Thursday, September 28, 2006

The Truth about Automatic Sweepstakes Entry Services

If you read about automatic sweepstakes entry services online, you will hear many rumors. Most of these are honest misunderstandings written by people who don’t know how automatic entry systems work. Here are some of the most common myths about automatic sweepstakes entry services, and our response to them.

1. Most Contests Prohibit Automatic Entry Services from Participating

There is a common misconception that most sweepstakes prohibit entries from automatic services and that people who use a sweepstakes service will be disqualified from every sweep they enter.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Legitimate entry services are dedicated to selecting only sweepstakes where their members have a legitimate chance of winning. To ensure this, they scour the rules of each individual contest and giveaway to ensure that automatic sweepstakes entry services are not prohibited.

Despite being very selective and rejecting any sweep where automatic entry is prohibited, there are still hundreds upon hundreds of contests available.

Legitimate sweepstake entry services do not have any problems finding sweepstakes with fantastic prizes for its members to enter, despite respecting the contest rules and the wishes of any sweepstakes sponsor who prefers that their members not enter.

2. People Don’t Really Win through Automated Sweepstakes Entry Services

The people on the Winner’s Lists would strongly disagree!

Legitimate sweepstakes entry programs only list people who have won through their service on their Winner’s List.

Furthermore, a Winner’s List is only a small sampling of the members who have won through an automatic sweepstakes entry service. Such services rely on their members to tell them when they have won a prize. Anyone who has won through a service but wants their prizes to remain private is not included on the Winner’s List.

3. You Can’t Tell What You’re Being Entered Into with Automatic Contest Services

A good sweepstakes entry service will provide each of its members with a personalized listing of sweepstakes that have been entered for them. A new sweepstake is only added to that list when they receive a confirmation or “thank you” page for that specific entry, so members can be sure that their individual entry was really accepted.

The sweepstakes listing should be available for members at all times, and is updated at least twice a day.

This gives you a solid overview of the entries that you receive, and allows you to enter additional sweepstakes on your own without fear of duplicating entries.

4. Contest Sponsors Don’t Like Automatic Sweepstakes Entry Services

The number of sweepstakes sponsors that contact entry services directly to ask them to include their contests in their sweepstakes selections shows that this just isn’t true!

Sweepstakes sponsors receive a number of benefits from inclusion in an automated entry service. Most companies run promotions to increase their brand awareness and draw new people to their website, and entry services allow them to reach a broader audience at no additional cost.

They have the chance to contact every one of the service's customers through confirmation emails, which often include marketing information, and they will also benefit from links to their contest pages, which members can follow for more information about the product.

People are more likely to buy from a sponsor that hosts a sweepstake because they have a positive feeling toward the company, and this remains true for people who are entered through automatic services as well.

Savvy marketers realize that automatic entry helps the sweepstakes sponsors as much as it helps the entrants – a true win-win situation for everyone!

And if a contest sponsor decides that automatic sweepstakes entries will not help their marketing plan, they can simply put a line in their rules prohibiting them, and legitimate entry services will not enter the contest.

5. You’ll Get Buried in Spam if you Join an Automatic Sweepstakes Entry Service

A good automatic entry service takes great pains to select only sweepstakes from reliable companies that will not send an unreasonable amount of marketing information to the entrant. While members will receive some promotional information, companies that will sell your name and address or pass on your personal information to marketing partners will not be selected.

It's always a good idea to set up a separate email address for its automatic entries, which makes it easy to find win notifications. If you are receiving emails or newsletters that you do not wish to read at that email address, simply opt out of the marketing list.

Last but not least, remember that not all automated sweepstakes entry services are the same. Some companies provide clearly higher levels of service, including hand-picked sweepstakes that are individually programmed for accurate entry, contests that are filtered so that only customers who are eligible to win based on factors like age, gender, and state of residence are entered, and the ability to track entries 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

With automatic sweepstakes entry services, you can be sure of receiving reliable entry into the best contests on the internet. See how easy it can be to win cool cash, win a dream vacation, or any of the hundreds of other online sweepstakes and contests.