Ryan McFarland

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).

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!

Most of the prizes are suited for website owners but with over $14,000 in value, the Craziest Internet marketing Contest has stuff that even non-owners of websites might enjoy. An iPod, logo design, and t-shirts. For site owners there are hosting plans, site reviews, site designs, ads, and much more. Check it out and sign up to win.

Win!

•		A custom lawn and garden consultation and plan from Justin Cave, landscape consultant and host of HGTV’s “Ground Breakers.” With years of experience in every aspect of landscaping, Cave will focus his expertise and enthusiasm on developing a plan for our winner to turn their yard into an incredible outdoor living space.
•		$3,000 cash to be used towards carrying out your recommended lawn and garden plan.
•		Mustang™ ZT 50″ Zero-Turn Riding Lawn Mower with innovative zero-turn technology, and a time-saving 50″-wide mowing deck.
•		TB1086 XP Series™ 21″ Rear Wheel Drive, Self-Propelled Mower with increased traction, precise speed control and increased maneuverability.
•		Troy-Bilt Pony® Garden Tiller for preparing finely milled, well-aerated and ready-to-plant garden beds.
•		TB70SS Straight Shaft Trimmer that converts into a blower, an edger, a hedge trimmer and more.

That’s over $17,000 worth of prizes and all you need to to is give them a little information about yourself! Only one entry per person per household per day (enter daily!). Enter at the Troy-Bilt sweeps.

The folks at Mint want to help relieve holiday overspending by throwing $5,000 toward two lucky winners with a story to tell.  Just shoot a video or write a story “confessing your holiday excesses to the world.”  Sadly i’m ineligible because i have been a “professional” writer.  But my loss could be your gain on your loss.

[via Consumerist]