Super Lucky

A Right Royal Round-up!

2012-05-22T13:25:00.000+01:00

Just like last year's Royal Wedding, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee is a fabulous excuse to get the bunting out, dress up, make some weird-looking red, white and blue food and generally have a right old laugh. And with the bonus of two Bank Holidays too - heaven!

For those of you who don't shy away from a bit of effort, this is a selection of quirky, fun and creative competitions - and your entry doesn't always need to be meticulously created and lovingly photographed, as many of the winners are picked at random too! There are a few of the dreaded voting competitions in here but a polite word in the promoter's ear (via Facebook message is the best) should warn them of the dangers and maybe encourage them to think again - or at least to include some additional Terms and Conditions which will help to make the competition fairer.

I'm not a fan of Like & Share comps, but as this is a caption comp and a great photo of Her Madge, I'll be giving it a go (there's also only one entry so far!) - win a £150 Ocado voucher from Give a Grad a Go by leaving your best caption for this photo. No closing date stated so be quick!

My Cake Decorating have sussed the way to keep the cheats out of their cake competition - you need to upload a photo of your creation NEXT to a piece of paper with your name written on! Sadly though - the most votes wins...and top spot already has almost 200! The winner gets a Jubilee hamper of Lakeland goodies worth £100. Enter on their Facebook App before 25 May 2012.

Here's a Jubilee recipe one - you could win a cookery class worth £250. A shortlist of 3 or 5(!) will be chosen and then voting is involved I'm afraid - read more on the Blink website and enter before 27 May 2012.

Now I'd love to win this one, because I would officially be Lady Di! Design a coat-of-arms and you could win a title of Lord, Lady or Laird - plus an iPad. The top 20 most popular get judged, but there are only 92 entries and the vote counts are low so you've just about got time to do it! Upload to the Don't Panic site before 27 May 2012.

Win a £100 Bar Tab at Apples and Pears Bar in London - upload your (original) Jubilee Cocktail recipe to their Facebook App to enter! Closes 30 May 2012.

If you live near Sidmouth, you could win £100 of Little Joules vouchers. Take a photo of your under-8 in a King or Queen outfit and email to marketing@fieldsofsidmouth.co.uk - six finalists will need to go to Monday's Child in Sidmouth on 5 June to be judged, and one boy and one girl will win the prizes (how upset will the others be - I wouldn't like to see that!). Read more details here and enter by 31 May 2012.

Mumsnet are giving away a Kitchenaid mixer in their Jubilee recipe competition for members - your recipe must involve Lyle's Golden Syrup and the winner will be chosen at random! Enter here before 31 May 2012.

Create a Jubilee Pinterest board (see this post if you're new to Pinterest) and you could win a Jubilee girl's dress plus a copy of 'The Queen's Knickers' book. Check out the I Love Gorgeous Pinterest page for more details - and Repin this image to get started! Closes 31 May 2012.

The Happy Egg Co want photos of your cakes inspired by Great Britain. The winner will get a Kitchenaid mixer, a cookery course and a year's supply of eggs. Read more here and send your photos to competitions@jamiemagazine.com by 1 June 2012.

This is a fab one from the Loughborough Echo - for their Jubilee Competition, you need to create a local landmark out of food! You would win a family ticket to the Eden Project including overnight accommodation and travel. Enter by emailing your photo to echofoodartcomp@golleyslater.co.uk - full details are on the Loughborough Echo website and the winning entry will be judged on creativity, artistic skill and community spirit. Closes 1 June 2012.

School age kids can design a Jubilee Party poster and win a £50 book token - read more at the Radiowaves site. I can't find any Terms and Conditions so not sure exactly what the age restrictions are! Enter by 1 June 2012.

Rewrite the first verse of the National Anthem using the word wine and you could win some 'patriotic goodies' from WineGifts4U on Facebook by 1 June 2012.

Upload a photo of your kids throwing their most regal pose on the Asda website, and you could bag £500 of Asda vouchers. They've even installed 70 thrones in Asda stores if you really want to put the effort in (although the winner is chosen at random!). Closes 3 June 2012.

Are you a jewellery designer? Upload a photo of a piece on the theme 'Best of British' and you could win a £50 Love2Shop voucher. Unfortunately, the most votes wins - but I imagine it will get limited entries so might be worth a go if that's where your talent lies! Read more at the Guild of Jewellery Designers website and enter before 5 June 2012.

Now, I know of at least one regular reader who's a motorbike nut! This is a great prize from London Bikers - a Union Jack helmet worth £640! To enter, email a photo of you, your bike, or something bike-related that shows national pride to jamie@bestbritishbloggers.co.uk - they will be judging on humour, originality and Jubilee-ness! Read more here - closes 5 June 2012.

Have you got a photo taken at a Toby Carvery? Well if you do, you have a GREAT chance of winning one of the 150 commemorative aprons they're giving away on their Facebook page! Upload your photo before 5 June 2012.

Crabbies are offering five winners a chance to get their face on a plate! Simply upload a photo here and add a bit of text and their five favourites will win - you can't upload a photo of anyone who looks under 25 though, so that's me out (ahem). Enter by 6 June 2012.

Tesco are giving away prizes weekly for Summer Street Party recipes. The grand prize is a Pastry & Puddings weekend course at Ashurton Cookery School plus B&B accommodation for Friday and Saturday night at Ashburton Court for two adults, and you can see the weekly prizes here. The prizes are awarded at random - upload your entry here. Final closing date is 6 June 2012.

