Welcome to High Stakes Sweepers! High Stakes Sweepers is a website dedicated to bringing you the latest and best sweepstakes, contests, giveaways, and freebies both on the web and off! Even if you are not a diehard sweeper, This site will help you start out by providing you with tips, tricks, and links to tons of great sweepstakes and other opportunities that will have you winning big in no time! Don’t sit on the sidelines wishing you would have entered that sweepstakes or contest, take action and start today! Granted, not every contest you enter will pay out, but the more you enter, the more of a chance you will have to win. Any sweeper will tell you, enter, enter, enter! You can’t win unless you enter. We hope you find this site useful and even more importantly, hope you win big!
Below you wil find some great tips to get you started on your quest to winning big on sweepstakes and contests!
- Decide What Information You Will Use on Your Entry Forms.
Sweepstakes sponsors are particular when it comes to the accuracy of you entry form inormation and your personal information. Even a minor discrepency between the two could disqualify you from the contest!
Your Name! If you win a sweepstakes or contest, the sponsors of the sweepstakes will normally want a signed and notarized affidavit from you basically proving that you are who you say you are. Make sure that the name you registered the sweepstakes with can be verified to a notary with some form of ID (driver’s license, passport, etc)
Your Telephone Number! Most sweepstakes will notify the winner of a contest by telephone. These phone calls can come at anytime of the day or evening and you are not available to answer the call, 9 out of 10, they will not leave a message. If you have a cell phone that you keep with you at all times, use that number on your sweepstakes’ entry forms to ensure you get the big call if you win!
Your Address! Do not use a PO Box on your sweepstakes entry form! Sweepstakes and contest mainly use delivery companies such as Fed Ex and UPS to deliver prizes. These companies do not deliver mail to PO Boxes therefore many sweepstakes do not allow their use. A physical address also allows the sweepstakes’ sponsor to mandate the “limit one per household” rule that is common with most sweepstakes.
Your Email Address! Entering alot of sweepstakes and contests will most certainly result in you receiving tons of marketing and advertising emails from sponsors. To keep these not so desirable emails from mingling with your personal emails, I suggest you create an account just for sweepstakes entries. Yahoo! mail, Gmail, Hotmail, are a few email accounts that are offered for free!
- Download Roboform Password and Information Storage Software.
Roboform is a sweepers dream come true. When entering multiple sweepstakes and contest on a daily basis, it can become extremely discouraging to have to enter all of your entry information over and over again. Roboform is a software program that saves information such as passwords, email addresses, and other commonly requested sweepstakes entry information. Roboform does offer a basic access free trial version so you can see if it’s right for you as well as a paid Pro version that has tons of features while still remaining very inexpensive. Although Roboform is a great tool, it does have it’s pro’s and con’s:
Pro’s
- Roboform saves time period! Because it saves all your information, you are able to breeze through entry forms with ease.
- You will never forget your passwords, they will always be on file.
- Keeps you interested in sweepstakes by removing the boredom factor of repetitious entry forms.
- Offers a free basic download to try.
- Allows you to save information for multiple sweepers.
Con’s
- Not all sweepstakes allow Roboform to enter your information.
- Not all feature available with the free trial version.
- Not compatiable with flash sweepstakes.
- Only works on Windows.
Overall, Roboform is a great tool for entering sweepstakes and contests, especailly on a large scale. Try it out, it’s worth it!
- Come Up With a Sweepstakes Strategy!
Mass entering of sweepstakes can start to get overwhelming and repetitious over time. To prevent slip ups that may get you disqualified or even worse, quit sweeping all together, come up with a strategy. Below is an outline of the strategy that I use when entering sweepstakes, it may not be for everyone, it’s ok to make a changes to best suit your needs.
Scoping out new sweepstakes! Look over newly listed sweepstakes and find the ones that involve prizes you want to win. Seperate the sweepstakes by Daily, Weekly, and Monthly entries.
Decide which sweepstakes to enter! Prioritize the list of sweepstakes you have made, listing them in order of the prizes you really want to the prizes you caould live without. This will help you manage your time better when entering your selected sweepstakes.
