Entered hundreds/thousands of comps and won little or nothing?

hamsterfan1

A few years ago the average number of comps entered to win a prize (not number of entries per comp) was roughly 3500, but there seem to be more compers and less comps now

emmaandbunni

It's nice to win but it is just a fun hobby for most, I think I must have entered around 30k competitions this year and have won 34 prizes. so that is around one win for every 800 competitions I enter. and some of them were cups, tins of soup,can of red bull and few good ones. not going to give up my day job yet.

cagsd

High hundreds to thousands is absolutely nothing if looked at over the course of a year. Most compers on here enter that many in a week, some even per day if they are really keen!! As has been said, win ratios can vary wildly but at a bare minimum (if you're extremely lucky that is) you're looking at about one win in every 1000 entered - which is exactly what you've said your mum has achieved! Most of us on here now find that it's more like one in 5,000 comps or even worse. And by "a win" it doesn't mean a TV or a holiday, it can be a bottle of shampoo or a DVD. I've found that my wins have steadily decreased year on year, this year has been extremely poor indeed as there are so many other people at it now. A couple of years back there were only very few competitions on Facebook for example; now nearly every brand uses that medium to promote their comps and where they may have had 5,000 entries a few years ago, now they'd get 50,000. So it makes it much harder to win.

As has been said, you have to either look at it like a fun hobby with the possible bonus of a nice prize - or just don't bother. My days of "expecting" to win big prizes are long gone, I just enjoy entering comps and allowing myself 30 seconds to think "ooh, nice prize, I'd like that..." before I move on to the next one!

tghe-retford

• Companies using social networks to promote competitions which now enables tens, potentially hundreds of thousands to enter their comps. As a result, even small prizes can gather just as much publicity as a big prize could but with the added benefit of a smaller cost to the company organising the competition - also cuts out the middle man of having a third party firm handling the delivery of the prize, you just move that responsibility onto the in-house social media department.
  
  There are a few hold-outs - radio, television and magazines - but these are ultimately shrinking old style media and in time, these prizes will shrink and disappear - also concerning as to how these are also the comps which have the big cash prizes;
• ITV moving away from free web entry to postal entry (and premium cost web entry) to dissuade people from using the free entry route. Something other TV channels were already doing beforehand, led by Channel 5 and subsequently copied by Channel 4;
• Proliferation of comping apps such as Rafflecopter, Gleam and others which encourage multiple entries - mostly via commenting and social media;
• Technology websites opening their competitions to worldwide entry, vastly increasing numbers of people who enter for those prizes.
• Comping become more known and most people concentrating their entries for the big ticket items - cash, technology, white goods and vouchers;
• More competition organisers spreading their entry routes across several avenues, publications or websites.
• And one which might gain momentum in the future - a clampdown on compers by competition organisers without you being aware of it. Easier to do with more public information out there thanks to social networks and compers having social networking profiles.

More people entering with more chances to enter with a dwindling value of prizes is not good news for those who rely on comping as a additional form of gaining items or tax free winnings. As already mentioned, better to see it as a hobby where you expect to gain nothing and anything as a bonus rather than a waste of time in retrospect.

OneYorkshireLass

thoughtsoflife wrote: »

Is there anything she can do to increase her chances of winning these comps she enters?

Cheat