Ever since I won $5,000 I have had people telling me they don’t win and they don’t understand why. They want to know what they are doing wrong, if anything, and how they too can be a winner. I guess everyone also read that I win lots of other prizes too. When you read about someone doing super well at anything you only hear that one thing they do but you really don’t see the whole picture.
With any hobby there are ups and downs and it is very true of this hobby. Sweeping has always had what we call dry spells when you aren’t winning any prizes. Then you have the rush and all at once you win 1, 2, or 3 prizes. The old saying is that wins come in threes.
You have only heard about the wonderful things I won but you have not heard about the thousands of times that I didn’t win. Would you even read an article if I wrote about how I lost a 1,000 times last month. I don’t think so. Everyone wants to read those articles that are uplifting and give you hope that people actually DO win.
How many times have you gone to a casino or Bingo hall and sat near the person who was the winner. How many other people were in the room that didn’t win? Lots I’m sure.
Can you honestly say that you have never won anything playing an instant win game, sweepstakes, blog giveaways, at Bingo or at the casino? Can you say you have NEVER won from buying a raffle or lottery ticket – not even a dollar? If you think about it you probably can remember times you were a winner. NO ONE can lose all of the time. There just isn’t any way – that is, unless you NEVER play.
Don’t be a whiner – be a winner!
But, right now you think Wendy is the only winner in the world and why aren’t you winning. You need the money or prize just as much as she does so where is YOUR prize!
I have done the same thing. I see people winning lots more than me all of the time and the tendency when that happens is for me to be a WHINER and say, “why me” or why not me”. I’ve done that lots of times. It’s just human nature I guess. When we do that we stop doing what we need to do to be a WINNER because we let those thoughts tell us we will never win.
I don’t believe in luck. I believe in hard work!
The other morning when I won the $5,000 I just happen to hit the time that was programmed into the sponsor’s computer just right. It had nothing to do with luck or anything special that I did. I do not have any magical powers and am not lucky.
I win because I enter and I enter A LOT! I don’t just enter once a day. I might enter 20 times a day. I might take days off but overall I enter every single day of the year. I enter at least 1 or 2 sweepstakes or instant win games each day. There might be 5 or 10 days that go by that I don’t win but eventually I win something.
I really don’t spend more than an hour a day entering but I am organized so that helps. Being organized is just in my nature and that makes me more efficient at it.
I might not win from an instant win game for a month but I don’t just play instant win games. I enter sweepstakes everyday where the prizes that are given out are based on a random drawing so I have a lot of entries into a lot of drawings all of the time. I enter some mail-ins but not much. I enter military only sweeps which are more restricted and I also enter local giveaways. Local giveaways have better odds for you to win a prize too because you are playing against a lot less people. I will be teaching you soon how to find local giveaways.
I would say that out of every 100 times I lose I might win 1 prize. And, I don’t win all big prizes either. I might win 3 big prizes in 1 year. The rest range in price from $20 to $500 each.
How much work are you willing to do to save money?
How many coupons do you clip and organize? How many deals are you involved in with CVS, Walgreens or Riteaid stores? How many times have you gotten up early to take advantage of a great sale at Kohl’s or Macy’s or sat in front of your computer at a certain time because you knew a certain online store was going to have a special coupon or sale and you needed to be “first in line” to take advantage of it? It’s the same thing. Anything you do to save money or get something free isn’t really free at all because you are giving up your free time to do it. But, it is well worth in the end. I guess you have to decide if entering sweepstakes is “your thing” and if it is not, then that is fine. There are lots of other ways of saving money and getting free stuff. The more work you do the more free stuff you get whether through coupons, deals, or sweepstakes.
So my question to you is how dedicated are you to winning?
Do you enter once, 10 times, 50 times and give up? I NEVER GIVE UP! I am dedicated and in it for the long haul. The reason I am dedicated is because I KNOW I will win. I have proven it over and over. It has NOTHING to do with luck. It has ALL to do with how much work you are willing to put into it. At least, that is my opinion and that’s really all I have to give you isn’t it.
Do you believe?
If you think you will lose then you probably will. You MUST believe that you will win and keep believing it even when you aren’t winning. If you believe you will lose then you will give up. Believing you will win is what will keep you going through those dry spells no matter how long they last.
I am here to encourage and teach you what I know but I can’t enter for you. All I can say is believe in yourself and keep doing it even when you’re not winning.
Remember, you can win if you don’t play! (CT Lottery)
Every time I’ve won a big prize (e.g. honeymoon trip to the Four Seasons in Nevis, West Indies), I have FELT like I would be the winner. In the case of the honeymoon, they had two drawings – both very far from my home, and I didn’t have a car at the time, but something kept saying “you’re going to win!” so I went to the first Bloomingdales, and didn’t win. Then the following weekend I went to the other Bloomingdales and I won! I was all alone (everyone else had moms, sisters, friends, with them), and I was shaking because I knew deep down my name would be drawn and it was. Just like you, I have several dry periods and then win several items at once.
