Meet Rusty Bucktooth. He's a cheap, inefficient BBQ I bought a while back. He's falling apart, but he does the job. Would I like a bigger, better grill so that someone else can cook tasty sliders for me? Yes. Do I want to pay for it? NO.
I've been entering for a new BBQ for a while now (I have a wish list of things I'd like to win) and just happened to find a really good contest giving away a bunch of them.
Now, contests are different from normal sweepstakes. Contests require skill, effort, essays, photos, voting, etc. Contests are great to enter because you usually have less competition (not many will take the time to enter) and if you're smart you can often find a way to give yourself a better chance at winning.
When I entered dear Rusty I decided to make the photo as interesting as possible so that I could stand out from the crowd and get more votes from random suckers I don't know. Once uploaded the voting began and I asked for help from my friends, posted in a sweepstake forum to exchange votes with others who were in contests, and stayed on top of the votes every day until the contest was over. I'm not going to lie... I felt like an annoying jerkhole asking for so much help, but my friends were excited for me and my hard work paid off - I won a new $400 grill! Thank you, Johnsonville.
Don't be afraid to put a little more effort into entering a contest. Usually you'll only be up against a small number of people for the prize isntead of thousands of people in a sweepstake. Read the rules carefully (and in my case I had to read them often, as they kept changing throughout the competition), and maximize your likeability, votes, etc.
You can do it!
Class dismissed.
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