subject: How To Win Gift Cards Online [print this page] Just about everyone likes winning something of value. These days, with all the contest and special offers made by major retailers across the country you don't have to buy lottery tickets to be in the running to win valuable items.
With just a bit of searching you can find many websites that list all sorts of contests you can enter. Usually entering these contests is absolutely free. Sometimes you will have to fill out a survey, or answer a series of questions.
Others want you to buy sample packs of products. Those are the kind of contests you may prefer to avoid. If you're persistent you can win trips, cars, apparel, electronic gadgets, and probably the most popular items these days - gift cards.
Gift cards are popoular giveaways because they have obvious advantages over other types of products. Gift cards are available in virtually any practical amount - from small amounts like ten dollars to much larger ones in the hundreds of dollars. That makes it easy for a contest planner to choose an appropriate prize value. They are also easy to ship - unlike most hard goods.
Gift cards are also extremely practical from the winner's point of view. They are the next best thing to cash. They are easy to use, and just as easy to re-gift if you don't have the urge to buy from that particular store.
Most contests that use gift cards as prizes are pretty straightforward. You simply signup for a chance to win. But unlike lottery tickets where there is no effective strategy to increase your odds of winning, with online contests there are a few important ways to improve your odds.
First of all, you should look for websites where lots of gift card draws are held. The more gift card draws, and the more frequent they are, the greater your chances of winning. Some sites even automatically enter you into multiple draws with just one entry.
In some cases you can also increase the number of entries you can make. The more times you are entered, the greater your chances of winning. For example, if you can enter twice, you double your chances of winning.
Some online contests accept multiple entries, but many do not. In those cases the contest usually allows just one entry per email address. The most obvious way around this restriction is to enter using a different email address. Some people even take this to an extreme and open a number of gmail or hotmail accounts.
Contest organizers are not pleased when they see this happening, and may even disallow bogus multiple entries of this sort. But there may be other ways allowed by the rules to enter multiple times. For instance, at least one site runs more than one contest at a time. Each contest has a separate pool of entrants, but when a draw takes place all the entrants are thrown together into one pool.
Other contests allow you to enter multiple times over the course of the contest. For example you might be allowed to enter once a day, or once a week. With a contest lasting a month, being able to enter once a week for four weeks allows you to improve your odds of winning by 400%.
Other contests allow extra entries for doing things like giving an endorsement or recommendation, "liking" a Facebook Page, or writing a comment on a blog or Facebook page. Taking advantage of these opportunies can increase your chances in a big way.
The downside is that you will have to spend a bit more time reading the rules and filling out entries. But it is hard to argue against this approach when you consider how much better your odds of winning can be. If you are going to get serious about entering contests, you might as well maximize your opportunities by taking advantage of all the legitimate strategies made available to you.
by: Judy Hendershot
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