Best way to comp?

1972

I have been comping for quite a few years now and haven't won loads, but some of those prizes I have won have been VERY nice! Holidays to Australia and Florida, GHDs, luxury weekend away and 2 iPads!!!


I have always entered by doing the comps on "end date" and I try, but usually fail to do this a couple of days before as I have found if I do it on the day, some of the competitions have already ended.


It is the 6th January today and I am up to date after comping last night, so will do tomorrows during today and this evening.


I noticed that some people say they prefer to do the "newly listed" ones.


What is everyone elses favourite way and have you noticed more success?


Thanks in advance

Marg2k8

I have always entered those closing soon, but have decided to try and enter newly listed. This is my first week of trying that, so I will be interested to see which I prefer.

Little_Miss_Wino

I do the end date first and usually do a few days at at time, I try to do an hour in my lunch break at work and then again in the evening I try to do another hour or so, only won a couple of small prizes, not won anything in ages though so hoping 2014 will be my year

missprice

On this site I have only ever done the latest listed. Had one fabulous year with mega wins. Last year was a bust and all other years been OK ish.

mjm3346

If a competition is properly run it makes no difference when you enter.

When it comes down to the best way to enter it has to be enter early - stay away from end dating as the advantages are almost none and the risks of missing out are many -

Comp closes early (or just sometime before midnight on the final day)
Comp website has problems (even worse if it's a weekend)
MSE forum goes down
Your broadband and or computer/laptop etc go down
Real life events take out comping time
Also unless you use the subforums you will miss out on the enter early ones where you get included in draws from the day/week of entry up to the competition end date.

The only possible advantage to end dating that I can think of is that someone posted about poorly run twitter competitions being more likely to pick later entries.

By entering early the comps closing early are not a problem and there is more time to overcome all the other issues above.

(Early entry would be after the post has been up a little while so if there are any problems they will have been noticed - self-promo/spam sites/wrong answer etc unless you are happy to check things like that out yourself)

If you do daily comps where nothing changes then bookmark them direct so you don't need to go through the forum to enter (it's a way to go now but the same applies for most advents) cuts down entry time and it doesn't matter if mse goes off-line.

Another disadvantage to entering by end date are the large peaks in the number of competitions that close on Fridays and on the last day of a month (There will be a huge number of competitions ending on Fri 31st Jan). Entry closer to when they are added gives a more even number to enter and allows more time to deal with any peaks that might arise.

BlueBella

I'm with you mjm3346 ! I enter early

mar30

I've been messing about on MSE for a whole year now and always end dated, on and off. This week I have attempted to catch up and clear the whole lot in one go and I'm doing really well with that.
Them, next week when I'm back I work I'll only do newly listed from the front page and work through to where I left off the evening before, catching up with anything I've missed on the weekend using end by date.
This is just a trial, I may give up by Feb lol!

weeowens

mar30 wrote: »

I've been messing about on MSE for a whole year now and always end dated, on and off. This week I have attempted to catch up and clear the whole lot in one go and I'm doing really well with that.
Them, next week when I'm back I work I'll only do newly listed from the front page and work through to where I left off the evening before, catching up with anything I've missed on the weekend using end by date.
This is just a trial, I may give up by Feb lol!

Personally I would say to enter comps as posted but give the posts a few minutes before you enter so any dupes are posted.
In the end it is a personal choice though :-)
I tend to be comping as posted but then mix them up via this to catch any biggies that are missed.

fire**fly

mjm3346 wrote: »

If a competition is properly run it makes no difference when you enter.

When it comes down to the best way to enter it has to be enter early - stay away from end dating as the advantages are almost none and the risks of missing out are many -

Comp closes early
Comp website has problems (even worse if it's a weekend)
MSE forum goes down
Your broadband and or computer/laptop etc go down
Real life events take out comping time
Also unless you use the subforums you will miss out on the enter early ones where you get included in draws from the day/week of entry up to the competition end date.

The only possible advantage to end dating that I can think of is that someone posted about poorly run twitter competitions being more likely to pick later entries.

By entering early the comps closing early are not a problem and there is more time to overcome all the other issues.

(Early entry would be after the post has been up a little while so if there are any problems they will have been noticed - self-promo/spam sites/wrong answer etc unless you are happy to check things like that out yourself)

If you do daily comps where nothing changes then bookmark them direct so you don't need to go through the forum to enter (it's a way to go now but the same applies for most advents) cuts down entry time and it doesn't matter if mse goes off-line.

I agree with the above ^^^^
works well & always has done for me x

BlueBella

Yes....you've heard them say 'The early bird catches the worm....' (And big worms are really inviting first thing in the morning too lol!)

mar30

Great link Weeowens, thanks for sharing xx