Here's another Queenie caption comp from the Bentall Centre - win a £250 SWAG voucher! Enter on their Facebook App by 6 June 2012.

365 Electrical are giving away three Limited Edition Belling Centenary Built-in or free standing ovens - to enter, upload a photo of you with your royal-themed food to their Facebook App before 7 June 2012.

Win a cute Wedgwood tea set worth £665 if you happen to be in a London Park Plaza Hotel between 1-8 June 2012. Get someone to take a 'royal' photo of you and post it on their Facebook page or Tweet it to @ParkPlazaHotels. Read the full details here. If the prize is your cup of tea (groan), I definitely think it's worth going out of your way to enter this one - remember though, sometimes photos uploaded from Smartphones aren't set to 'Public' on Facebook so it might be safer to Tweet your entry!

Do you own a pair of Monster Slippers? If so, you could win a 3 course meal for four at Harry Ramsden's! Upload a photo of you wearing a pair of Monster Slippers to their Facebook page and the best will win - on the blog they suggest you could be doing something 'quintessentially British!' - if you're at a Jubilee party I reckon that would be a great photo opp! Enter by 11 June 2012.

Bart Spices want your Jubilee inspired creations! If yours is the best, you could win a baking master class with Edd Kimber (winner of the Great British Bake Off). He will choose his favourite and also award two runners up a hamper of Bart goodies. Upload a recipe and photo at www.bartoffers.com/jubilee before 12 June 2012.

Radley are giving away a fab prize of a stay at the Ritz, with Afternoon Tea and £200 to spend at the Radley store! To enter you need to take a photo of you enjoying a tea party with the Radley at Home range - as you can imagine this one will be VERY low entry (only 4 entries so far, just one of which is eligible to win!) so it might be worth you splashing out on a Jubilee treat! Enter here - closes 17 June 2012.

Upload your photos of the 1977 Silver Jubilee and one winner picked at random will win a year's subscription to Great British Life magazine - enter here by 1 July 2012.

Thomas Pink have an amazing prize up for grabs in their voting competition - BUT it doesn't close until 9 August 2012 so perhaps they'll change their mind and judge it. The T&Cs refer throughout to a prize draw with no reference to voting, but they do state clearly on the App that "entrants must own the copy rights to any images entered in the competition", which should hopefully discourage some cheats. To enter, upload a photo that captures the spirit of British Entertainment to their Facebook App. You can win tickets to A Midsummer Night's Dream in regents Park, a £1000 Thomas Pink gift card, a picnic hamper and limited edition British Entertainment book.

Keep an eye out for competitions in your local newspapers and on local websites too, especially kids ones - entry numbers are usually low! And remember to take lots of photos of your celebrations too, there's bound to be lots of Facebook photo comps that pop up in the week before the big event.

And finally, if you live near LETCHWORTH or BEDWORTH, pop down to Baker Brothers Diamonds - they have a champagne flute full of diamond in store. Guess how many are in there and win a night's stay at Hanbury Manor, plus other prizes.

I'll be adding a linky to this post so that more creative Jubilee comps can be added - feel free to add to it if you'd like to!

Cybher 2012: Running prize promotions on your blog

2012-05-14T21:58:00.000+01:00

I was honoured when Sian To - @geekisnewchic - asked me to host a session on competitions at the ultimate female blogger event, Cybher. An unexpected bonus was that I was partnered with the girls at Spark and Fuse. I thought I knew a decent amount about running a prize promotion, but these girls taught me all about the legal side - and also best practice when it comes to making them fair. They also had plenty of interesting tales about crazy compers!

You can read a summary of the Spark and Fuse presentation on their blog here.

We were very tight on time at the event, so this post is an expansion of the points I covered in my ten minute slot. If you're running competitions and prize draws on your blog then I hope there are some useful ideas here for you. I believe promotions should be fun for both the blogger AND the entrant. They should have clear Terms and Conditions, be run fairly, and make good use of social media channels - and that's what my presentation is all about...

First of all: an introduction.
I'm Di Coke (yes, that's my real name!), I'm proud to be a comper and have been for 15 years now. I've won over £200,000 of prizes and more than 40 holidays. I'm passionate about my hobby and started writing a blog because I wanted to share my experiences and tips with others.

Here at SuperLucky, I list creative competitions, share my own comping stories, write about controversial promotions and offer advice to both compers and promoters. I have a readership that extends to America, Canada and Australia as very few bloggers write on this topic. Since last Summer I've been working as Social Media Manager for Accolade Publishing - I run the Facebook/Twitter pages for Compers News magazine and The PrizeFinder, and I also blog about competitions at the PrizeFinder. I also write a monthly column for Compers News about online promotions.

All about compers
The Good

Compers have a lot of contacts - and not all of them are compers! Many of us do play by the rules and only have one Facebook account, so often we share information with more than just our comping friends - I have 1600 friends and 150 subscribers on Facebook, and most compers have 1000+ Twitter followers. Compers can be a powerful networking tool as they love to Share Facebook posts and Retweet (even if it's not a condition of entry!)

Compers ARE consumers too - we do actually pay for things once in a while! If a company is memorable for their promotions and prizes then we are likely to remember and recommend them.

The nicest compers are likely to give you feedback on the prize, and post a thankyou or photo on your blog or Facebook page.

The Bad

Unfortunately a few compers can be greedy. Many are at home full-time, and will enter to win anything and everything regardless of whether they want it. They are often regular visitors - though not contributors - to the www.moneysavingexpert.com competition forum

Some compers can enter hundreds of comps a day and as a result are likely to spend no time reading your blog (or indeed, any website they visit) - if an answer is required, they will usually have copied it from the MoneySavingExpert post.

