Canadians: A World Of Prizes Awaits You

There’s a subculture on the internet that perhaps you’re aware of, but probably not. It's made up of crowds of people playing games and filling out forms. They spend all day on forums and directories, clicking links and posting comments. Every day. All day long. For no pay.

That’s right. No pay.

So what drives them to do this? Why do men and women the world over forgo a regular job to essentially surf the web all day? Well, simply put: prizes. These people are contesting.

So, what is contesting? Well, it’s just what it sounds like. Contesting is the act of entering a lot of contests and sweepstakes. Most people partake in this activity online, but contests and sweepstakes are entered in real life as well. The idea behind it is, the more contests you enter, the better the odds are you’ll win something. Anything.

But does it work? Is it worth the time?

I can, beyond any shadow of a doubt, tell you that yes, yes it does work.

As a writer, I have researched a great many subjects. Subjects such as contests and giveaways. During the time I have spent researching contests, I've entered a few myself for many reasons: 1. I need to find out how the contest works 2. I want to see what is required to enter and 3. Because I downright want to win whatever it is the prize is!

In the last 2 years, I spent two separate days researching contests and entering them. And both days ended up in a win.

The first time, I won a trip to Kelowna and tickets to a bridal fair. It was fun. We got caught in a blizzard on the way up though.

The second time happened just last week. I won a door. I won a solid oak front door. I didn’t win a car or an iPad or a trip for two to wine country France. Nope. I won a door.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am excited. It’s a beautiful door and there are other elements to the prize package that are awesome, too. I just think it’s an odd thing to be able to say. I won a door. Don’t you?

So, this whole door thing led to me wondering how often people actually win contests when they enter them all the time. And I found out some pretty crazy stuff.

First of all, extreme contesters are kind of a spinoff of extreme couponers. If you haven’t heard of that, well, that’s a whole other blog post. But briefly, it is a subculture of people who clip coupons day in and day out and get massive discounts on just about everything they buy. This subculture led to people scouring the web for freebies, and finally, entering contests.

In my research I found people who have spent 30+ years entering contests all day long. They win trips, televisions, cars, gadgets, gift cards and more. One woman, I read, totalled all her winnings at over $250,000!

So, how do they find all of these contests? And how can you enter them too? Easy! There are hundreds of websites out there devoted to listing contests, and some of them are even just for Canadians. Here are a few:

Smart Canucks
Contest Girl
Win Free Stuff Canada
Canadian Free Stuff
ContestCanada.net
ContestCanada.com

Some tips for winning big:

1. Don’t use an auto filler program to fill out forms as this can automatically disqualify you if detected.
2. Only enter the contests you are interested in winning, or you will be wasting a lot of time on ones you don’t care about.
3. Create a new email address reserved just for the contests, as you will start to receive a lot of spam. Be sure to continue to check it though, as some contests notify the winners this way.
4. Be patient. It takes time. In both instances, I found out I won about 3 months after I entered. I had actually totally forgotten about ever having entered in the first place.

So, get to it! Have you ever won anything? Let us know in the comments!