Hello again compers! How is your week going, any nice wins to report? A couple more wins here of a chocolate hamper from a Twitter comp and a Playmobil set from an online game that my daughters entered - my eldest won 3rd prize! Been comping on and off this week, but it has been another busy one with doctor’s appointments, school sports days and assemblies and homework, so has been tricky! The summer holidays are coming up fast and I have been planning and scheduling my work for the next few months this week, so I feel a bit more organised for when the kids are off school.
I was looking through my daughter’s book bag this week, and I found a leaflet for a writing competition that her school is running. The children are encouraged to write either a story or poem about a subject of their choice, and the winners will win book tokens for their efforts. My eldest definitely wants to have a go at this one, and has picked up her mother’s love of competitions and prize draws. Do your schools like to run competitions too, and do they like to get involved? Mine do – anything from horticultural show baking bread to craft competitions, my girls like to get involved with everything. No prizes from their school efforts but they still keep trying.
School competitions are a great way of getting involved in local competitions, but it isn’t the only source. In this week’s How To guide I thought we would look at all the different places you can find local competitions, and some hints on entering them.
Local Competitions
Local competitions are quite often very low entry, as unless you live in a heavily populated city, urban location you will probably find that there aren’t as many compers in your local area. For example I live in Cowes on the Isle of Wight and I only know of a handful of other local Island compers, most of which I know through a Facebook group that I use. There is one lady who lives in Cowes too, and we really must arrange to meet up for a comping natter some day! Just by entering local competitions you increase your chances of winning, as the pool of people entering will be smaller.
Social Media:
Social media is a great place to find local competitions. Spend an hour or so finding all the local restaurants, shops, hotels, travel companies, bars, attractions and news sources on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and make sure you Like & Follow them all. You might even want to set it up so you get notifications when the local companies post an update across social media, so you are first in line to enter any new competitions.
Local attractions will quite often run competitions coming up to the summer months for free tickets or treats, and your local high street shops and restaurants may get involved in Christmas advent competitions – I won two prizes from an advent comp being run by our local high street last year as there were only a handful of entries each day!
Local Papers & Magazines
Local news sources are a brilliant place to spot competitions too, usually with quite a short ending date and even lower entries. Most of the news source competitions are likely to be postal entry too, which often put people off, so make sure you scour the free magazines that come through the door or pick up a copy of the local paper to see what’s on offer.
Libraries:
Your local library is a brilliant place to find children’s or crafty competitions that are being run. If your library has a noticeboard be sure and check it regularly, as local groups, charities and even the library itself will often add competitions that are being run on there. During the holidays you might find the library run events that encourage the children to come in and enter colouring competitions or build Lego models maybe, with small prizes such as book tokens, medals and DVD rentals up for grabs. These are great at keeping the entertained for free, as well as focusing them on entering something creative into a competition.
Local Radio
Your local or regional radio stations are often full of great competitions to be entering to win tickets for local events, festivals, meals out in local restaurants or travel tickets. If you are in the car or working from home try and listen in to your local station when you can, and get an idea of the kind of competitions they run and at what time they run them. Maybe they always give away cash on a Friday afternoon drive time, or event tickets during the breakfast show.
Be sure and check out their social media pages and websites too, as they often give clues to when competitions might come on air as well as offering additional competitions to be entering.
Comping Groups
Do you have a local comping group where you are? They are fewer and farther between these days, but I do think they are having a resurgence. Why not search Google to see if there is a comping group near you, check out the list in your latest issue of Compers News or ask in one of the comping groups on Facebook.
If a group doesn’t exist yet maybe think about setting one up. You could all meet say once a fortnight and swap entry forms, tips on local radio comps and insights into comps that might be coming up soon. You will be able to broaden your comping field, as well as making some new friends in the process.
Google is probably one of the most useful tools on the internet, and it can be invaluable when searching for local comps. Try searching for “competition Cowes” and replace “Cowes” with your town or “competition Isle of Wight” and replace “Isle of Wight” with your county to broaden the search. Make sure you alter the options in the search tools to show just results from the UK and refine it by entries in the last month or so, so that you don’t end up seeing competitions that were being run years ago!
So there you have it, keep your comping local and increase your chances of winning by entering lower entry competitions. Local comps may not always have the biggest or flashiest prizes around, but they come in very handy during the summer holidays etc. I have been able to treat my family to bowling, cinema outings and café trips from local competitions, and I love entering them. Let me know how you get on – I love reading all about your wins and experiences!
Happy local comping and lots of Lucky Dust to you all!
Kirsty x