The Ugly

Try not to get on the wrong side of a comper - word spreads quickly on Facebook and Twitter and some of the more vocal compers will be happy to join the mob

There are several private forums on Facebook where compers moan about promoters, and if a prize hasn’t arrived or isn’t what they expected, they will gang up to complain. Many will even go as far as complaining to the ASA, even for something that may seem trivial - so be on your guard!

If you get a public complaint about a competition or prize, try your best to settle it quickly – and ideally privately. Don't delete Facebook posts and only block users from a page as a last resort.

A successful promotion will...

raise awareness (and website/Facebook traffic) for the brand

increase traffic and interaction on your blog

result in positive feedback on social media channels

reward a deserving entrant

make your winner so happy they tell all their friends about your blog!

What can go wrong?

People cheating - using multiple emails, profiles or Twitter accounts, or plagiarising others' photos or stories (see my post about cheats)

A winner who doesn’t want the prize and swaps/sells it straight away

No response to a winning email

Complaints or negative feedback

How to get the best results

Ask a question that requires an answer unique to the entrant. eg.
- What would you spend the prize voucher on? (this will also send traffic to the brand website)
- Why would you love to win this prize?
- Write a poem about product/prize
Use Rafflecopter - even though it's ugly, it will save you time and effort. Don’t overload your widget with options: daily tweets are considered spammy, and perhaps you could choose different options for each of your competitions for variety, rather than adding all of them to every giveaway you do. Think about the weighting of the entries - awarding 25 entries for blogging about the competition might be a good option to get fellow bloggers on board.
DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT using a voting mechanic. Trust me, you'll end up in trouble.
If you want compers to enter - and lots of traffic - list your comp on
- Superlucky blog comp linkys (don't forget the closing date!)
- Loquax
- The Prizefinder
- Money Saving Expert (note: you can't add your own comp, you need to hope that a comper will spot it and add it!)
- Facebook competition groups, eg. Free Things and Competitions
- Facebook pages relevant to the prize - OR tag the promoter in your status update.
Use bit.ly to shorten and customise your link - for example, my current comp is bit.ly/PinterestWishlist - read my post on Using Bitly
Try and use quirky, funny Tweets that will stand out in a Timeline rather than long-winded ones - people will be intrigued and click for more information!
A Facebook page for your blog takes very little maintenance (all you need to do is use Networked Blogs to post automatically) but can be really great for spreading the word about your comps. Facebook is very visual, and interaction is greater if a status update is accompanied by a photo rather than just a link thumbnail. Use a photo of the prize (if you’ve got the software and time, add your blog name to it) and post it on your Facebook page along with a link to the competition. Compers can’t resist sharing a competition - even if it’s not actually a requirement of entry!

Take time over your Terms and Conditions

If you don't want to see your prize end up on eBay or Swaps forums, you could add 'The prize is as stated and cannot be transferred, sold or exchanged.' - this may make compers think twice about whether they really want the prize.
To keep cheats at bay - or at least to give you a reason to disqualify them - add 'One entry per person. No third party or automated entries'

When the competition is over

Rafflecopter will choose a winner at random for you - make sure they HAVE done the required action, and do check that they haven't entered multiple times from the same IP address. If you're not using Rafflecopter, Random.org is the number generator of choice!
Email the winner...and this is where the trouble usually starts! If your winner is a regular comper, the likelihood is that they get 500 emails a day and may miss yours. I recommend to compers that they should set up filters on their incoming mail - or at least search regularly - for the phrases 'Congratulations', 'You're a winner' or 'You have won'. As a subject header I would suggest putting "CONGRATULATIONS Di, you're a winner with Blah Blah blog!" so it stands out. IPM guidelines state that you should allow 28 days for a response, but 2 weeks is reasonable - include a line in your email saying 'Please respond with your postal address by (date) or another winner will be drawn'
If you get no response from a winner, you can try and contact them via Facebook - put their email address into the Search box and if they used that address to register for Facebook, you will find their profile and can send them a private message. This works well for Rafflecopter winners, as most entrants use Facebook Login for the widget so you will have the correct email address for their Facebook account. Don't forget that messages from non-friends will go to their 'Other' inbox so they may not even spot them!
Check they’re eligible for the prize (eg. a UK address) then you can announce their name on the blog and Facebook /Twitter. Let them know how the prizes will be sent - most winners will presume you’re the one posting them, when it’s usually the PR company. Make sure you add in the email ‘allow XX weeks for delivery’ just incase there’s a delay.
Ask politely for feedback on the prize - you could ask the winner to Tweet or post a photo of the prize on Facebook - or ask the PR company to insert a comp slip asking the same.

Unusual and inspiring competitions

Competitions are a great way to raise awareness about charities. Mummy Mummy Mum! ran an excellent competition for Operation Christmas Child last year - entrants had to fill a shoebox with toys and either blog about it or post to Facebook (although emailing it would get around the Facebook rule breaking!) before dropping it off at a local charity collection point
Photo competitions - I ran a comp on the Prizefinder blog where entrants could email a photo and caption. I collated these into a Facebook album and chose a winner at random. This also works well for recipes.
Video competitions are gaining popularity - ask people to make a video and either leave a YouTube link as a comment, or email a video to you which you can share on your blog or Facebook page.
Appliances Online ran a series of competitions asking for kids drawing, photos or recipes. The downside was that they were restricted to bloggers - but it was a great idea, and a blog hop linky would be perfect for it! Be aware that if you’re JUDGING a winner (rather than picking at random), you should keep the entries private until the closing date so there's no advantage for those that entered first or last!
Ask your entrants to comment on a certain topic and you could get useful feedback or content for future blog posts
Ask your blog readers to Repin photos or posts on Pinterest as a method of entry - or even ask them to start their own board (see my current competition).

