If you were like “yes! i want to win a solar powered backpack!” then you’re my kind of people. If, on the other hand you were thinking “what exactly is a solar powered backpack?” then you are my kind of people. How can you both be so cool i consider you my people? Because you’re reading this site – that’s how. Only cool people that i want to consider my kind of people read this blog.

Anyway – Instructables is running a nice little contest. Write up a project that involves the reuse of plastic bottles and you have the chance to win solar powered backpacks, Instructables T-shirts, or reusable water bottles.

I just happen to have recently reused a plastic bottle in a MacGyvery frenzy of desperation after accidentally draining my transmission fluid instead of my oil. I just need to take photos of the contraption.

This is pretty short notice – just a few hours left to enter this contest.  Submit your space to Analog Apartment especially regarding your record collection (that means just Steve and i are eligible i think).  They would like photos of your collection, information on your albums, facts about your setup and you.

I won a caption contest at Instructables and earned a “patch” on my profile page as well as a tape measure from DIY Network.  It looks like it is a Komelon SS Gripper.

It seems to be feast or famine with contest related blog posts for me.  Here’s a great one… win $15,000 to spend on tools!  You can enter daily.  No PO Boxes.  Contest closes on December 29th.

…since I’m sure you’ll share the love and get me a presnet if you win.  Enter the $1,000 shopping spree contest at Think Geek.  Entries due by December 19th.

Just five days left to enter a sweepstakes giveaway for a $5,000 road trip from Real Simple.  Don’t forget to use my trick for quick and easy sweepstakes entries for contests that you can enter daily (like this one).

I was poking around the interweb and found this contest sponsored by StoreStacker.  Seems like quite a few of the prizes would be useful to me.

…just in time to pay the property taxes on it!

If you really want cheap property look into real estate in the Detroit area.  Seriously.  But if you want to win a nice place like this you’ll have to enter the blog cabin contest.  You can enter daily.  Use my trick to enter sweepstakes easily and all you need to do is remember to go to the site each day.

You know the contests, sweepstakes, and giveaways that i post on occasion? Quite a few of them are ones that you can enter daily. I rarely remember to go back more than a few times though. I also get tired of typing my name and email address in over and over. I pieced together a great set of shortcuts.

You need to install a plugin to Firefox to make this work. Install the AutoFill Forms plugin, restart Firefox and then come back here.

Now we need to bookmark a bunch of contests.  For the best example of how this technique can really save time go to the Woman’s Day giveaways and then open individual prize pages and bookmark them in Firefox…

1. Right click anywhere on the page and choose “Bookmark This Page.”
2. Click the button next to the Folder field.
3. Click on “New Folder” and create a folder called “Sweepstakes” or something similar.  Then click “Done.”
4. Right click on the page again and select the folder you made from the drop down list and click “Done.”
5. Add all the giveaways that you are interested in winning by following step 4 for each page.
6. Open a new tab in Firefox.
7. Go to your folder of contests and click on the bottom link “Open All in Tabs.”  Now you can open all of the current contests with minimal effort.
8. Complete the form with all of your answers.
9. Now right click inside any field on the form and select “Add complete form as profile…”
10. Make sure that the “Profile” field is named something that you will associate with that website.  Check that the “Value” field for each of the variables is accurate.  Make sure you follow the rules for the contest (perhaps no PO Boxes, etc.) and use the scroll bar on the right to make sure you have all fields completed.  Sometimes you will still need to manually make a change on a site (“radio buttons” don’t seem to always work).  Click “OK” when done. This saves your form entries.  Submit this form and move on to the next one.  All of the contests on the Woman’s Day domain will work with just the first form so skip to the end…

    

11. 

    Now just click on the little pencil icon next to the address bar and double check the fields are filled in properly.  If not, right click on the pencil icon and select “settings” and make changes. Press submit, close the tab, and repeat!

All you need to do to enter contests once they are bookmarked and have a contest entry profile is to do step 7 and 11!

Palm is running a “best, worst, and funniest pick-up line” contest. According to the official rules you can get multiple entries by logging in often. The grand prize is a trip to Vegas for six people. There are three Caribbean cruises for two. And every day they are giving away a Palm Centro. The contest closes on May 17th.