Another fun story – my mom and dad have been going to Lake Tahoe for 40 years and last year on one of their “get away” trips, my mom won the $6.4 million jackpot for the Wheel of Fortune slots. She knew she was going to win and told my dad she wanted to keep playing. It was 3AM (very late for them!) and my dad walked off to play something else then heard lots of commotion. He went to find my mom and she was standing there in shock. It took 40 years for her to win big, but when she did, she DID! Of course, she was spending money to play, which is not the same as entering free sweeps.
Keep on playing!
WOW 6.4 million? That’s amazing. I guess she can stop playing now huh. Thanks for sharing Susan.
Wendy
I'm putting my 2 cents in here as well. I am a sweepstaker as well and I have won a car, many trips, jewelry, cash, etc. BUT THAT WAS OVER A 20+ year period. I may go months without a win and a lot longer without a MAJOR win, but I keep plugging away, because I enjoy the thrill winning and even enjoy entering. I find it relaxing and it's my hobby, so I'd have to enjoy it to be at this for so many years. Remember – that if you're entering a traditional sweepstakes (not an instant win – which frankly I don't win very often) – then you have to figure approximately 6 months from the DRAW DATE before you hear anything. Some come sooner, but I always figure 6 months. SO – if you enter TODAY and the draw date is April 30th & you WIN – you may not get notified until October. Understand that a lot of us have been doing this for a long time and we may be winning from sweepstakes that we entered a while ago. Instant wins and local/restricted sweepstakes are a little different as you will either learn instantly or at least soon after the draw date. Don't give up yet – you have too much to win!
I am so enjoying all of your input. I'm very new to sweeps and IWG (& thank you so much Sweetie for all your help!) LOL, I look at every single one of the contests that I'm entering regularly as a possible win! Call me Pollyanna! (even though so far I've only won M&M's, Mars candies, and Mike and Ikes – I'm not deterred!)
I am curious as to how many sweeps you pros try to enter on a daily basis. I know you said you spend about an hour, Sweetie, but I wonder if your hour covers a lot more sweeps than mine does.
Do you an estimate on how many?
Thanks for all your help and encouragement.
Jill
This is my exact strategy. I enter as many times as I am allowed to enter and I enter lots of different ones. That way the odds are more in my favor 😀 It’s a hobby and I love to win, but it does take a lot of work but it is nice to get free frivolous things you couldn’t afford otherwise!
I’m trying hard to not be whiner but it does get depressing at times. I will, however, suck it up and continue trying!!! Thanks for the pep talk:)
Reading this post and the comments was encouraging! I just started playing seriously and was already feeling a little discouraged. I've been playing daily (about an hour per day) for about six weeks and have only won a M&M/Mars bar so far. I keep reading Wendy saying, you should be able to win the Coke game or the Pace game easily enough, but it just isn't happening for me yet. I told myself I'd give it six months of working hard at it and then decide if it's worth my time, so reading Zippy's comment was very helpful to me.
Thanks again for the post, Wendy, and for the website. Oh, also, signing up for all the free stuff on your other site has been great too!
Kim,
Thanks for reading. You know, we all can get discouraged whether if it is for this hobby or anything else in life and we all need encouragement to keep on going.
I definitely have lots of low times when I am not winning anything but then one thing comes in and then another.
That is also why I play instant win games. The big wins are few and far between so if you play enough instant win games you will eventually win and then have little stuff coming in between to keep you going.
It’s good that you post an article like this because I think you SHOULD talk about some of your failures, it shows a more human side of you and hopefully lowers the jealousy.
However it is clear that the message you’re trying to say here is that you must play full out in order to win.
Sorry to be the whiner, but I just don’t have luck when it comes to wining… ANYTHING. I signed up to win deodorant and couldn’t win that.
Now when it comes to freebies (everyone is a winner), thats where I am lucky. I always find the freebies.
Dana,
We are ALL whiners at some point, even me. This hobby takes a lot of patience because, if you let it, you will get frustrated because you aren’t winning. EVERYONE will win at some point but it is only those that don’t give up who will win in the end. If you lose on one say, oh well, and move on to the next one.
Wendy
haven't won any sweeps or instant wins in over a one year period. I play up to 2-3 hours a day. At a store the other day there were 5 customers(including me). they were giving away prizes and announcing it over the loud speaker. 4 out 5 won something, you guessed it! I didn't win anything. maybe I should try a new hobby….(sob sob)
Great article Wendy, thanks! I just started this a month or so ago and have only won a Bic pen so far, but it's a PEN and I was absolutely thrilled to win it!