There are lots of rules and regulations surrounding promotions. You don't need to know them all, but it IS a good idea to get a standard set of Terms and Conditions set up that you can adapt for every promotion you run. Get those right and it will help to protect you if anything goes wrong! If you have any questions about running your prize promotion, you can contact me at di@superlucky.co.uk or the Spark and Fuse team at bright.sparks@sparkandfuse.com - I'm also happy to spread the word about your competitions so feel free to send me your links.

Finally, don't forget to enter my own Pinterest Competition - read all about it at http://www.superlucky.co.uk/2012/05/create-pinterest-prize-wishlist-and-win.html - you can win a £50 prize of your choice from Amazon! (closes 15 June 2012)

Me & @petitmew after a few après-Cybher drinkies!

Create a Pinterest Prize Wishlist - and WIN!

2012-05-11T17:03:00.000+01:00

One of the best pieces of advice I can give to a comper with limited time is to concentrate on the prizes you'd really love to win! There are thousands of competitions out there and there's no way we can enter ALL of them. Try to focus your energy and effort on winning your perfect prizes, whether that's a world cruise or a hamper of cheese. Every year I post my own wishlist here on my blog, but Pinterest gives us a fabulous opportunity to create a visual wishlist which can be an excellent inspiration - especially if you win one of the prizes on it!

And so... onto the exciting news! I'm encouraging you to enter my Pinterest Promotion, where you can win a prize of your choice from www.amazon.co.uk up to the value of £50 - hurrah!

If you're not yet on Pinterest, you can read all about how to get started on my blog post 'Pinteresting Prizes' - if you already use Facebook or Twitter then it shouldn't take too long to get to grips with it.

To enter, I would like you to sign up to Pinterest and create a board called Wishlist. Onto your board, Repin this image from my own board:

Then Pin (or Repin) at least ten prizes that you would love to win. They can be anything: objects, places, experiences, people you'd like to meet... use your imagination! Start off by searching Pinterest for photos to Repin, Pin from other websites, or even upload your own photos. You can see my own board at http://pinterest.com/dicoke/wishlist/

Now, here's the important thing - if you win my competition, you get a single prize of your choice from Amazon.co.uk to the value of £50. Your desired prize must be pinned from the Amazon site to your Wishlist board - add the hashtag #Amazonprize to the description when you Pin it so I can spot it (see my example Ukulele!)

To complete your entry, email a link to your Pinterest Board to pinterest@superlucky.co.uk before midnight on Friday 15 June 2012. I will choose a winner at random, notify them by email and arrange to deliver their chosen #Amazonprize! I would hope that, even if you don't win the prize, you will continue to add to your Wishlist and use it as a source of inspiration and motivation for your comping!

Terms and Conditions:
• This prize draw is open to UK residents aged 16 or over
• One entry per person
• The entrant must have a Pinterest account, create a 'Wishlist' board and pin to it:
- the 'Win' competition graphic
- a prize from the Amazon.co.uk website costing less than £50
- at least ten other prizes
• Entries must be received by email before midnight on 15 June 2012.
• A winner will be chosen at random and notified by 22 June 2012.

'Dam fine weekend!

2012-05-01T22:11:00.000+01:00

I love the Eurostar! Ebbsfleet International station is less than 15 minutes drive from mum-in-law's house which means hubby and I can leave the boy with Nana while we head off on a weekend break to the continent... it's much more green than flying and so much more relaxing! Last weekend's trip to Amsterdam was my first night away from Ryland for six months so I was well prepared for a good night's sleep or two. Of course, I forgot that you need to get to bed early for that....duh.

I won my train tickets to Amsterdam in a creative comp on the Eurostar Facebook page last year, you had to suggest a fitting event for the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics. I suggested thousands of people dressed in coloured lycra suits making up the Tube map, standing in the middle of the Olympic Stadium. Then the music kicks in, and they all conga to the exits. Needless to say, thisparticular tiebreaker was inspired by a glass of Sauvignon Blanc, but someone must have liked it because I won! And boy will I be exited if this crazy conga actually HAPPENS on the big day...

Rob and I arrived in Amsterdam on Friday lunchtime after a change in Brussels, and went straight to the tip top Okura Hotel (I hugely dislike having to pay for such trivial things as a bed, but got a good deal online!) for a late lunch at the beautiful Serre restaurant:

Mackerel, beetroot...

Salmon, poached egg, hollandaise...

Stichelton, pear puree, balsamic vinegar (in a pipette!)

A bottle of wine ensured a good siesta so we were ready to take on the evening ahead - meeting up with some Nottingham friends - at Canvas bar. It was quite a sunset from the roof terrace...

A few beers were enjoyed and we ended up back at Steve's apartment eating guacamole, playing 'Draw Something' and listening to LPs of BBC Sound Effects.... and celebrating Sarah's 41st birthday!

Next day I had something unheard of - a lie-in until 10am - what the....? After a lazy brunch we checked out the FOAM Photography Museum and their excellent New York Times exhibition, then caught the ferry across from the station to the striking new Eye film museum. The angular building was the perfect location for a photoshoot for the ongoing Travel with Stabilo competition, where you upload photos of your Stabilo to win stationery goodies weekly, or the grand prize of a 500 Euro holiday voucher!

