I won, I won!

December 8, 2011 9:13 AM

Please direct me to websites where I can read about people who join sweepstakes religiously and where I can see pictures of their winnings. Also, people who sign up for "free samples" who get tons of packages from doing it.

I think I've watched something like this on Oprah before, and I want to read about them some more. I love getting things in the mail myself, and I join sweepstakes, so you can say I am very fascinated about these.

posted by LittleMissItneg to grab bag (10 answers total)

I don't have a website, but I worked a couple years with a guy who woke up early every morning and spent two hours filling out online sweepstakes before he came in to work. In three years, he won $100,000 cash, an $80,000 BMW 6 convertible, a $20,000 home theater setup, and countless smaller prizes like MP3 players, PSPs, food, drinks, candies, t-shirts, etc. I always joked that if he quit his job and made it a full-time effort, he could make a comfortable living.
posted by BurntHombre at 9:59 AM on December 8, 2011 [2 favorites]

Have you seen SlickDeals? They review sweepstakes and bargains on the forum. There are also posts from seasoned veterans, so it might be worth reading there for a while to see what people manage to get.
posted by Addlepated at 10:19 AM on December 8, 2011

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio is a book and movie with a similar theme. From the Amazon description:

"Married to a man with violent tendencies and a severe drinking problem, Evelyn Ryan managed to keep her 10 children fed and housed during the 1950s and '60s by entering--and winning--contests for rhymed jingles and advertising slogans of 25-words-or-less. This engaging and quick-witted biography written by daughter Terry (the writing half of T.O. Sylvester, a long running cartoon in the San Francisco Chronicle) relates how Evelyn submitted multiple entries, under various names, for contests sponsored by Dial soap, Lipton soup, Paper Mate pens, Kleenex Tissues and any number of other manufacturers, and won a wild assortment of prizes, including toasters, bikes, basketballs, and all-you-can-grab supermarket shopping sprees. "
posted by griseus at 11:14 AM on December 8, 2011

You could read the forums on http://www.online-sweepstakes.com/
posted by interplanetjanet at 11:36 AM on December 8, 2011

Free samples? Hey, it's free. He posts his "winnings" weekly, though I think he may have taken a break from that as of late.
posted by R a c h e l at 2:05 PM on December 8, 2011

Win With Weth!
posted by rmd1023 at 2:56 PM on December 8, 2011

I work for an online marketing company. We do sweeps and instant win games all the time. There are tons of sweeps forums and sites you can Google that will clue you in to in-market sweepstakes.

Since you seem to think this is a fun endeavor, you might also want to know more about how promotions work and how they comply with state and federal laws. PromotionWatch.com is a fairly interesting site about security, compliance and fulfillment. It also showcases some interesting promotions. It's worth a look.
posted by stubby phillips at 3:24 PM on December 8, 2011

Seconding online-sweepstakes. I was a member there for over a year and won various things from towels all the way to $5,000USD.

You can use forms that automatically fill out your address.

I'd say I spent 20 minutes - 2 hours daily doing these.
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 1:52 AM on December 9, 2011

Should also mention most of the reason I stopped was because I left the US.
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 1:53 AM on December 9, 2011

Have you heard of Nasubi?
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 7:58 AM on December 9, 2011