As my
faithful readers know, I am a bit of a “sweeper”, and enter a lot of contests and
sweepstakes- usually late at night, when everyone else is apparently playing Candy Crush! LOL I have won a lot of wonderful things, and as 2015 comes to a close, I'd like to thank the individuals and companies
responsible for the lovely things I've won- trips and things that Dan and I would seriously never have been able to enjoy if I hadn’t won them!
This spring
Dan and I spent an amazing, wonderful month in Vietnam on the trip I won last
year from Central Coast Vietnam Tourism on Facebook! My many blog posts earlier
this year about Vietnam, and all the incredible things we got to do and see and eat and drink, were from
that trip!
 |
| Emperor & Empress in Dalat! |
 |
| Playing gongs in the Central Highlands! |
 |
| Riding elephants at Lok Lake! |
 |
| Water Buffalo Surfing: Wet Rice Farming! |
Dan and I LOVE Vietnam, and when I entered this we were literally Dreaming about being able
to go back some day- if we won Lotto- so my winning this trip was truly a
dream come true!
Please check out my posts on this blog, which have links to all sorts of great things to do in Vietnam, and also see www.centralcoastvietnam.com and "like" their page on Facebook for more incredible things you can do in Vietnam: https://www.facebook.com/CentralCoastVN
Please check out my posts on this blog, which have links to all sorts of great things to do in Vietnam, and also see www.centralcoastvietnam.com and "like" their page on Facebook for more incredible things you can do in Vietnam: https://www.facebook.com/CentralCoastVN
This year I think my
“bestest” win was THE most beautiful handbag ever- a $1200 cerulean blue Stella
McCartney “Fallabella” Tote- from LoveGoodly, which, as their name makes clear, has truly lovely things, AND supports good causes: www.lovegoodly.com
I won a
fabulous $200 Weber Grill in the #MyMahan sweepstakes from the PGA- and Dan got
to pick it up at Ace Hardware in Bluefield. WV!
"Tweet-Ups"
on Twitter (www.twitter.com) are a lot of fun, and this fall I got Really lucky & won a $250 Visa gift card and some great
beauty products from UNT http://www.shopunt.com/eng/ a fine Taiwanese beauty brand, in the #UNTbeautytalk Twitter
Party hosted by SheSpeaks www.shespeaks.com!
On Twitter I also won a $20 eBay gift card, from, yes, eBay! :-) And as I am a Total eBay Fanatic (if not for eBay, the Elkhorn Inn would look like Wally World!) this will Definitely come in handy!
I won a $50 gift card to C-A-L Ranch Stores http://www.calranch.com/ (got a cool, heated seed-starter kit for this winter!) for my photo of the Elkhorn Inn with our sunflower meadow that Dan planted... and then I won $1000 from Marlboro www.marlboro.com for two projects I submitted: Replanting our sunflower meadow across from the Inn, and building a photography platform for Railfans in McDowell County, West Virginia!
I won the
#PSILoveYou box full of pumpkin spice yummies from the Cookie Dough and Oven Mitt Blog: http://cookiedoughandovenmitt.com And I have to say that Pumpkin Spice Peanut Butter is DELICIOUS!
From Passports with Purpose passportswithpurpose.org I won a $169 Travelmate Deluxe Product Bundle provided by the blog Cloud Surfing Kids: http://cloudsurfingkids.com/
 |
We also got to enjoy the three months of truly beautiful flowers from Bouqs www.bouqs.com that I won last year when I was awarded “Marketer of the Year” Runner-Up from www.bedandbreakfast.com (The other parts of the prize were an award, which we have displayed at the Elkhorn Inn, and a $100 gift certificate to Lowe’s- which Dan used immediately!)
 |
| Labor day flowers from Bouqs! |
 |
| Flowers from Bouqs! |
 |
| My Award |
As readers of this blog know, I participate in a number of market research projects, and one of the best is Crowdtap. As a Crowdtapper, Dan & I (and our guests) have been able to try (and then write about) some great new products, including the Litter Genie, delicious foods & sauces from Campbell's, Ricola cough drops, yummy Brookside Crunchy Clusters and Folger's Flavors, Johnsonville "Grillers" Sausages, Kleenex tissues, delicious "foodie" Sahale Snacks, Listerine, and Zep Cleaners- and this Valentine's Day Zep surprised me with a gift bag! Check out www.crowdtap.com and sign up!
And I also won an Aqua Teen Hunger Force DVD set from Cartoon Network!
1. Read the rules! I cannot stress this enough, especially with regards to contests. If you are going to spend the time creating an entry, make sure you know the rules so you don't inadvertently disqualify yourself! One entry only, or daily entries? Are you eligible to win? Is it a skill-based, judged contest, or a random drawing? What are you supposed to write or photograph and how? You get the idea!
2. Check your email- DAILY! You often have only 24 hours to respond to a winning notification email, or the prize will be awarded to someone else! Thanks to entering sweeps and being on so many email lists, I now have to scroll through about 1800 emails a day, and yes, that it is pain, but the payoff has been pretty fabulous! Consider it part of your "job" and it will feel less onerous. LOL
3. Only enter for things you Really want to win! Apropos this, my favorite sweeps story is about winning a giant box of condoms! Dan was incredulous- WHY, he wanted to know, did I enter to win stuff like that?! I had actually entered to win the $10K trip to Vegas- but instead of winning the Grand Prize, I had won the First Prize- and the sweeps had been sponsored by Trojan! :-)
And I also always thank those responsible, and try to give the people and companies who sponsor the sweeps and contests I win publicity and promotion- a "bang for their buck", as it were- on this blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ etc., because sweeps and contests are created to SELL STUFF, and sharing is caring! :-) I learn about a lot of great products through entering sweeps and contests, and we do buy many of them!
Good luck, and have fun sweeping!
Let me know in the comments if you've won something- whether it was wonderful or just hilarious!
Elisse