In front of EYE is a big 'I amsterdam' sign, so I popped my head through there for a photo with my Gem106 flag - our local East Midlands radio station is giving away a pair of flights to Paris or Amsterdam if you upload a photo of your Gem flag on holiday this month. Apply for your free flag here.

On Saturday night we had a couple of amazing martinis in the hotel bar before treating ourselves to an epic tasting menu at Ron Blaauw, a 2 Michelin starred restaurant. Because we also had the wines to accompany the meal, my memory of what we ate is a little fuzzy, but here are some nice photos. I particularly liked the four leaf clover made from basil; it was almost as if they knew I was Superlucky Di (Rob only got a three leaf clover on HIS plate...smirk!)

Aubergine, tarragon in eggshells

Langoustine, cucumber, basil, tomato

Snacks!

After dinner we tipsily made our way to the Blue Teahouse in the Vondelpark, where Steve (alias Can't Mix Won't Mix Allstars) was DJing to a room jam packed with people, playing REAL VINYL records (and also the occasional horse sound effect). Nice to hear the Beastie Boys, but I wasn't convinced by Dire Straits Steve!

I must admit I can't recall much of what happened after that, but I definitely remember not being in bed till 3am and my KG boots being covered in mud in the morning. Must have been a good night!

Sunday morning we took our hangovers home with us on the 10 'o' clock train home, leaving the rest of the Netherlands to prepare for their big Queen's Day party.

Thanks loads to Eurostar for our free tickets - we had a fantastic weekend! And if you like the sound of late night partying, check out the amazing Eurostar Facebook competition to win a weekend in Cologne, with 2 nights accommodation and the chance to hang out with Brandt Brauer Frick. Tell them all about your best festival or gig on Facebook to enter before Sunday 6 May!

Blog Comp Linky: June 2012

2012-05-01T09:20:00.001+01:00

Welcome to my blog comp linky for competitions that are closing in JUNE 2012. If you're hosting a giveaway please add it to the list, including the prize and the closing date - and your blog name if you can fit it in! You can access this post and the MAY linky via the links on the right hand side bar.

Please note, competitions MUST be hosted on a blog and they should be open to UK entries. For advice on running blog comps check out my Cybher presentation summary.
If you want to enter these competitions but aren't sure how, check out my post on How to Enter a Blog Competition for advice!

Don't forget to add your blog giveaway to www.theprizefinder.com too!

Pinteresting Prizes: the latest comping trend

2012-04-26T22:28:00.000+01:00

Pinterest - be warned, it's addictive! You might venture over there to enter competitions but before long you'll be creating boards of comedy vegetables, favourite wallpaper and amazing tattoos! Pinterest is a collection of virtual pinboards, you can create your own and browse other people's. Their mission is to "connect everyone in the world through the 'things' they find interesting" - it's one of the fastest growing social media websites, and its popularity means that brands are starting to run lots of Pinterest promotions. The good news is that because it's all about photographs or videos, these comps are usually fun and creative! You can find me on Pinterest at www.pinterest.com/dicoke - there's not much on my boards yet but that's because I'm afraid of getting too addicted to it! I do add all the Pinterest comps I find to a Competitions board though.

To sign up to Pinterest, first you need to 'Request an Invite' at www.pinterest.com - you will receive an email with details of how to sign up (check in your junk folder for this!) - you'll need to choose a username and you can upload a profile photo and short biography.

Here's a quick guide to Pinterest - you can find out lots more on their neatly organised 'Help' pages!

'Pins' are images (or videos) which you can add from other sites or upload from your computer - clicking on a pin takes you to the original website. To add an image, choose 'Add' from the top right of your Pinterest page, then paste in the URL of the website your image is on. An easier option is to download a 'Pin It' button for your browser toolbar here which will make it easy for you to add images to your boards. When you're on a website and click the 'Pin It' button a window will pop up and you can click through all the images on that site - just click the one you want to pin. You can add text, links and hashtags to an image, as well as 'mentioning' fellow Pinterest users. When you Pin from a website, a link to that site will appear with that pinned image - be warned, some websites don't allow you to 'Pin' images from there!

'Boards' are a group of pins, usually with the same theme - for example, they could be recipes, hairstyles, typography - or competitions of course! To create a board, choose 'Add' from the top right of your page and 'Create a Board'. Here's my board of my favourite competition entries:

You can 'Follow' on Pinterest as you would on Twitter. Click 'Follow All' to follow a user, or choose a specific board and click 'Follow' to only follow that board. Pins from the boards you follow will appear on your homepage.

'Repins' are where you spot an image you like whilst browsing Pinterest, and you can choose to Repin from that board onto one of your own boards. The Pin will retain the link to the original website - you can edit the accompanying text if you like.

'Likes' are similar to Facebook Likes - some promoters (unfortunately!) use them as a voting tool in their competitions. Your Liked images won't appear on your boards but in your profile's 'Likes' section.

As on Facebook, you can 'Comment' on images.

'Mentions' are similar to Twitter mentions or Facebook tags, and can be used in an image caption or a comment. If you're Following a user, type @ and then their username - they will receive an email notification that they have been mentioned.

As with Twitter and Facebook, you can have Notifications emailed to you. Go to the Settings page (from the drop down menu top right of your home page) and you can choose which notifications you receive, and whether you receive individual emails or a daily round up.

