The Prize Draw Industry 7 Years On

This is my longest ever job at 7 years working for Win4now (I'm 30), and over those years I've witnessed a lot of changes within the prize draw & competition industry as well as the Internet as a whole.

When I first joined the Win4now team there were not many other prize draw websites around in the UK; just a few sites like Myoffers and Offersx. We all look allot different to what we did back then!

I remember only a few prize draw portals; (sites that just have links to hundreds of sites that have a prize draw on them) The Prize Finder, MrsFreebie? and Loquax and hardly any prize draws on other websites you see on your daily surf.

Nowadays nearly every website I go on from: clothing retailers, women's interest sites, magazines, car sales to even crisp manufacturers! hosts either their own prize section or has links to other companies - even Win4now's. The UK prize draw market is over saturated.
Social marketing has taken form too with a mixture of 'compers' (as they are fondly refereed too) sharing competition links and companies promoting their own competitions on forums, Twitter, Facebook & much more.

But looking back I ask you; which era do you prefer?
Prize draws everywhere or prize draws only on specialist sites? The juries out.

A Recipe To Win Prizes

This is my fun Recipe to winning prize draws and competitions online.

1. Preheat your computer to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and load up Win4now

2. Add all of your ingredients into the registration page pan & stir until golden brown.

3. In the same pan, add a competition of your choice.

4. Choice from a selection of offers & questions to add to your pan. Add the stock and a pinch of good luck and select the 'Enter Competition' button.

6. Place the casserole into the oven to cook until the prize draw end date.

7. Sit back, relax and keep your fingers crossed.

Or if you would like a real recipe, then I can recommend this hot pot :)

Freebie Hunters Use Technology To Win In 2010 - part 1

Online technology is a freebie hunters friend, don't be scared of it. Use it wisely because it will save you time & it will help you enter more competitions than manually trawling through old hat prize portals.
You can even stumble across exclusive vouchers & competitions. ( I see these daily on my Twitter feed! Heres an example of a GMTV competition)

How can I use twitter for competition entries?


That's today competition tip is to start investigating twitter.

At first it can be a little overwhelming with hundreds of tweets appearing from all directions and might daunt the more mature comper but stick with it and you'll soon reap the benefits through a little patience and trial and error.

You can access twitter online here, via your iphone using special apps, through widgets on blogs,through free programmes like tweetdeck and even directly on the search engines natural listings.

'Follow' as many celebs & companies as you deem enough to show you interesting links and exclusive prize draws. A useful tip is to find a competition website you know and trust then click onto who they are 'following' and 'follow' all of those people too. Before you know it, you'll be tweeting away with 100's of different compers :)

In order to be completely up to date with the latest voucher code, freebie, free sample, competition and prize draws its vital that freebie hunters in today's online community keep up to date with the latest technologies. Don't be a dinosaur comper; keep up to date :)

Follow Win4now on Twitter, say hi and i'll help you get your bearings.

Claim your FREE ShowerSmart here

To help you to make savings this winter, we want to
give you a FREE eaga ShowerSmart device.

Most of us in the office have signed up for a free water saver and started using them at our homes before we told you guys to ensure they are genuine & believe us they are!



Your eaga ShowerSmart is great for your pocket and
great for the environment - here's what it could save you:

* The average UK family can save up to £900* over the product's lifetime
* Save up to £30 per year on fuel bills*
* Save up to £20 per year if your water is metred

The shower attachment is really easy to fit so you don't need to be technically minded or get a plumber in. It won't damage your shower either if you decide to remove it.

Sign up Free today to get yours sent to you in the post.

Save money, help the environment & grab yourself a fantastic freebie!

Fancy dress for Simon and you?

Delaney is probably the cheekiest of all our sales people. Some of you may have spoken to him before; this is for you ;)

Check out Simon sporting a fancy dress Brokeback Mountain costume on Friday. (I think he was aiming more for a macho John Wayne - nevermind Delaney)

If you have any fancy dress pictures of you or your colleagues - post them here for me.

If you haven't got any up to date costumes, remember you can win a fancy dress costume for all your family by guessing the correct 3 numbers on Instantwin4now. ( our free entry instant win prize site)

Good luck & enjoy!

New Competitions

8 new competitions in Jan for you to enter absolutely free.
Here's the low down:
Win £150 worth of Amazon vouchers where you can buy much more than just books, DVDs and music. Amazon sell pretty much everything nowadays! ( I'm a loyal customer!)

The nights may still be cold and dark, but imagine yourself sitting on a beach in Gran Canaria and knowing that it hasn't cost you a penny to get there!

Do you need a new look for 2010? well you can ditch your old mobile ( sell it online or give to charity I'd actually recommend you do ) and win a Samsung Jet mobile. Very stylish and touch screen.

Or if you have all the material goods that you'd ever need then you could always win a crazy 12,600 calorie giant gummi bear lolly! Surely it's well worth ruining your diet so you can remember the ridiculous day you decided to eat it! Awesome.....


Sneaky peek at the new competitions for Feb; 9 so far ranging from holidays, laptops, vouchers, skydiving to wacky pet prizes!

Remember to answer the advertisements under each competition to help keep Win4now running well into 2011!

Earn cash from unwanted prizes

It's a common perception that some people enter every competition they come across regardless of if they actually want to win the prize and some people only enter competitions that they would really love to win.

Mindsets probably range from thinking that unwanted prizes could be given away to friends/family or sold?
and those not entering either don't have time to enter loads of competitions so optimise their time with only a handful of entries or perhaps a moral decision that they'll leave some prizes to people more thankful? (niche especially)

But there are other options:

1. As we are still in hard financial times why not enter all competitions you see and then choose to give unwanted gifts to:
your local charity shop
freecycle
donate to a school/church raffles
or just sell them on an auction site like ebay?! you could keep the £ or give it away.

2. You could create a compers club swop shop community!

Be thrifty this year and try not to clutter unwanted goods in your house when there are ways to make money out of them or make money for someone else more in need than yourself. 2010 could be your year of community caring.