Companies have been using promotions to entice consumers ever since the onslaught of consumerism in the 20th century, and a significant number are often deceptive as to what consumers will in fact receive, resorting to sneaky fine print and terms & conditions. Nevertheless, sweepstakes can offer high-priced objects of desire such as iPods, game consoles and other free stuff, not to mention vacations and even cash offers.

Most people will enter around 1 or 2 contests a year, and since only a tiny proportion will actually win, consumers discount them as simply expensive gimmicks. Nonetheless, to those who endure, there are lots of incentives as demonstrated on current affairs shows where people have rooms full of winnings.

A competition or a contest generally involves some sort of action on the behalf of the consumer, such as submitting in their ideas, publishing a piece of writing or uploading a video of themselves to the internet. An example of this would be the frequent promotions on shows shown early weekend mornings, in which children are encouraged to send in their answers to questions, the best ones being rewarded with prizes like toys and computer games. Skill therefore comes into it, as the judges select which entry that they feel is the most competent.

The growing pattern, however, is to utilize contests. These mass promotions suggest the chance of winning a reward for virtually no work at all, and consequently appeal to many. An example is the set of contests on websites like freebiesblogger.com, which often involve nothing more than completing in entry forms. However, many require that entrants subscribe to newsletters and emails as a condition of entry.

Given the small percentages that actually enter contests, it might be in your best interests to start filling out those forms. You’ll never win, if you never actually enter.

Lamo Damo has been blogging about freebies and samples for over 2 years. He gets
enjoyment from helping others save money by using the Internet and by finding the latest incredible deals.