Please feed back on the 40+ Comping Tips guide

A question about : Please feed back on the 40+ Comping Tips guide

Hi all, we've updated the 40+ Comping Tips guide to help you find and win competitions.

How did you find the info? If you're a comper, do you have any other tips you'd add?

Thanks for your help!

MSE Jenny

Best answers:

• Thanks for all the hard work, am relatively new to this and one thing I found out today was I can keep a note of what I enter by hitting the enter button. You learn something new every day. I knew about the thank's button and try to use it everytime.
  I have tried to post a couple of comps, but find that I am usually too late, so please don't think that those that don't post don't care, as I am sure there are many like myself that are not quick enough.
  I am eternally grateful for all the hard work that goes into this forum. Thank you
• thanks for the update
• Ooh, very informative! I thought I was doing well after a few months of comping but now I have a few more tricks to try. Thanks
• Thanks for the info
• Thank you, good luck everyone
• You've inspired me to have a go and I've just entered my first comp
• Thanks for the tips, I don't comp via MSE as most of mine are via Facebook and Twitter and I have less time consuming ways of finding them normally, but the link for Daybreak yielded three more comps. I too have found that entering more comps yields more wins - I won a Ј20 Tesco giftcard, a family pass to Chessington, Moshi Monster goodies and a "funky mug" and that was all on Monday. I'm not always that lucky though
• Great tips, thank you ...I see you suggested a 'comping' email address, which is what I always use , my suggestion is to make it 'non gender specific' .It make no difference if you are entering comps where you have to fill in forms with your full details,as you usually have to input Mr/Mrs/Ms but for simple email entry comps,your gender is not revealed and perhaps gives a better chance when trying to win prizes for other members of your family of the opposite sex.Saves using different email addresses male/female each time.
• Hi all,
  a great and way to form fill is get a 'gaming keyboard' with programmable keys. I bought the excellent G13 that has 24 keys each programmable 3 times. The easy to use software allows text blocks to be assigned to each key. So my first name is stored on key G1, surname G2, first line of address G3 etc.
  I got a G13 from ebay for less than 20 quid. Saves me loads of time so well worth it.
  Hope this helps.
• I think tips 1 and 2 should be the other way around. The most important thing is that its a hobby, and 'success isnt guaranteed'. So often you get new people posting 'ive been entering for 2 weeks and ive not won anything' as if because they have entered, they are going to win.
  This month, ive won some drumsticks and a DVD, and i enter hundreds of competitions a day, so i think it really is important to make sure that although comping is a wonderful hobby, and at times, you can win some wonderful things, that sometimes you win nothing at all.
  I definately dont win as much now as i used to, as more people are comping, and this sort of artical will bring hundreds, if not thousands more into the loop, so i think its important that they know what they are getting into!
• The only thing I noticed is that on point 38 you say "Alternatively, earn big bucks for online surveys" Im sorry, but Ive been doing surveys for years and dont think you earn big bucks. Yes they are more of a guaranteed income, but it is only a small income. Hours online answering questions to get a voucher for Ј10 is the usual. I know its not the same as comping so not sure if it should go on here, but just wanted to point it out.
• "One consideration is that Roboform blindly fills out form details in the same way as spambots, which spammers use to send scores of entries. So some companies may mistake you for a spambot and block your entry. We've no stats on how many comps will block you this way, but if you're worried, try Autohotkey instead."
  I, like many others, use Roboform all the time. I would hate to think that any of our entries were discounted. Often I have to make a few small changes after Roboform has filled the form and I always click the submit button. I would be interested in any other views on this....
• I really ought to be a Competition Pro.
  I regularly enter Competitions which I haven't followed up assuming they will contact me if I win.
  I just enter and hope for the best completely forgetting it.
• Thanks MSE Jenny, good advice in the 40 tips.
  I think I am correct in saying that if you click on a website link to a competition, some promoters have software that can check where the entries have originated from. IE you can trace entrants who have clicked through from the MSE website.
  I have always found it beneficial to copy the MSE competition link first and paste it into a new tab/window. Doing this will also make it easier to see if it is a 'clean link' and not related to an individual or a referal.
  It is also easy to tell when a new comp has been published on a website as the promoter gets loads of entries within a short time period. I have found I win more prizes by entering toward the closing date of the competition although the gamble is that some comps do get closed earlier than stated.
• Point 8: Get Picky “Of course, with some contests there is the option to try to sell the prize on eBay. But you’re entering the contest based on someone else’s efforts to find it, and by doing so you'll be diminishing their chances. So consider the ethics before entering just to flog.”
  No offence, but I am amazed to find this here. Not only is the forum called, “Comping for Cash”, but it is housed on a website that is entirely about making and saving money. If MSE thinks that comping should purely be a hobby, rather than as a means of generating money then why it is here? As far as I can see, there are no MSE forums about maypole dancing, or train spotting.
  Yes, posters diminish their chances of winning by sharing comps, but this applies regardless of what people do with their prizes. I don’t post lots of comps, but I do post them when I find them. I love the idea of helping someone win something they want, but if anything, I get an even bigger kick out of thinking that perhaps I helped someone make ends meet.
  What worries me most about this being in the guide is that the last thing this forum needs is anything that encourages more user-bashing, in my humbles.
  Point 37 “If you've 'won' but the company demands a fee or deposit, walk away.” I’m sure this is true in nearly all cases, but if a prize is being shipped from another country extra shipping and tax may apply legitimately.
  Point 40: Facebook. It’s probably worth mentioning Twitter too and perhaps a ‘how to use’ link for Pinterest, Google +1 and rafflecopters.
• Quick tip for those using a Mac using OS X Mavericks - particularly those who don't use a password manager like 1Password or allow their browser to store and autofill their details.
  Apple menu -> System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Text
  will allow you to set up some text shortcuts, so for example, instead of having to type my mobile phone number, I set up a shortcut called 'mpn' and now when I type mpn it offers me the option of replacing it with my number. Likewise with my email address, I use 'dgc' - d*******@gmail.com in that case.
  Also, if you're using iCloud, these shortcuts will be synced to your iPad and iPhone, so you can do the same thing there (you can of course also set these up on the iOS devices, even if you don't have a Mac).
  This is also handy for those occasions where the password manager or browser happens to skip a field and you have to fill it in manually.
• Really informative - thanks for all the hard work put into it.
  One suggestion - is it possible to swap the 'Thanks' button and 'Spam' button around? I click 'Thanks' and the 'Tick' at speed and sometimes, if I'm rushing too much, I accidentally click on the 'Spam' button as it's right next to the 'Tick'. Having the 'Thanks' and 'Tick' next to each other would stop these errors and would also speed everything up.
• Fantastic and really helpful!
• Point 18 is a little out of date. I used to seek out the big TV comps on "prizefinder" as it had a dedicated tv section-this has now gone because the only alternative to premium phone entry is now the snailmail postal route.