Every day I find new sweeps to enter but also tweak my systems and get a little more organized, so am keeping my entry time to a little over an hour. The way I figure it, the wins will come and eventually it will be profitable and well worth my time. Good luck to everyone!
Oh, as to the tweaking, I use the Firefox browser and its bookmarks feature to organize my sweeps, and roboform to fill them in.
With separate folders set up for Daily/ Weekly/ Monthly/ Single Entry, I edit the bookmark name in Firefox to reflect the end dates and/or date entered, then organize them sequentially by date.
I also use "open all in tabs" for each folder, which opens every url in the selected folder simultaneously in separate tabs and makes it super easy to enter multiple sweeps. Sometimes takes a few minutes to load all the tabs, but takes very little time to set up and maintain and saves a LOT of work!
Hope this helps someone.
I was sharing this article with a family member and read through the comments again this morning. I thought I'd add an update that will hopefully encourage those who are frustrated.
After I commented earlier this year, I played for three more weeks without a single win, but then on the last day in April I won a $20 Coke card! Then in May I won 16 times for a total of almost $600 in cash and prizes! Ever since that Coke win in April, I have been winning consistently.
Some months are better than others, but I am now convinced it is well worth my time. Last month I had my first win from a regular sweepstakes (as opposed to an instant win game), and it was from the McDonald's McCafe Your Day game…$1,000 Visa card and $50 McArch card!
Thank you, Wendy, for encouraging me to keep at it and for all the work you put into your sites.
All of you have such inspiring stories and wow, to the person's mom who won 6.4 M, thats crazy and I'm happy for her. I've been entering sweepstakes ever since I ran into Sweeties Site about a month or 2 ago. I haven't won anything huge, but I have won some smaller things such as… (50$ from Coke, Coffee from Marlboro, Bottle opener from Marlboro, a bra barette, 5$ from honey nut Cheerio, 10$ worth of box tops,$25 forever 21 gift card, box of crest white strips, and a pouch of tuna) And wow now that I typed it all it seems like alot lol! But lately i've been feeling like something HUGE is coming my way, hopefully my senses are right! I wake up every morning and I rush to the computer to check if I won. Good Luck to everyone else! 🙂
Sweetie,
God bless you for this excellent post. You help so many people more than you realize. Today I won the Redken Aerate 08 bodifying cream-mouse. The thing is that I was irritated with that sweeps because it stated there that it was a sample, lol, so once I realized that I quit entering that one and forgot about it, I did not think I was going to win and no way was I going to take my time every day waiting for the page to load for a silly sample, (now I love samples don't get me wrong but a sweeps for one, lol) anyhow, I won, today it came in the mail and I was totally freaked when I got the box, it was kind of big for a so called sample, I opened it up and it was a large Jar of the Redken Aerate 08, this is no sample by any means. I entered this sweeps from a list of sweeps on mysavings, and I just entered because it was there, lol, but I used this stuff today, even though it contains toxins and is not organic, it works good, and it was free!!! I thought of you today when I won, you are an inspiration and truly are a sweetie just as your nickname states. I chatted with you on here before and you were super nice to me, and I appreciated that. God bless, and happing sweeping!!! YAY I finaly won something!!
Sat Nam, **(-_-)**
Piper
Happy Sweeping lol, sorry for typo.
I became a “fan” of your site long before I ever started sweeping because I knew one day I’d want to take up the hobby. In the meantime I had been winning pretty consistently on blog giveaways: 3 pairs of Crocs, Soda, cheesecake, Beret, $50 Grocery GC, $10 Grocery GC, pancake mix care package, and my biggest win Cheer Laundry detergent for a year. This has all been within the last 3 months. So, I started sweeping with Sweeties Sweeps!! I feel VERY lucky and like something big is coming my way (come on vacation.) So I am trying my hand at sweeping. Only been a few weeks and nothing so far but I am going to keep plugging. Thank you for inspiring me to not give up. Can’t wait to let you know if (ahem, I mean WHEN) I win! 🙂 Staying positive…..Nikki.
I love sweeping, a lot of people who ask me about it either roll their eyes or think it is a waste of time. I haven’t won a huge prize but I have won gift cards, coupons and things that really do help to supplement my income. Not only does it help financially, but it really is a fun hobby. I read your article on dry spells a while ago, and it really helped. I hadn’t been winning for a while and I was getting discouraged but I read your article, and I kept entering and like you said, I began winning again. I do go through dry spells still, but I realize if I keep working I will win again. Thanks for all you do, seriously 🙂