New Zealand
United KingdomForum
General Chatter
How many competitions do you think you enter a day or week?
Smalot11
15 Aug 17 6:38 PM
Well ... it varies. Some months it has been around 1000+ comps at XMAS,. Add to that daily bonus entries I've had around 100+ simulateously running. On average its probably been around at least 250-350 per month over the last couple of years. My old montly comping bookmarks would give a rough total.
It doesn't take much to enter to a couple hundred over a month without realising. Just for this site you've got at least 5 members only comps per month. (Leaderboard + 4 guessing games). So that's around 100 + 23 I've entered /700 daily entries just for this site over almost 2 years.
I've done couple of comping binges where might of entered like 100 in a hour. lmao Not something I'd try on my PC it would die of shock.
Currently would be below average the number of comps entering until I've "reorganised" how I manage competitions entered. That's a ongoing project I started around January after the XMAS comping tsunami.
Entering the easy part. It's managing entries that's the challenge! I love to know the ways compers keep it with it all for checking back etc.
Good Luck :)
Yes, the more I comp the deeper I go down the rabbit hole. Hahaha
Thanks for the reply. Found an interesting video on YouTube where the guy enters 1000 comps in 50 days so got me thinking.
Looking forward to the Christmas rush as I only started getting serious around Jan/feb of this year but definitely need a plan of attach before then.
Good luck to you too :)
@Smalot11 lmao. I might of seen that 1000 comps in 50 days. A UK guy from memory? From what I recall he wasn't very effective in his methods.
Argh last XMAS was my first year doing the XMAS advent ones. I probably did around 1200++ enteris for XMAS period.
My advice for the comping XMAS rush, run , just run, while you still got time. lmao
That and turn off your social media notifications during the XMAS period, espically if you got a few comping contacts on FB. I could detect lots of XMAS cheer from other compers just "loving" their notifications. I would wait until the quiet hours so could actually use FB. It was almost unusable during the day.
I don't have that many comping contacts and prefer keeping it to small friendly bunch. :) I hate to imagine the notifications for those with 100's of comping contacts.
One method that I found handy for the advent comps is create a clickable list of links for each day. I used FB to create a private list and added as neccessary. I had around 30-50 to do each day for a month. There was probably at least double the popular ones going around. So thats around 500+ comps in 12 days
I also noted down the ending dates and grouped together ones running the same period eg 1-12th etc to avoid clicking on them once expired, as they don't all start/end at the same time. Apart from entering for the following days was also handy for checking back. I still that filed away it might come in handy for next XMAS. Good chance a lot of those promoters might run advent comps again.
Planning helps I would recommend start at least a week or two before Dec 1st and have a method where can quickly click on a link for each day. I started a bit late on the advent ones and was still finding new advent ones like on day 11.
Like most comps best to get in early before the masses join in.
@Smalot1 For this XMAS hopefully by then will have a more automated system up and running. At least a working prototype. Once you start doing like 200+ comps each month you get issues with keeping up to check back using various methods eg bookmarks etc.
There are few ways can utilize various comping sites to help manage entries. For this site
I've noticed a few compers tend to a good majority of comps from only one site to help centralize the managiment of comps entered. Thou that has it's various limititions and disadvantes. I.e. Once you start using a multitude of comping sites or do a lot of adhoc FN/social media comps. Plus once it's listed on a popular comping site you've got at least 300+ others entering it.
What I'm working on It's a lot more complex then a FB page of clickable links or bookmarks. Involves a few databases collecting, organising and managing the comps. I will have to think how to organise the advent ones for the XMAS rush. What I've done a few months back to handle the daily bonus entries should help manage those. An advent classification might come handy to split them up.
For international comps was managing like 10 timezones for and 100+ simulateous comps at times. It can get "challenging" for priorising when to do them during the day. When was in full comping mode was staggering bonus entries during the day according to what time they where due. That was with the help of a database to keep track of the rolling daily bonus expiry times with the ability to just click on the links to open up a browser.
One thing you'll need to be careful during the XMAS rush is not getting "sinned binned" on the various social media for high activity in a short period. I.e. too many tags, comments etc in a period. I'm not sure what the exact limits are for each. Occassionally I see compers whinging that have been sinned binned mainly from over tagging.
Good Luck for the XMAS ones you'll need it. The chances are you'll win a few dozen wines which will come handy around day 12. lmao
Yes you are right. A young UK guy who who a prize pack when he was little decided to enter 1000 comps to see how many he would win, he ended up with 4 wins and decided it was all to hard.
My mission at the momnet to to track 1000 comp that I enter as I would love to know if I can do better than 4 wins :)
As for FB I also keep it quite low key :)
Love to hear more of your programs when you get them figured out.
@Smalot11 Good luck sounds like an experient in probabilty.
For random draws if say the average odss for each comp entered are 1/500 be somewhere around 350 required for a 50% chance of winning at least once.You could work out the distribution for winning one or more times.
A simplifed version and starting point would be something revolving around the ODDS of winning = 1- (499/500) ^350 = approx 50%
. i.e. 1 - (average prob of losing) to the power of number of comps entered.