Bookmark your entries! Duplicate entries are one of the biggest reasons why people get disqualified from sweepstakes. Bookmark the sweepstakes you have already entered to prevent this from happening to you while helping you beter organize your entries simultaneously.
Entering your sweepstakes! Go from the top of your list and start entering your sweepstakes one by one (Roboform will make this much less time consuming). After you have entered your top sweepstakes propects, your spare time can be devoted to entering the less important sweeps on your list. Make sure to enter the sweepstakes atleast a day before the final entry day. Some sweepstakes end early without notice, and if it happened to be important to you, you would miss out on your chance to win.
- Find Sweepstakes To Enter
This day in age, the majority of people looking to enter sweepstakes have access to the internet. The internet is the number one resource for finding sweepstakes to enter. There are also many other ways that you can keep up to date with all the current sweepstakes and offers that are available.
Visit known sweepstakes sponsor’s websites. Alot of times a sponsor will advertise sweepstakes they are promoting on their websites. If you find a sponsor that holds frequent sweepstakes, sign up for their newsletter if possible, this is a great way to be one of the first to know of upcoming sweepstakes.
Refer your friends! Sponsors will often offer the oppotunity to enter more than once if you have referred other to the sweepstakes. Get a group of people together that are intered in sweeping and take turns as the referer. This will improve your chances at winning by increasing your odds!
Keep a look out! Sometimes sweepstakes and contest can be right under your nose. Keep a sharp eye out for ballot boxes, magazine ads, product packaging, and even billboards and commercials. If you happen upon a sweepstake, enter it, whether your at the gas station filling up or in the Bahamas enjoying a free trip you just won. Enter, Enter, Enter!
Search online sweepstakes directories! Google search is a great way to find every just about every sweepstake available. There are many websites that are dedicated to provided people like me and you with sweepstakes, contests, giveaways, and other great free stuff we all love! Try a few different keywords in the search box and narrow it down to where you find what you are looking for.
- Don’t Lose Interest
The infamous Sweepstakes Burnout! From time to time even the most experienced sweeper will experience a dry spell. When all your hard work and effort is not rewarded, it can be very discouraging. You feel like your wasting your time, your luck has flown the coup, and you will never win another contest, EVER! Well, this is where most people just give up, but a true sweeper will press on, here’s a few tips on how to keep focus and stay in the game.
Enter, Enter, Enter! You have to make yourself enter more sweepstakes than normal, if time allows of course. The best way to fend off a bad case of burnout is to win a prize. It doesn’t really matter what it is, a ball cap, bottle of shampoo, even an ink pen! Winning even the smallest of prizes will boost your moral and give you the drive to aim for bigger prizes.
Enter instant win sweepstakes! Instant win sweepstakes are excellent when going through a burnout because if you do win, there is instant gratification for your efforts. With instant win sweepstakes, you usually find out within an hour or so if not sooner if you have won the prize.
Read about other winners! Reading about other people’s winning can motivate you to try to win yourself. Seeing other’s success stories will brighten your day and shed some light on a dark burnout rut.
Try entering for different prizes! Break out of your comfort zone and enter a few sweepstakes that offer prizes you wouldn’t normally consider desirable. These sweepstake sites will be designed differently, a change of scenery so to speak. You never know, you might even find new interests in some of the things you didn’t even know you liked.
If all else fails, take a short break! I normally wouldn’t recommend this, but hey, I would rather you take a short break in your entries rather than quit all together. Take a few days off, get out and do something fun to take your mind off of your recent dry spell. When you return to your sweepstakes, you will feel refreshed and ready for action!
- How To Know When You Have Won
If you do your research and follow this guide, you will eventually win! But how will the sponsor’s contact you when you win? There are a few different methods that sponsors use to contact winners, I have listed the main mehods here:
Postal Mail! Some sponsors will send notifications that you have won by mail. The majority of the time, this notification will advise you that you have won and will contain instructions on how to receive your prize.