Types of Pinterest competition

There are a few different styles of comps on Pinterest, although no doubt promoters will come up with more creative ways of doing it as more people get on board! As with Facebook creative/effort competitions, winners may be judged, chosen at random or by the number of Likes/Repins. For some comps you don't even need to be signed up to Pinterest, as the promoter might ask you to email or Tweet a photo which they will then add to their own board.

Contribute to a promoter's board
When you Follow a Board, the promoter adds you as a contributor. You can then upload a Pin as an entry to a competition. See the Amnesia and Confused.com links below for examples.

Create your own board
Promoters ask you to create a board with a certain theme - usually asking you to pin a minimum amount of items from their own Boards or website. Entries can be tracked by the Board Name, or a competition hashtag (eg. #ACHICAMustHaves) used in its description. Promoters may ask you to leave a link to your board as a comment on their competition post, or email through a link!

Twitter-style 'Follow and Repin' Comps
Similar to the RT and Follow comps that are so dull yet so popular on Twitter, on Pinterest a promoter may simply require you to Follow a particular Board (or all their boards) and then Repin a specific competition image, or your choice of prize image. Winners are chosen at random. As with Twitter, if you spot a Repinned competition photo on your comping friend's board, make sure you Repin from the ORIGINAL board (look for 'Repinned from....' above the pin, then click the link) - if you repin a comper's entry that won't count!

Voting Competitions
Yes, they exist on Pinterest too, unfortunately! With these popularity comps, the winner is the person who creates the board or pins the image that gets the most Repins or Likes. Before long the Facebook and Twitter cheats will be setting up multiple accounts just to 'Like' and 'Repin' their own entries I'm sure.

Where do I find Pinterest competition details and Terms and Conditions?
This is one of the main problems with Pinterest, as the competition details are usually posted as an image and then easily lost amongst the entries on the promoter's board. It's possible to select one of your pins as your board 'cover', and some promoters remember to do this so it's obvious on their profile page! Some promoters link to the full terms and conditions on an external website. Check carefully as many Pinterest giveaways are actually only open to US residents. I find most Pinterest comps by doing a Twitter search on 'Pinterest win competition', or searching on Google.

How do I know if I've won a Pinterest competition?
For competitions where you need to create a moodboard, the promoter may also ask you to email them a link to your entry - in this case they will email the winner. There isn't a messaging function on Pinterest, so if you've entered a Repin competition then the promoter is likely to Follow one of your boards and leave a comment on your Repin, or they may comment with an '@ mention' of your name on the original competition pin and ask you to email them (as with a Twitter DM, they will need to Follow at least one of your boards before they can '@ mention' you). If you've been added as a contributor to a board they are likely to comment on your entry to let you know you've won.
NOTE: Since posting this, I have won two Pinterest competitions. In both cases, the promoter sent a message to me on Facebook, which arrived in my 'Other' inbox. One promoter told me that they couldn't comment on their ten winning entries because Pinterest thought they were spamming!

A few current Pinterest competitions

Confused.com are giving away ten pairs of Butterfly Flats shoes. First, follow their competition board 'Driving in Heels'. When you Follow, they will add you as a contributor, then you need to upload a photo of you in your highest heels, with the caption 'I want to win a pair of Butterfly Twists with Confused.com'. The ten most extravagant pairs will win a pair of Butterfly Twists Eve shoes. Read the Terms here and enter before 30 April 2012.

Win a voucher for Afternoon Tea at the AfternoonTea.co.uk Pinterest competition - you don't actually need to be on Pinterest to enter this one, just email a photo of you enjoying Afternoon Tea to pinterest@afternoontea.co.uk and they will add it to their board. Unfortunately the photo with the most Likes wins (they've changed the rules on this one which is quite frustrating) but every voter also gets a chance to win a voucher too. Ends 30 April 2012.

Achica want you to create a board of your Spring Home Ideas. You need to tag the board in your description with #ACHICAMustHaves and make sure you use at least five products from Achica! Read more on the Facebook page - and you can search boards with the hashtag to see what other entries are like. Sadly, the winner of the £100 voucher and Orla Kiely bag is the board with the most followers, rather than the board judged to be the best. Enter before 30 April 2012.

Conflict of Pinterest is a creative and cleverly designed (if a little confusing!) competition from First Choice. Essentially, you choose your favourite country on their infographic and then you can either Tweet your reason for choosing it, OR create a Pinterest board of images and link to it. The Twitter winner - picked at random - gets an iPhone 4S, and the Pinterest winner - judged - gets a Nikon 3100 camera. Read the Terms and Conditions here and enter before 1 May 2012.

RedBullIntern is giving away a copy of the excellent Senna on Blu-Ray. This is an easy prize draw - you need to Follow F1 Fan on Pinterest, then Repin this photo of Senna. Read the details here and enter before 4 May 2012.

Amnesia Ibiza are giving away up to fifteen prizes of 100 Euros to the best photos of the club's early days uploaded to their 'Amnesia Memories' board before 17 May 2012 (although you'll need to be following their board before 1st May to be granted access to upload). Check out all the details on their website.

IKEA & Yazoo Part II: The Name and Shame

2012-04-19T23:47:00.000+01:00

This evening I'm delighted to bring you the sequel to last week's post about the Ikea and Yazoo voting competitions: I thought it would be nice to let you know the latest gossip, and the scrapes everyone has been getting into! You might think I'm a fool for naming and shaming but it's my blog and so I can say what the hell I like, and it's the easiest way to get thousands of you to sit up and take notice of the fraud that's going on under your noses! Remember, the reason I write about this is because I want competitions to be FAIR and FUN. These cheating idiots are spoiling it for the promoters AND the entrants!