The real overall odds are 1- ((prob of losing comp1)*(prob of losing comp 2) *(et cetc i.e.prob of lossing of each indvidual comp as they vary) ) Then could a distribution of winning once, twice, ... 1000 times. Argh to win them all would astronomical.
if say the average odds of wining are 1/350 and 1000 comps entered
Odds to win at least once = 1- (349/350) ^1000 gives approximately 94% chance of wining one or more times.
The forumulas provided just a starting point. There some online calculators I could dig up to provide a rough distribution of probabilities for likelyhood of winning one or more times, once, twice, etc etc given the average odds and number of comps entered.
So 4 wins from 1000 comps entered sounds about reasonable for random draws. It's all a numbers game, more you enter and the lower the odds the more likely to win. If manage to find a lot of draws with good odds will be the biggest factor. That may take some time to go off the main comping trails. Eg from in person local shopping centre comps etc etc.
The point of providing the rough probalities you know roughly what realistically to expect. As the example is random draws of course will be variablity in the actual results. The distribution from numerous "experienments" you will find you get a distribution that most might win say between (1-7) comps each. The range is just an example would need to do the distribution probabilities.
Yeah it may be hard work for little reward. Without a strategies to help reduce the odds, or priorise time on comps that appeal to your fortes could "waste" a lot of time. I'll also add there's the time also to check back to manage comps entered. A reoccuring theme is compers prioritising their time to maximise their ROI.
From observation the compers that appear to win reguraly have a creative forte for the WOL photography/video etc etc to supplement their droughts between random draw wins. Over the XMAs period I noticed a couple of compers winning reqularily with a forte. For one case a comper's rap videos seemed to appeal to a number of judges. They would of won like $10,000 -$20,000 in prizes over a month or two. Well when got a forte and it works why not flog it for all it's worth. :)
Even for random draws there may be strategies to maximise the odds of winning depending on the T&C's. Eg for the guessing game I enter ASAP as the odds only reduce the later in the day you enter your guess. I.e. probability of someone guessing the same number or near before you increases. A guesstimate there could be around 200-300 members guessing each day.
There are lot of other ways can improve the odds eg having lots of FB contacts for tagging comps or referrals etc. They can be more of a "marketing" excerise then random draw at times. Especially for international comps I've notice some international compers are highly organised for those.
A series of small tweaks can help inprove finding ways to cut down the time to find/enter and manage comps. Some of the blogs give general adice to improve creative entires.
Hmm personally bookmarks are the easiest thou can get a mess and ineffective once starting doing a mass of comps. They only really are effective if put the ending date at the start of the bookmark label in a consistent manner. That takes time etc.
Apart from keeping a record they can come in handy to remind you if already entered and come across the same comp from another source and attempt to enter twice, which may invalidate your entry.
Also the bookmarks appear across all my devices. I've used them at times to create lists for the daily bonus entry comps. I gets complex when you got comps that expire months away etc etc. Another advantage you can import them into say a spreadsheets/database etc. Overall I'm moving away from bookmarks thou will be handy could automatically manage them from the database. Require a method where I can still access the database across multiple devices/patforms.
Hope you keep your santity tracking 1000 comps. The biggest factor might be the effect on your motivation. How are you proposing to keep track of them all?
Good Luck :)
@Lemond I am keeping notes on all 1000 that I enter with the most important element recorded been the draw date.
Interesting point you make about the guessing game. I will have to make sure I get my guess in early.
The thing that most excites me even with winning 4-7 comps out of 1000 is that you never know if one of those comps will be a brand new car or something else awesome. You may have seen the older gentlemen who's a lifelong comper and he goes on to the the story one year he won a box of chocolates fort he whole year the next year he won a yacht.
As the saying goes you have to be in it to win it :)
@Trevsta 100 per week is still impressive. Currently wouldn't be doing that. For starters you need to on the ball with checking back.
I've heard compers doing hundreds a day. I'm not sure how you could physically do hundreds hmm 1 min per comp that's a couple hours non stop assuming you got the comps on tap and not spending any time locating them. It sometimes takes my pc a min just to load a page. :(
Thou when I've had the interface running for the daily bonus entires I could quickly rattle them off. Most of those would be gleam comps. To save time loading the page I would record the direct gleam link instead of the site link.
I've learnt need to carefully with doing too many at once that require tweets etc. I've come accross twitter complaining once. That was annoying as that required SMS to reset passwords etc and took hours to finally sort it out.
OK for my XMAS list I had them prepared by about day 3-4. It was a lot easier after that quickly doing the 50+ reoccuring ones was interested in. During the XMAS rush you don't get much time to think just enter, enter enter.
A probability distribution for 1000 trials (comps entered), average probability of a win 1/350
Successes 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Probability 5.7% 16.4% 23.5% 22.4% 16.0% 9.1% 4.3% 1.8% 0.6%
Cummulative Probability 5.7% 22.1% 45.6% 67.9% 83.9% 93.0% 97.3% 99.1% 99.7%
That was just using the BINOM.DIST Excel function to give the probability for 0, 1, 2 etc wins
So the cummulative probability of 50% is around 2-3 wins for 1000 comps entered.