Email! This is the most used method for sponsors to notify a winner of a sweepstakes. The sponsor will send an email to the address that was provided on the entry form containing an affidavit and instructions on how to go about claming your prize. Remeber to check you sweepstakes email often for these types of messages!
Phone calls! Sponsors will often use a phone call to the number provided on the entry form to notify a winner of a sweepstake. The will usually only try to reach the winner a certain number of time before moving on to the next contestant in line so make sure that the number your provide on your entry form is one that you will have access to around the clock.
Announcements! Sponsors will make an announcement of their website or newsletter and give the winner a timeframe to claim the prize. After the allotted time has passed they will move on to the next contestant in line. Make yourself a note to refer to your bookmarked sweepstakes pages periodically just in case this happens.
Surprise! Sometimes a sponsor will send your prize directly to your doorstep without notification! To me this is the most exciting method of notification. There’s nothing like watching the delivery man unexpectingly drop off a package at your door.
- What Happens After You Win
After you have received your notification that you have won, what do you do now to claim your prize? There are some things you need to do and some things that you should do to show your appreciation towards the sponsors.
Read your notification carefully! It might contain detailed instructions on how to go about claiming your prize or it might tell you that your prize is in the mail, either way it’s good to make sure. Also, make sure that it is a legitimate sweepstakes notification, check to see if it is a sweepstake that you have actually entered. If the notification asks you to send money or credit card information it is probably a scam and should be disregarded.
Make note of your win! It is a good idea to keep a record of your winnings. A spreadsheet is, IMO, the best methods to keep record. Save the sponsor’s name, the sweepstakes name, the date, and the prize you won. In the future, you will be able to look back on all the great prizes you won! This record will also come in handy when filling your taxes at the end of the year.
Fill out the affidavit if applicable! Some sponsors will want you to fill out an affidavit, have it notorized, and sent back to them to ensure that the information you entered in the sweepstakes matches your personal info. Your SSN# may be requested at this time, don’t be alarmed, the sponsors usually need it for their own tax purposes.
Send in your affidavit! I recommend sending your affidavit back to the sponsor via certified mail. This shipping method allows you to track the package and also offers a delivery confirmation. This will give you peace of mind that it has been delivered.
Thank the sponsor! This is not a “must” on the “things to do” list when you when a prize while entering sweepstakes, but it is a good gesture. Sending thanks will also encourage the sponsor to hold more sweepstakes in the future if they feel that they are being appreciated.
Watch out for your win! It is expected for a prize to be delivered after the expected date, but if your prize is more than 2-3 weeks overdue, it is possible that something got mixed up somewhere. Don’t oanic, contact the sponsor and explain to them your situation and they will be able to correct the problem or track your prize down and give you a new delivery date.
Pay you taxes! PAY TAXES? I know, but remember, any prize with a value of $600 or more must ne claimed on your income tax when you file at the end of the year. Paying a little tax on your prize is much better than paying fines and late fees if the IRS get wind of your winnings.
In closure, entering sweepstakes can be very rewarding and fun at the same time. Always remember to have fun with it, don’t turn it into a job that you don’t want to be doing. Many new sweepers get discouraged if they don’t win something within the first few weeks of submitting sweepstakes entries. Don’t let this be you, you will hit a wall and you will want to quit at times, but just think of that feeling you will get when that UPS truck pulls up in front of your house delivering a prize to you or sitting on the beach on a free vacation you won simply by filling out a sweepstakes entry form. I wish you the best of luck, I hope I have provided you with enough information to get you started in the wonderful world of sweepstakes and contests! If you found this page useful, share it with your friends and support our sponsors so we can continue to maintain this site. Thank You.
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hello i am so glad i seen your show my dad did this when i was a little girl so i thought i would try it at this day and time i need to do everthing i can
how can i register with you guy’s
top right hand corner of the site. Should have a register tab there. Glad you enjoy the site and welcome!
Im all about winning sweepstakes! Thanks for the site! Luck of the Irish is upon us!!
Great tips, TY!