Free competitions online

Why would a promoter want to provide free online competitions rather than getting someone to buy something? It’s no surprise that free competitions are more popular than competitions in which entrants have to buy something first. Free anything is bound to attract attention, but are these good competitions to enter?

Competitions that are free are normally made this way due to the market in general. It’s difficult for a promoter to put forward a “buy to enter” comp when everyone around them is doing the opposite.

The concept is fairly straightforward. If competitions are free, there is a chance that the promoter will be able to gain a customer somewhere in the future. This isn’t always the case, as a frequent complaint of promoters is that a large proportion of entrants aren’t really interested in the product being promoted, and only enter get the chance to win product for free. Unfortunately for the promoter, that’s life!

Aside from this, if a promoter is looking to gain market information, free competitions are the fasted way to do this. These will normally be online, as it’s much faster to sort out the information (as opposed to ripping open thousands of envelopes)

As we’ve said, your chances of winning a chance promotion that’s free is less than one that requires a purchase. This is simply due to the large volume of entries. The same applies for skills competitions (words-or-less etc.) although not to the same extent.

Our advice to members is to put more faith in free competitions that allow entry only once, particularly if they are chance-based. Why? Because even though entering twice will effectively double your odds, you’re up against people that have all day to place hundreds of entries.

If a promoter is genuinely tracking entries (and not just stating that there is an entry limit and hoping that entrants comply with the request) then at least you know the drawing process will be fair and equitable.

Skills-based free competitions can be treated a little differently, by all means place several entries but think about what you’re writing. Don’t just fling out answers and hope that they get attention.

Our belief is that more and more free competitions will appear in the future, but that won’t stop us from paying attention to all types.

*Want to know more about how to win online competitions? - You can buy "Competitions - The Book" online here for only $13.95 including delivery. Click here to order


©Craig Bradley Market Engineering Pty Ltd. 2009. All articles are original content and opinions of the author Craig Seitam. Copying of all or part of any content without the expressed permission of the author is prohibited.