Click to win - a quicker way

womble_lancs · 7 February 2016 at 7:56PM

I recently discovered that if you go to the bottom of a click to win comp and click on the link for the official rules, that page will list all of the different URLs for that competition. For example, this link to the official rules for 'win £500 Sainsbury's vouchers' lists almost 50 different sites. You could, if you wanted to, copy and paste these into your address bar one at a time, but there's a quicker way.

I use Chrome as my browser, and there's a great free app you can add on to it called 'Bulk ULR Loader'. There's one for the Opera browser, too. You just copy and paste the list of URLs into it, and it will open them all for you in separate tabs. I have it set to open only 10 links at a time because otherwise it grinds the computer to a halt. I've also got it set to delete the URLs I've already opened, and to remember the list. That way, if you have to go off and do something else, it will remember where you were up to when you come back.

So, taking it one step further, I have created a text file on my computer, and I've pasted in all the URLs of the click to wins that I really want to enter - it runs to about 12 pages. I just copy and paste the whole lot into the bulk URL loader and then let that do the rest of the work for me. When a comp comes up as 'expired', I just delete them from my text file. Similarly, I add new ones as I find them.

I've also got another text file listing the URLs of every page of each magazine's click to win pages, so I can review them quickly. I'll paste it below and then if you fancy giving it a try, you can do so. You'll find that some of the pages don't work, because it might be, for example, page 20, when there's only currently 10 pages for that magazine. However, I've left them in because the number of pages goes up and down frequently. It's easy enough just to close the pages which have nothing on them.

I hope this helps

womble_lancs · 7 February 2016 at 7:57PM

womble_lancs · 7 February 2016 at 7:58PM

SpaceyKevin · 7 February 2016 at 11:35PM

Instead of having all the C2W URLs in a document, I have all the pages saved and sorted in Chrome Bookmark folders. This way, I can open around 50 pages at the same time before the tab bar gets too crowded. I've also written a macro using Autohotkey that (essentially) clicks the "Enter This Competition" button, moves onto the next tab, and repeats until it reaches the last tab. This process is semi-automatic and is a huge time saver.

I highly recommend learning how to use Autohotkey whether you're entering competitions or not. It is incredibly useful for so many tasks.

As for finding new C2W competitions, I have a Python script that crawls through the pages of a few C2W sites, showing me newly posted C2W pages which I can then bookmark.

GeeBee38 · 8 February 2016 at 12:15AM

SpaceyKevin wrote: »

This way, I can open around 50 pages at the same time before the tab bar gets too crowded.

May i ask, how do you open so many tabs without the browser freezing?

I can only open about 10 tabs at a time?

mansey · 8 February 2016 at 12:43AM

I open all the comps I want to enter on a morning and work on them through the day.

I regularly have 400/500/600 tabs open, do not all computers do that

I have Adblocker, How Many Tabs and No Duplicate Tabs running at all time

GeeBee38 · 8 February 2016 at 12:49AM

mansey wrote: »

I open all the comps I want to enter on a morning and work on them through the day.

I regularly have 400/500/600 tabs open, do not all computers do that

I have Adblocker, How Many Tabs and No Duplicate Tabs running at all time

Wow, that's a lot of tabs, really 400 to 600? and no freezing?

gizmobenny · 8 February 2016 at 1:01AM

Any more than 10 tabs and my PC throws a hissy fit !
Think I need a new one.. any recommendations ?

GeeBee38 · 8 February 2016 at 1:03AM

Mines the same as yours gizmobenny

robbies_gal · 8 February 2016 at 1:11AM

i do this with the comps i want to enter but one at a time but laptop couldnt handle all those tabs

mansey · 8 February 2016 at 1:27AM

I'm really not a techy person but this is the way I have always comped, I spend a good hour each day opening comps from the main board, dailies, weeklies, mags and C2Ws and open each one in a new tab, at the top, then I close them as I enter them during the day.

If I don't enter them all I put them into a bookmark to do the following day before I close my computer down.

Once in a while my computer does tell me I am low on memory if that happens I add a few to a bookmark to get them off my tabs, once in a blue moon my computer has crashed but will reopen with all the tabs still in history to reopen.

I am using a HP desk top and it is 3 about months old, that's as techy as I get :rotfl:

Click to win - a quicker way

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