winners the chance to respond within a five-day period. You can also use a planner to keep track of when promotions close and open and make sure you’re reachable by phone. 

Of course it goes without saying that you alaways give a correct phone number and valid email address and don’t forget to check your Facebook, Instagram and Twitter messages if you also enter giveaways on Social media. Some SPonsors will contact the winners via a DM, and if you do not respond in time, you may miss out.

6. Be Selective Tactive

It’s great to enter as many promotions as possible. This increases your chances of winning and is a good starting tactic. But once you’ve got the hang of managing your sweepstakes entries, you might want to be a bit more selective. Since I am very busy managing the website, I have a “bucket list” of prizes I like to win and try to stick to the ones I feel I want the most!

On Contestscoop.com you can also narrow down the prizes by categories like cars, cash, baby or beauty stuff as well. This breakdown by prize categories or entry frequency and the best daily prize list are excellent for helping you refine your competition searches. 

7. Believe in Good Luck

Whether you believe in it or not, trying out traditional luck-bringing rituals is still fun. This could be anything from a good luck charm to shifting your mindset to a more positive outlook. After all, positivity is a powerful way to make good things happen in your life, including a few online prize wins. 

8. Never Give Up 

If you’re starting to get a little disheartened, that’s understandable. A good way to motivate yourself and keep going is to treat entering online sweepstakes as an exciting hobby. If you’ve planned ahead and made entering easy, you’ve got nothing to lose. Keep going and you’re bound to see results. Everyone goes through a dry spell, but this makes it more thrilling when you actually win! 

That’s another reason I love the fun instant giveaways from stores like Circle K. Circle K has these awesome text-to-win giveaways, and you can play daily during the contest period for a chance to win gift cards, game consoles, cash and many other prizes. While I have not won a big one yet, I always win something like free drinks, chocolate bars and these tasty little bags of Peanuts I love!

Adding instant wins and contests with thousands of prizes is an excellent pick-me-up to your list!

Find Your Ideal Online Contest

Winning streaks may seem lucky, but the best way to win online is through careful planning, managing your entries, and a positive attitude.

Lastly, you can increase your chances in the game of luck by avoiding the “masses” in our guide on Sourcing local contests and sweepstakes in your area.

Now that you’re ready to start winning, explore our site or contact us for more information on the best online sweepstakes for you!