And for the average probability for a win 1/500 for 1000 comps entered
Successes 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Probability 13.5% 27.1% 27.1% 18.1% 9.0% 3.6% 1.2% 0.3% 0.1%
Cummulative Probability 13.5% 40.6% 67.7% 85.7% 94.8% 98.4% 99.6% 99.9% 100.0%
So that video seems plausible with 4 wins from 1000 comps entered.
Those figures would give you a ball park expectations depending on the average odds for the comps entered. Note the forumula is a bit simplied due to the fact the all each comp in reality has different probabilities.
I think you be pushing it to expectto win 6-7 out of 1000 random draws, unless coming across decent odds for a lot of comps. You will occassional come across off the radar comps. Usually when a first time a promoter does a comp before they get noticed.
The leader board odds have beem pretty good for the last couple of years. It's probably one of best odds consistently going around. :)
Yeah you never know your luck. I won a nice Ipad pro with keyboard last year and the odds for winning that were something like 1/3500. It's annoying when you can't win a 1/20 odds comp. lol
Argh even for that win was lucky to find the email amonst the junk. I still reckon the luck isn't in winning, if you enter enough . It's finding that those winning emails/notifications in the haystack.
@Smalot11 The only issue with the draw date which isn't always given for starters, is that the winners announcements may lag. Some promoters are really prompt and will do at a set time. Others arghhhhhhhh could be weeks. That's where you need to be on the ball or good memory for checking back. Overall it's a bit pointless entering masses without some organisation.
There are some groups that announce winners that help to a degree. Also if got a few comping friends looking out for each other helps. Nothing be worse then winning and missing the notification and finding out too late.
@Lemond Thanks for taking the time to calculate. i understand it all :)
As for the guessing game isn't first in best dressed.hahaha In saying that I'm not up at midnight most days :)
Yes no exact science to what I doing. To be honest I'm surprised there are so many comps out there. But agree I dont understand how some are saying they enter 100's per day unless they are at the computer 8 hours straight.
Wish me good luck in winning more than 4 and I will let you know how I do in a few months.
@Smalot11 possibly came in a bit late on this conversation...but I would probably describe myself as more a niche comper only entering for things I really want. Time for me is limited so I prioritise the important ones for me first then others that I wouldn't mind winning, probably about 50 comps a week max. No issues with keeping track as sometimes 1 entry will take me two hours - I remember them! and just use the online calender for simple notes if I need to. Suprisingly I've done Ok doing things like this, this year still getting regular wins. I don't enter anything less than $100 and avoid the candle comps :) An English comper once wrote if you don't get out and do interesting things with your life, how can write about interesting things! - Wise words! For me balance is important as well.
@fourleaf Wise words indeed. I like the saying life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.
I'm normally the same around 50 max a week. Going on a crazy 1000 comp journey at the moment. 107 comps entered in 4 days so far. I'm surprised too because I've manage to enter that number and stay away from the 'candle' comps.
Wish me luck and a few months from now you might see a newspaper saying man enters 1000 comps and wins them all hahahaha :)
Thanks for your comment and here's to a winning week!!!
@fourleaf I agree that prioristing your time becomes an important factor. The online calender sounds interesting is that the one connected with outlook? I might of tied it at one point, however found it didn't quite suit keeping things manageable. It got a bit complex how to use it for reoccuring daily comps etc.
@Smalot11 The absolute number of comps entering isn't that important. Like your finding you can easily find lots of good quality comps. There's a whole world of them. There's isn't a rabbit hole big enough to stuff them all in.
Be interesting what you learn about what methods for finding and managing you find efficient.
You may find it's a challenge for finding comps from multiple comp sites, various social media feeds, emails and FB notiifications, twtter notifcations, instagram notifications, youtube etc etc to check for winning annoucements. You may also consider checking out your local comps which might be off the main comping radar.
IMO a lot of compers end up concerntrating on the FB and less so the instagram comps or end up limiting to a couple of comping sites to keep it manageable.
You may get away with minimal recording etc of the comps entered. Thou when your dealing with doing something 1000+ times you start evaluating how you can simplify and reduce the effort required. A minute saved/wasted per comp adds up. Time you could doing somthing more fun or entering more comps. I wish could say there's one simple method. More what you find simpliest and effecitive Enter and forget would be great.
Lots of small decisions where to concernate your time and effort and bound to be a few lessons along the way. Your challenge is how to have fun with them. :)
And as @surferboy83 has shown entering comps can be an adventure. Not just from the trips won also the competition itself can be an adventure whether you win or lose. If motivates you to push your bounarys to be a bit of a "git" and have a bit of fun along the way then go for it. :)
@suferboy83 If haven't already done so when's the "fun with comps" youtube being posted?
@lemond sounds like a great idea. China was great fun. Came home to another win too. I'll post it up soon as well. Cheers