Win cash from competitions

by Neil Faulkner on 31 August 2010  |  3 comments
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Is it worth entering hundreds of competitions to win a few small prizes?

How would you like to sit back at home whilst earning some extra cash simply by filling in some forms? It sounds appealing and the idea caught my eye after reading this piece in The Telegraph by Rosie Murray-West. Apparently, some people are making 'a small but steady living' by entering competitions, winning goods, and then selling them, presumably through eBay.

Considering how many thousands of competitions there are, this certainly seems plausible. Most of these competitions can't have all that many entrants, which means if you're good at targeting competitions with fewer competitors, you're more likely to win.

I once entered a PayPal competition. I never enter competitions, but I was having a rare idle moment, so I thought I'd go for it. I won something like £1,000. I've not entered another competition before or since, but I'm sure that my odds were helped by the fact someone had to win and the competition seemed to be going completely unpublicised.

All the information you need is here

I was all prepared to do a lot of intensive research for this article, but it seems many people are years ahead of me on this one. All the work has already been done and you can find all the information you need to give 'comping' your best shot using the internet.

The Telegraph article I mentioned earlier is a good starting point, as it has all the background information, and some tips on improving your chances and on which competitions to enter.

Next, I'd read the guide to winning at Loquax.co.uk. There are further general tips at Prize-Competitions.com.

Looking at the maths side of things, Winning Competitions explains quite well why it may be best to avoid the major promotions.

There are also two pages with original tips on Comper.co.uk, one about doing your research and the other about making multiple entries.

Finding competitions

There are several websites which list competitions. Type 'enter competitions' into Google. I looked at about 30 of these. Many of them are very similar, but I liked Prize-Competitions.com and Loquax.co.uk, for a large part because they seem lower profile and therefore you might have a better chance of winning some of the competitions they list.

Automation

I once dipped into sports arbitrage, which is where you place two different sized bets on each team in the same sporting event using two different bookies with remarkably different prices, knowing that mathematically you can't lose. However, finding those bets took me a long time, even if my own Excel arbitrage calculator could do the tricky maths bit for me swiftly. Despite coming away feeling satisfied with my guaranteed winnings each time, that time spent was simply not worth it.

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My dad tells me that some enterprising young men he knows are now making thousands each week doing the same thing as I did, although they are making a success of it like I couldn't because they've automated the process with their computer skills.

I suspect that competitions would be best in the same way for the people with computer programming skills, if they can find a way to automate their entries. However, even if you have no automation skills, your own Web browser may be able to help you. Take a look at Mozilla's Autofill Forms extension for example. I would imagine such tools come with increased security risks though, such as easier access to personal data if your computer was to be stolen.

There are websites offering automated entry to hundreds of competitions, but I doubt that it could be that easy. How many thousands of others enter the same competitions automatically? It's the competitions with lower accessibility that I think are more likely to reward the time you spend.

Time versus reward

For all the hype on the comping websites, the users seem to win relatively small, albeit with reasonable frequency if they're determined enough. The problem is compounded because, in the UK unlike in many countries, most competitions aren't obliged to display the chances of winning. I'm sure you can imagine many business owners taking advantage of that to give us ridiculously small odds.

On the other hand, I've worked for a small website that ran a couple of competitions that attracted very few entrants. One of those competitions required some time and skill, so it received just five entrants! As it was one of those competitions where someone had to win, the odds were very good.

Before you kick off a new career as a comper, bear in mind that right here at lovemoney.com, we run a competition every week in our Frugal Friday blog. It's easy to win - all you have to do is post about a bargain or a discount you've spotted on the blog, and the best one gets a prize of the free lovemoney.com goodies pictured here. The odds are usually pretty good, too!

Is this right for you?

If you are to give this a go, I recommend you keep track of how long you spend on this over a month or two versus your winnings (and the costs you incur, if any). If you're not winning anything, or not winning much for the time you're putting in, consider your alternatives. You may find the odds of improving your finances will be higher if you spend all those hours working harder, get a  pay-rise or a promotion, and develop your skills or learning new ones.

More: Secret ways the internet can save you money | Get a £2,000 refund from your credit card provider

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