Webupon

It’s a big, bad internet out there – nothing is free and everyone is trying to separate you from your hard-earned cash. There is no way to beat the system and get something for nothing. Or is there? Competitions on the web are the nearest thing possible to free money, goods and services.

You probably remember the old days, when you simply buy a newspaper or box of cereal, cut out the coupon, fill in your details, answer a few questions, complete a tie-break question, post the letter…you get the idea – time-consuming and a bit boring. Thanks to the internet, there are competitions available to you around the clock (or as long as you can stay awake), with prizes ranging from a free iTunes song to cars, holidays and even houses.

Of course, nothing in life is truly free. You may have to fill in a survey or a questionnaire in order to participate in some competitions, but as long as you don’t mind, it’s essentially cost-free and you are only supplying information. The other reasons for companies being so generous are very simple – publicity and the opportunity to get their hands on your email address so they can then bombard you with advertising at a later date. Of course, Gmail is only a click away, and there’s no need to use your everyday email address, is there?

Be very careful not to pick the wrong offers – any web site offering you ‘free’ pounds, dollars or euros to sign up will almost certainly have a hundred ways to get it back off you – often with interest. Unless you are absolutely sure you can win at poker, backgammon or roulette online, stay away. If you do have a guaranteed way of winning any of these games, please contact me – I would like to be your agent!

This being the internet, there’s no need to trawl through the search engines typing in ‘competition’, ‘win’ or – the worst of all – ‘free’. There are sites out there that have all the hard work done for you. All you have to do, fill in the usual required fields and press ‘enter’. Most of the English-language sites tend to be based in either the UK or Australia, with not much of a showing in the US. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as many competitions do not have a geographical boundary, especially those with cash or voucher prizes. Do always check the terms and conditions though, just to be sure.

With things being this easy, who could ask for anything more? Well, there’s always an easier way to do things, isn’t there? Once you have your competition page open, a single click of the good old Google toolbar will fill in many of your details for you, saving you re-typing or trying to use the auto-complete. Most of the time, it will only be necessary to fill in the details with a click, answer the question and press the send button. All done. You want things even easier? OK – but it’s going to cost you. For those with very little time, or who are very lazy, there are even one or two services that will fill in all the details, including the answers to the questions, and send off all your details for you. All you need to do is select the competitions you wish to enter. Naturally, this is not a public service nor a charity, so expect to pay in the region of £50 – 100 ($80 – 160) per year.

Do’s and Don’ts:

Do:

-         Check competition sites regularly for updates

-         Subscribe to the site’s RSS feed or email updates

-         Keep a special email address for competitions only, or you may find your inbox becomes unmanageable

-         Be creative if possible when it come to written tie-break questions. Answers are often really easy, so the organizers will check the tie-breakers quite often.

-         Use an auto-fill for web forms. Google toolbar is good, but is not the only product available. Be careful which you choose though, and think about who might gain access to your personal data if you don’t choose wisely

-         Let me know if you win anything!

Don’t:

-         Enter competitions you are not allowed to participate in for personal, legal or geographical reasons

-         ‘Spam’ multiple entries to the same site. There are very simple checks that can tell if you are doing this, and you may be instantly banned from entering that or any other competition they may hold

-         Give out any personal data unless you are absolutely sure it’s OK. Many competition sites will have feedback pages to tell you if the sites and organizers are legitimate and honest.

So, if you find yourself playing Facebook games or flash games to while away the hours, why not have a go at some competitions – what have you got to lose?