If you've arrived on our website, the chances are that you love your comping - which means you're in the right place!
Entering competitions is fun, and gives a lot of us a great buzz, but as all compers will find out there will be times when even the best of us, experience what all compers dread... the inevitable losing streak!
Some competitions will be down entirely to luck, and though you'll probably raise your chances of winning by blitzing through as many comps as possible with entries, you could simply be very unlucky and end up without much success even if you're entering lots of competitions on a daily basis.
With competitions that are judged, it's true that you'll have more control over how well your entry does - at least in theory. But at the end of the day it can still be tricky to work out what exactly the judging panel is looking for, and the things they enjoy or find praise worthy in an entry might not tally with what you thought they were after at all.
So how can you help yourself when everything seems to be going wrong and the effort you are putting into your comping does match the rewards you are getting out of it?
Well here are a few simple tips:-
Don't make silly mistakes
Making silly mistakes may mean that your entry isn't even considered and is a sure-fire way to bring down your chances of being as successful as you want to be at comping.
Read the Terms & Conditions
It's a Golden Rule that we continuously repeat: ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS read all the terms and conditions of a competition before you even raise a pen or send an email. If you don't do this, you could well miss something that stops you in your tracks from realising the prize of your dreams.
Do your own research
Yes, competition questions are often deliberately easy to encourage entries, but don't let that fool you into a false sense of security. If you're taking a stab in the dark at the answer, you could be wrong, so make sure you know you're providing the right response before you enter.
Have a support network
Whether online or around you in real life, a support-network might make the difference by giving you a boost – just take a look at our WINNERS PAGE if you need some inspiration.
The internet provides you with a quick route to people who share your interest, especially if there are no-one around in 'real life' who shares your hobby. You will find plenty of like-minded people on our Facebook page or even better still why not join all the fun on Chatterbox (members only).
Fill the spare moments
It can be a great idea to do at least some of your comping as a way of filling those little moments of spare time that come up during the day.
If you enter just a few more competitions in the five minutes between the kids leaving to get the school bus and you having to drive to work, for example, that could mount up to nearly 100 extra competitions per month.
Enter smaller contests
The competitions most likely to catch your eye will likely be massive, well publicised UK-wide affairs, which have a big promotional budget, but might not always give you the best chance of bagging a large prize.
Look out for some smaller competitions, in regional newspapers or run by a local business, these will have a much smaller audience, and therefore a relatively small pool of entries. The prize might not always be as impressive as those offered by a national company, but if you win it’ll give you a boost!
Hopefully, if you follow some of our advice, that lean spell won’t continue and before long those yearned for prizes will start rolling-in.
