Help me win free stuff

January 9, 2013 11:37 AM

I'm not greedy... really... just looking for a sporting chance at some gratis gear. My fiancee recently won some sweet accessories from a wedding website, and it made me think that there may be other untapped goldmines of online giveaways out there, if one is willing to suffer a few extra spam emails a day.

A quick search led me to this weekly giveaway from Backpacker Magazine: http://www.backpacker.com/2010-gear-guide-gear-sweepstakes/articles/13771

GoPro gives stuff away everyday: http://gopro.com/daily-giveaway/

I'm more interested in these small-medium prizes than million dollar sweepstakes. Can the hivemind point me towards other worthwhile contests or sites that aggregate such contests?

posted by Prevailing Southwest to grab bag (9 answers total)

Try checking promotions by small businesses in your neck of woods. I entered a contest for a Kindle Fire last year run by a small insurance company in my small town, promptly forgot about it, and two months later I was notified that I had won. I got my photo taken with the president of the company, who told me only 75 people had entered the contest. The Kindle came with a Target gift receipt, so since I already had Kindle on my iPad, I turned around and exchanged it for a gift card at Target. Score!
posted by HeyAllie at 11:46 AM on January 9

I'm guessing you're in the US? If not, the vast majority of freebies are US-only, so that's something to watch for.

1) smartcanucks.ca is a blog I've found very useful for deals/coupons/freebies that apply to Canada, but many also apply to the US

2) I was directed to r/freebies recently and haven't had much time to check it out yet but it looks useful and active.
posted by randomnity at 11:57 AM on January 9

The Pioneer Woman gives away stuff regularly on all of the subsites of her blog. A lot of people enter, so I'm not sure how much of a sporting chance you have. All you have to do is leave a comment on the giveaway post (like this one, for example, which is running today).
posted by k8lin at 12:02 PM on January 9 [1 favorite]

Watch your local online paper. I've won concert tickets three times and theater tickets once from the local newspaper website.
posted by COD at 12:32 PM on January 9

If you are entering drawings, crumple your entry instead of folding. My Dad taught me this and he's won more crap than you can shake a stick at. It's easier for people manually drawing stuff out of a hat.

My Dad also got into a pool of jello to win a car by trying to find a marble at the bottom of the pool. He didn't win a car, but he did get a CB radio (this was in 1978.) So another strategy is not to be afraid of doing really stupid stuff.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 12:57 PM on January 9

I used to work for a PR firm many moons ago, some of our giveaways for small clients had maybe 20 entries that's good odds for maybe $100.00 worth of stuff, not as many people call in to the radio station as you would think for their giveaways also, I had a friend who would regularly score free concert tickets without much of a fuss.
posted by kanemano at 12:57 PM on January 9

Send messages to companies that you tried their product and were wondering if they have another type or flavor or packaging or whatever. I've found that sometimes when I do that they end up offering to send me coupons or free samples (for whatever reason I'm not sure). It wasn't my intention to get that stuff, but it could be your intention.
posted by Dansaman at 4:28 PM on January 9

Check the Contests & Sweepstakes subforum at Slickdeals. You'll need to set up a throwaway email address for sure, because it will get many thousands of spam mails if you make even a mild habit of entering contests and sweepstakes. You'll also appreciate a browser extension like LastPass which lets you save form information and autofill it for you on the sweepstakes sites. This will save you 95% of the time it takes to fill stuff out. It's also handy as a password manager, but the form feature is what you're looking for.
posted by empyrean at 8:26 PM on January 9 [1 favorite]

A guy I used to work with runs freebutton.com, which lets you click a button, watch an ad, and maybe win whatever thing is their giveaway for right then. I personally know people who have gotten free stuff from that site.

I realize that sounds SUPER spammy, but I promise I'm not a spammer. I'm not going to make the site a link, even. (Mods, delete this if you deem it worthy of deletion)
posted by sleeping bear at 8:55 PM on January 9