Meet Our Latest Winners!

What a good month May has been for me (so far) , not necessarily with the weather but with competitions which for me is even better!

Got such a surprise today when a special delivery man came to my door this morning with £100 from Walkers. It really cheered me up since I'm a student so every little helps! I will use the money to put towards a new Desktop PC. I never thought you could win from text competitions but I'm the proof that you can!

Also I won some American style print shorts which are pretty funky, will be wearing those soon!

Late last year I won a photography competition with Oliver Bonas, who wanted an instagram/vintage style image to use on the packaging of a new jewellery range. My photograph was of some peacock feathers that sit on my desk- and I was delighted when they sent me £50 to spend in their store. I bought some lovely Christmas presents, and a gorgeous mixing bowl for myself. Earlier this month I had a surprise package through the door - it was a lovely necklace with my initial 'L' on it, with the peacock packaging. I thought it was really nice added touch, and it made me super proud to know they're being sold across the country! I might even put it on my CV!

I have been comping on and off for a couple of years and have won lots of different prizes, however in 2012 I have won some prizes that really could be classed as “life-changing” and have had consequences that have extended far beyond the original prize.

In January I won an Apple MacBook Air in a video competition run by BUPA where you had to say what “healthy means to me.” As I thought this was going to be part of an ongoing advertising campaign, it caused me to really focus on my health and to attack my health and weight goals with renewed vigour.

This had the effect of losing more weight, so that when I won some gorgeous ski wear from Eider clothing, I was able to wear a smaller size than I usually would and to have the confidence to wear snug-fitting clothes.

The MacBook is now being used by my techie husband to develop Apps, which could lead to a whole new business and stream of income for us.

My next health related prize was a pair of Zaggora Hotpants, which are designed to enhance a workout and so increase fat burning and weight loss. From that I have discovered a renewed interest in writing on my blog.

The most recent win was a ticket to Cybher, which is a sold-out conference about blogging presented by successful women bloggers. A couple of the speakers are talking about how to make money from blogs and how to turn my blog into a book, which is another potential avenue for another very enjoyable and potentially profitable source of income.

Those four prizes have already changed my life and who knows where that might lead me! I will also get to meet Di Coke in person at Cybher.

I love winning tickets to anything in London because most things are so expense these days. I won a family ticket to Madame Tussauds online and we had such a laugh in there. Fancy singing with Freddie Mercury or playing the drums with the Beetles, seeing William and Kate or walking on the moon. Its all here. As I blog about London its all usefull stuff to write about too.
My next win was three bottles of wine as a runner up prize in the recent Black Tower Comp. In this comp you had to write about what your perfect day would be with £10,000. First prize was whatever you had chosen worth £10,000. Maybe next time I will get first prize, you never know with comping.
Then I got an email about a review I had written this won me a VIP Ferry Crossing to France for a car and four people. This is worth over £150.00 so a good win.
If you haven`t won anything yet just keep entering and following all the advice on prizefinder.

I thought I would give comping a go as I have been home for a few months unwell and have had an operation. Last week I started in earnest and entered quite a few. I entered one small competition for some sherbert straws and won it and then I entered a Facebook competition for some Peppa Pig toys and won that too! They left a comment on their page that I then read saying I had won! Very easy to miss! But I am delighted that in less than a week of trying I have had two little wins!

In February I saw a lovely lady on the breakfast news who seemed to have won practically everything under the sun. That is how Di Coke got me into the world of comping. I seriously comped for the whole of March to see if I had got the Di-factor. So far, I got many freebies and prizes. I won around £100 worth of cinema vouchers. A biggie was a 100ml bottle of the latest Hugo Boss perfume which I won just in time for my wedding anniversary. But by far, the greatest prize was my garden photo being selected as the top 4 in Inamo tablecloth comp. The winner is not yet announced but I have already got my reward knowing that my talent was appreciated by a panel of judges and they compared my work to that of a ‘still from a BBC wildlife epic’! So here are some things I learned along the way:
1 – Play instant win comps to get instant but small prizes. They will keep your spirits up.
2 – Register with useful comping websites like ThePrizeFinder and CompersNews to get into obscure comps.
3 – Greater effort, greater rewards. For those wondering how Di manages to get all the big wins, I suggest please look at her entries and observe the tremendous amount of effort and creativity behind them.
4 – Do a cost-benefit analysis. I comped for a month and kept an account of how much I had won; believe me, it was worth my monthly mortgage!
5 – Be fair and honest while you comp. Cheating can make you a fortune, but then so can drug dealing! Have a conscience!
6 – Look at comping as something to explore your creative talents. Who knows, it could lead to a career change and a promising future!

I have been entering competitions on ThePrizeFinder for over a year and up until recently have not won anything.
I'm happy to say that I have now joined the winners circle and have just received a lovely pair of trousers worth £260 through a Stylist competition.
I am over the moon just to have won something and to top it off the trousers fit perfectly.
This will spur me on to keep comping as I was starting to doubt if I'd ever win!

I was just browsing the internet when i came across ThePrizeFinder, the best thing I ever found. I started comping 3 weeks ago. At first nothing came and I got the usual feeling that I was wasting my time but I was proven very wrong. In the past three weeks I have won a massive box of Jordans cereals, a bottle for my daughter, a Missguided dress to the value of £30, £20 of blue inc vouches, a book, panda liquorice, a golf club, a personal style download worth £30, etc.. and this is all thanks to ThePrizeFinder. I enjoy my new hobby and it doesn't matter if my win is small, I feel lucky and still get that buzz. So before anyone thinks of giving I'd suggest waiting a few weeks because the outcome is very good. Most of the things that I won I would not be able to purchase myself due to costs.

I have a reminder set up to enter some competitions. One of them is the Debenhams Beauty Club on facebook. A couple of weeks ago the prize was Elizabeth Arden Red Door. I filled in the form as usual. A few days later I had an email to say I had won!
I had no idea what it smelled like or whether I'd like it!
It came yesterday and I hurriedly opened the box. Oops it was a bit strong... but after the initial blast it settles into a lovely long lasting fragrance. It's a bit woody and flowery, hints of ylang ylang that takes me back to my youth!!
It's a lovely fragrance for special occasions.

I've been a comper on and off for a number of years ever since I won my first competition at the age of 15 with Rimmell and Boots, concert tickets to see King - remember them? Anyway just after Christmas 2010 I started comping more seriously. In that time I have been lucky to have won lots on twitter and Facebook including a spa stay, a Blackberry phone, 5 hampers, a racing day, a years supply of bread and a years supply of washing powder.
I have yet to win a holiday, although I have been lucky that on my recent trip to Paris I won the flights and a day of tours. I have also won flights to Nice with a poem I wrote and which I have yet to take.
I particularly enjoy effort competitions and tiebreakers and avidly ready Di Coke's blog every week, which inspired me to enter my first video competition recently. Myself and my son produced an animation based on the Golden Globes with character 'Micky Gervais' comparing! I was in Paris when I found out we had come second and had some strange looks when I started jumping up and down! We have won a Smart TV and a year's subscription to Love Film!
I think the longer you enter competitions the more selective you become and the more organised you become too. You could literally enter competitions 24 hours a day so my top tips would concentrate your efforts on what you would really like to win, don't enter everything as some people may really want the prize more than you. My other tip would be find what you are good at, be it, art and craft competitions, videos, captions, recipe competitions, slogans, or if you don't mind entering lots of random competitions and will put the time and effort in, and stick at it!
Happy comping!