I’m sure many people have watched one of those TV shows where a person earns their living simply from entering competitions. It sounds like a fantastic idea, doesn’t it? Of course your second thought would probably involve the high odds, extra expenditure and time involved.

I’ve always been a sceptic, but not long ago, I decided that I’d give it a try. So far I’ve only managed to win one competition – it was a $1,000 cash prize, which was enough incentive for me to keep at it.

And sure, you’re not going to win every competition you enter. But if you never enter, you’re never going to win, are you? So here are a few tips I’ve picked up along the way, using competitions as a way to get an occasional bonus for just a small time investment.

DON’T assume that there are dozens of entries for competitions. Why? New businesses often run competitions in the hopes of getting more customers – and this doesn’t always work, meaning not a huge number of entries. A lot of people are also too lazy to enter a competition – doing more than writing a name and phone number can often seem too difficult or can be easily forgotten in the daily rush!

DO set up a different email address, especially if you’re entering online competitions. Many competitions will ask you to sign up for newsletters or subscribe to updates. Keeping all your competition related emails together will make it easier to keep track and mean you don’t need to wade through a ton of unwanted emails in your personal account.

DO decide up front how what time and energy you plan to put into entering competitions. I personally try and enter 3-5 competitions a day or spend up to an hour a week entering competitions. I also only enter competitions that don’t require a big time investment – I avoid surveys or competitions that have lots of steps (such as taking photos or writing lengthy entries) unless I’m very interested in the topic or competition.

DO decide what types of competitions you want to enter; don’t just enter ones at random. For instance, you might use your grocery shopping time to look for competition forms. Or you can simply enter some of the hundreds of Australian competitions available online at any given time. If you have a specific type of competition you enter, you’ll know what’s required and be able to enter each one faster.

DON’T spend money to enter competitions or buy products you wouldn’t normally. Sure, there’s a chance you might win any competition you enter, but there are dozens of free competitions out there that only require a small investment of your time.

Here are some of the sites I personally like for entering free and usually fairly easy competitions:

• Online Competitions (www.onlinecompetitions.com ) – A site that lists literally dozens of the latest Australian competitions that are mostly free and easy to enter.

• Huggies (www.huggies.com.au ) – Always has at least 10 competitions running, most with free entry or a simple 25 word entries. Everything from winning a car to strollers, baby supplies and pamper packs.

• Better Homes & Gardens (http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/better-homes-gardens/competitions/ ) – Often has a handful of easy to enter competitions.

• Kidspot (http://www.kidspot.com.au/Competition/competition.asp ) – Often has great free mummy related competitions.

• Random House (http://www.randomhouse.com.au/competitions/ )- If you love books, Random house often has at least half a dozen competitions going at a time to win anything from autographed copies of new releases through to trips to win a particular author.

Guest Blog Post by WryLilt

Tell us about your competition experiences….