The IKEA 'Snap a Napper' competition voting ended at midnight on Tuesday. If you recall, the winner of the two £1500 beds (one for the entrant, and one for the snoozing friend in the photo) will be chosen at random tomorrow by IKEA from the five photos with the most votes. So, let's see which photos finished at the top of the snooze charts...

(Facebook screenshot removed due to copyright issues)

In first place, Paul Czernozukow asleep on his chair, submitted by girlfriend Julie Parker. In 4th place, Julie snoozing, submitted by Paul. Take a closer look at the photo captions of Grandad Joe and brother in Law Richard in 3rd and 9th place too. Lower case letters and a similar writing style, yes? 'Richard' might look familiar, as he's actually Canadian Great Dane owner Michel, and 'Grandad Joe' is actually Marc's photo of his Grandpa Ray, as featured in his Flickr album (Marc wasn't at all happy when I messaged him to let him know his sleeping Grandad had been pinched!) All 4 photos were submitted by Paul Czernozukow and voted for by exchanging votes with his many fake accounts, a few of which I list at the end of this post if you want to join me in reporting them to Facebook. Several of these accounts were posting vote exchange requests on forums in the closing hours of the voting too... If you're not sure how vote exchanging works, you set up (or buy cheap) multiple fake profiles, then look for people posting on Vote Swap forums, send them a private message and arrange a vote swap (10, 20, 50, 100+ votes). Then you vote in foreign contests using your fake profiles, and wait for these votes to be returned. It's best to swap with a few different people at once, so you can log into each of your profile's accounts and vote for several different contests rather than just one. In theory you shouldn't even need to vote for your own entry using your own profiles, and for every competition you can swap with different people so that it's never the same names voting for your entries - clever eh?

Well, the good news is: Paul was found out. IKEA revealed the top 5 on Tuesday and all his entries had been removed. So let's see who remains on the short list....

(Facebook screenshot removed due to copyright issues)

In top spot, Claire Louise, a comper who campaigned hard for votes. She also got votes from the anti-Czernozukow Facebook compers. In 3rd place, a photo featuring an under 18 (breaking the terms and conditions, which state 'Entrants must not upload photographs of anyone aged under 18'). In 4th place Heather, another Facebook comper who campaigned hard for votes. In 2nd place we have Jayne Syms' photo of her daughter with a ginger cat. On further investigation this clever cat, Lacey Syms, has three Facebook profiles, and resides in Totnes. Our 5th place entrant, David, also lives in Totnes.... just a coincidence?

Lacey's mate Patchy Syms also has a Facebook account! This is brought to IKEA's attention on this thread, but swiftly deleted by page admin. Lacey (apparently not a cat!) then starts an argument on the thread with Louis, a fellow contestant. Lacey then deletes all her posts. It all seems rather strange so I decide to do a bit of snooping: after all, that's what I'm good at! At this point a friend reminds me that three of the McCain Lucky Spuds daily £1000 winners were from Totnes... a lucky town, perhaps?

A quick Google search on Lacey and Jayne Syms, as well as Ray Payne, Jack Syms and Kenny Foot (the Lucky Spuds winners) led me to this competition post on Sony's wall. Click the screenshot to enlarge and check out the entrant names and batches of comments around the same time - some are obvious multiple profiles, like Benjamin/Ben Syms and Julia/Ju Payne. Of the 22 accounts, only two use a human photo (and one of those is Cher Lloyd!). I've edited these names together so they're easier to look through, and also I realise that Lacey/Jayne will start deleting these profiles on reading my blog so if you visit the Sony link many comments will be gone soon!

If you check out their Facebook walls, ALL these accounts are linked, with various combinations of the same friends, likes and competition shares/comments. One of these accounts, Daniel Bindon, won a massive £10,000 prize from Phones4u last year.

Many of these Facebook profiles link back to this Fashion Daydreams blog competition, where Lacey/Jayne has made up some hilarious names in order to make as many entries as possible... perhaps she could have been a bit more imaginative with the names though, as it's pretty easy to link 'Ginger Toms' and 'Kitty Syms' back to a cat-lover...

With fake Facebook accounts, you can usually report them all as not representing real people, but in Jayne's case it seems she has permission to set up and use her family and friends' accounts too... most of these names can be traced on 192.com to real people who live in Totnes. We can't prove it, but the timestamps on the competitions she enters do suggest that she's logging in and out of all the accounts in different sessions. The only other explanation is that all her friends and family are logged on at the same time and entering the comps she enters immediately after she does! And surely all those men can't really want to win bracelets and fluorescent green satchels.....?!

So what can be done about this? It doesn't seem fair, but we can't prove that she's using these accounts.... so the idea behind me making this public is so that if you see any of these profiles entering or winning a competition you message the promoter with a link to this post, and leave them to make up their own mind. Hopefully IKEA will have worked out themselves how Jayne got so many votes and they will award the prize to a deserving winner... I look forward to the big reveal tomorrow, although I'm still pretty pissed off that IKEA blocked me from posting on their page and didn't respond to my message or email warning them about running a voting competition. It's not great to just delete posts from your wall and not let anyone know what's happening!

And as for Yazoo, for the 4th week running there was controversy as the top three contestants were disqualified. Like last week, the top two contestants claimed that they had been sabotaged and had fake votes added to get them kicked out. Now why would that happen? Perhaps if I tell you that a certain Ronny Parker (familiar surname, no?) was in third place with a googled photo, that might give you a clue... And how about if I link you to Martin Dakin, who was eager to draw Yazoo's attention to the top two entries' rapid vote gain.

