Freebies from friends VS winning prizes

I am posing this question because today I brought to work 2 boxes full of old books that I no longer want and there are quite a few book worms at Win4now.

I think the difference is all in the personalisation. I got a 'thank you' in many guises, and 'are you sure? that's brill thanks!' for giving away the books to my colleagues.

Whereas if you print off a voucher code from a website you think that your doing them a favour and they obviously want you to do it, so you aren't as grateful to the company for your special offer.

For instance: I went to Pizza Express last weekend using a 2 4 1 voucher. The place was packed and you could see lots of tables giving the vouchers to the waitress's- this is successful marketing! Looking around though everyone looked kind of embarrassed; wondering if the waitress's thought less of them and if the food would be as good if we showed the voucher before placing the order. Of course none of this was true, companies giving voucher codes have done all the background checking and they really do want you to use them!

There is a real difference in emotions when winning prizes though. You don't feel inferior or cheap - just lucky and it cheers you up for a long time after the initial news sinks in. Everyone like to win something! It gives you a natural high that voucher codes and freebies can't compete with.

Plus you get a personal email or phone call from a real person in our office, that's why on most of our winners comments you can see people saying thank you to Joy ( our receptionist - she gets the glory of our hard work! )

So do you agree? What do you prefer? A Win, A Freebie or a Voucher?

Or is the best option in fact donating things to good causes? Should I have given the books to a charity shop? opps...

Relationship Matching

Ok, so not strictly Win4now related but one of our sites Fastrology has a new feature that we hope you'll find good fun.

It's a zodiac compatibility chart.

The idea is that you can see if your boyfriend/girlfriend is a good love match to your star sign. I'll share with you now, that me & my fiance get the least compatible match! ( Libra & Cancer ) opps.... is it an omen to run now before the big day? ;)

Check it out and see how you and your partner match up.
Do the stars signal true and lasting love or a short unmatched fling?!

ps. Kerry's Op. went well and she'll be home by the weekend.

Get well soon Kerry

Our lovely Kerry is off work after today for about 6-8 weeks as shes 'having her bits whipped out' ( also known as a Hysterectomy. )

So I just wanted to say - We'll miss you Kerry! Get well soon and come back to work!

Innocent until proven guilty

I've just browsed through Win4now's winners comments and I've noticed that people still after all these years of Win4now being around, think that we are fake and that you can't really win.

If you think a companies a bit fishy, surely you wouldn't get involved with them?
But lucky for us, this isn't the case! (innocent until proven guilty)
It seems that some comper's carry on entering competitions but only truly believe we are genuine when either they win or a friend/family member does! I only wish we had enough money to make everyone a winner...

Check out these two recent prizedraw winners testimonials:

“When I first received the email I thought it was one of these famous scams, but after phoning up I couldn't believe that I am in fact a winner. I was firmly of the belief that no one really won these things, but I'm absolutely delighted to say I was wrong. Thank you very much. What a great start to the New Year. ”
J.Fenton
Won £200 Cash

“When I first got the email I thought it was a BIG CON!! but then I phoned up and picked my prize, the £400 PC World Vouchers. Could'nt believe it when they arrived two days later. Thankyou Win4now, a brilliant prize, will be entering more competitions now and telling my friends. Thanks again. ”
S.Roberts
Won a choice of Three Prizes - £400 PC World Vouchers or An Xbox 360 Elite + Five Games or An HP iPaq 914c Handheld Computer

It's a very British mentality though which I respect; Our members are intelligent people and although being skeptical, are open minded and maintain an 'innocent until proven guilty' mindset.
A mixture of curiosity and a bit of hope must make these skeptics ring us to find out if they really have won something.

What kind of win4now member are you? Open minded skeptic or a true believer from the beginning?

Losing your favourite website

Yesterday, I tried to log into my favourite website and I was redirected to another similar site, that the same company owned saying that my site was now dead due to the fact it didn't earn enough money through it's advertising. I was gutted!

The site in question changed my life in a way, because of the people i've met through it and the places i've been to due to my new hobby. (Luckily the friends i've made I have contact details of away from just using the sites forums, so we can stay in touch.)

We sometimes forget this but, websites are really important and affect peoples daily routines and life styles.

Can you imagine what would happen if your favourite sites suddenly disappeared?
What would you do if Win4now was gone today and there was no such thing as an online prize draw / competition anymore.
Don't worry Win4now's isn't going to disappear. We all love it too much and work hard to make it work as a business. If you want to guarantee this; Enter lots of competitions and take interest in our sponsors offers.

Right i'm off to visit all my favourite sites and do my bit to keep them profitable!

Free Offers, Freebies, Free Stuff - Pay Nothing!

Win4now has a new section called 'Free Offers' where you can find brilliant freebie offers. How good are we to you huh.


We'll be updating this area constantly to try to give you our members the best freebies the web can offer. This morning we have 'Get 20 Free Photo Prints' and 'Get up to 2 Free SIM Cards From Orange!' up for grabs. First come first serve.

Everyone likes something for nothing, so keep your eyes peeled on this section.

Also if your a company and you have some promotional products you would like to host on Win4now, please contact us! ( Ask for Lucy or Kerry )

Xmas party pictures or lack of....

After all that hype, the amount of photo's we have from our staff xmas party is pretty disappointing! (some bright spark decided to use a film camera, so heres a few phone picture i've found)

It seems we were drinking and partying more than posing...

Check out the scariest santa you've ever seen! That's someone from our call centre in India. They look to be having loads of fun. Kids beware, behave or santa might right hook you ;)

We have 2 new features on Win4now going live. The free offers section & the mystery envelope. Let me know what you think about them.

Happy New Year Compers

A quick Happy New Year to all Win4now members.
Today's my first day back at work since the 22nd so I have alot of catching up to do! (not to mention dieting to do!)

While I do that, why don't you enter all of our new 2009 competitions like Win a Mini Cooper, Win a Ford Focus and Dubai Holiday competition. What are you waiting for?

I'll be back in a few days to tell you all the Christmas gossip.