Instant Win Sweepstakes

Have you ever entered or won anything on an instant win contest? I was very lucky and won a Kitchen Aid Artisan Mixer from an I Can't Believe It's Not Butter contest. It was so exciting! I've been luckier on blog giveaways, but instant wins are fun too.

Here are a few tips if you're thinking of trying instant wins -

1. Download auto-fill software like Google's or Autofill Forms for Firefox. You type your contact information into the software and then when you come to an instant win registration, you can just click the autofill icon and it will fill in most of the information for you. This is a life-saver when you do many contests.

2. To improve your chances of winning, enter at off-peak times. Most instant win contests, randomly choose a time of day and whoever enters closest to that time of day, wins. Late at night or early in the morning is not any more likely to be the winning time, but there is less competition at those times, so you are more likely to be close to the winning time if it is.

3. Enter every day. Almost every instant win contest lets you enter every day. The more times you enter, the better your chances are of winning!

4. Use the "If you can't see the game, click here". The chances of winning are equal whether you play the game or click on the can't see option. It will save you a lot of time. But if the game is fun, play! I get weary of these after awhile and playing the games, adds some fun.

5. Try an online sweeps listing like Sweepstakes Advantage. Not only do they list a ton of sweepstakes by category and give you links, prizes and ending dates, they have great tools for creating your own favorites listing, recording that you entered specific contests, and pop open tools to open contest windows for you all at once.

These are some fun instant wins that I read about at Sweepstakes Advantage.

Contest: Road to Super 8
Prizes*: Richard Petty Memorabilia, $25 Best Buy Gift Cards
Ends: 11/21/10

Contest: Dole Splash Into Summer
UPC Code: 4687 9456
Prizes*: $25 Visa Gift Cards, Summer Pool Toys
Ends: 7/25/10

Contest: AARP Ultimate Trivia
Prizes*: Target and Starbucks Gift Cards
Ends: 7/13/10
Contest: Honey Nut Cheerios
Prizes*: Year's supply of cereal
Ends: 6/28/11

Contest: Green Mountain Perfect K-Cups
Prizes*: Keurig and K Cups
Ends: 3/31/11

Contest: Progressive.com - Truck and Cash Giveaway
Prizes*: Truck and $25 checks
Ends: 3/14/11

Contest: Best Foods
Prizes*: Food, cookbooks, grills
Ends: 1/4/11

Contest: Bicycle Cards
Code: Bicycle125
Prizes*: Cards, small appliance]
Ends: 12/31/10

Contest: Fox.com $75,000 Scratch Off
Prizes*: $75,000, DVDs
Ends: 12/31/10

Contest: Verizon Best Seat
Limited States
Prizes*: Movie and Pizza Cash
Ends: 12/31/10

Contest: Scotts.com Snap Perks
Limited States
Prizes*: Grocery or Visa Gift Cards
Ends: 10/31/10
Contest: Ghirardelli Moments
Prizes*: Chocolate!
Ends: 10/31/10

Contest: Puma.com Recognize Awesome
Prizes*: Trip to Germany, WPS tickets
Ends: 9/30/10

Contest: CocaCola 99 Days of Summer
Prizes*: Gift Cards
Ends: 9/15/10

*These are not all the prizes for these contests, I only listed the ones I thought were most interesting!

Caution: Don't give anyone your credit card or bank account information, you should never have to pay for any part of a prize. It's possible you might end up with a ton of spammy email from entering instant wins. I try to stick to companies that I recognize and trust.