Martin is one of Paul Czernozukow's fake accounts. And here's another of Paul's fake accounts, the gorgeous Julia Prince, causing trouble for a fellow contestant from a few weeks ago.

Unlike IKEA, at least Yazoo have finally posted an update on why they're disqualifying people. It's light hearted and in the spirit of the Shake Squad competition, but that's not what the entrants who were sabotaged want to hear. Really Yazoo should just ditch the voting completely and choose the best photo each week, there have been some amazing entries that have hardly any votes.

I'm ending this blog post with a list of my favourite fake accounts used by Paul Czernozukow (sadly he recently deleted my all-time favourite, Ron Dennis!) - please feel free to report all these as fakes. Several of us have done so, but it takes forever for Facebook to act...
Sarah Middelton
Martin Dakin
Luke Westfeild
Adam Hill
McLaren Mercedes
Laura Mclaren
Sarah Smith
Tom Royston
Reggie Cook
Stephen Parker
Alina Cocoza
Carleigh West
Carleigh Parker
Kenneth Gibbons Gey
Lewis Way

And the accounts connected to Lacey and Jayne Syms. Remember, lots of these relate to real people so the only ones we can report as fake are the multiple accounts - just keep an eye out for the others entering competitions en masse!
Lacey Syms*
Lacey Syms
Lacey Syms
Patchy Syms*
Lacey LouLou (profile name was originally EMILY TAYLOR and has been changed)*
Jayne Syms (profile name was originally TAM ZIN and has been changed)*
Jack Syms*
Benjamin Syms*
Ben Syms*
Benjamin Jamie Harris*
Dale Syms*
Don Syms*
Pat Simms*
Sarah Foot*
Kenny Foot*
Cheryl Jones*
Daniel Binden
Alfie Moon *
Don Alfred (profile name was originally PETEY PIRANHA and has been changed)*
Ruth Forest (profile name was originally DEE SIMMS and has been changed)*
Julia Payne*
Ju Payne (profile name was originally JEWEL PAY and has been changed)*
Ray Payne*
Petey Fishy (profile name was originally PETE FISHER and has been changed)
Heidi Harrington (profile name was originally CHERRY SMITH and has been changed) *
Primrose Syms*
Puddy Syms*

These are probably just a fraction of the accounts these cheats have, and in the case of Lacey's list, she has cleverly friended a lot of compers with these fake profiles too. Please check if these are on your friends lists.... and delete. Although I imagine they'll be deleted by their creators soon enough!
*EDIT: AS ON 23 APRIL 2012, ALL THESE ACCOUNTS HAVE BEEN DELETED!
*EDIT: THESE ACCOUNTS WERE DELETED STRAIGHT AFTER THIS BLOG POST, THEN RE-ACTIVATED IN MAY 2012!

So, I now sit back and await Paul and Jayne/Lacey's responses and excuses...

Although I don't think anything will ever beat Paul's excuse when he won a Kindle with his fake account Reggie Cook (actually Micky at the time!) last year!

I know that there are an awful lot of cheats out there, and they're all much cleverer at covering their tracks than Paul and Lacey. I know there are some on my friends list too, and hopefully this post lets you know I'm watching (and it's not just me either - I know plenty of you are annoyed all this is going on!) - and that I've also decided to approach the issue with a sense of humour, because believe me - it really does help....!

But now, I'd better go... there are comps out there that need entering!

Fancy flights to Florida?

2012-04-16T20:58:00.000+01:00

Ah, a trip to Florida - on the wish list of many a comper I'm sure! Not me yet though - I'm saving our Florida holiday until Ryland is old enough to appreciate all it has to offer. For now, ThomasLand in Tamworth does the job just fine!

But I digress... I'm here to tell you about a bloggers competition hosted by Ocean Florida, where one lucky blogger will bag a pair of return flights to Florida. Be warned though - the flights are on specific dates: either 7th June from Manchester or 11th May/15th June from Gatwick - and the stay must be for 14 nights. If those dates suit you and you have a blog then this could be a low entry competition worth a go - you CAN also transfer the prize to relatives or friends!

To enter, you need to blog about Florida in between 300-750 words before this Thursday 19th April - and leave a link to your post on the competition blog here. The judges will reward their favourite post with the prize.

If you don't have a blog, don't panic! There's a nice easy prize draw over at the Lands' End website to win a week's holiday for 4 in Florida too - enter here before 30 April 2012.

If you live in Ireland, you can also win a Florida holiday at www.iloveirishchicken.com before 29th June, or scan the Moy Park logo on your iPhone using the Blippar App!

Good luck!

Creative Comp Round-up April 2012

2012-04-13T13:03:00.002+01:00

This is a looong overdue (sorry!) round up of all the most inspiring and creative comps around at the moment. It's a real mixed bag, so hopefully there's something to take your fancy! You'll notice I'm no longer including those that are pure voting competitions (so no judged or random element) - they're a waste of time and leave the genuinely talented entrants disappointed and frustrated. There are plenty of imaginative and creative challenges here that you can get involved in, without having to spam your friends asking for votes!

In the last couple of weeks I've been lucky with my video entries - I've won £200 High Street vouchers with Maybelline and a 3D TV with Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists on Facebook - although neither of my entries were my best work I'm afraid, so I won't be sharing them with you this time!

If you win a prize in any of the comps I post, let me know over at the SuperLucky Facebook page. And don't forget I also blog at The PrizeFinder, where we give a £50 shopping voucher away every month for your prize stories and photos.

Win a prize every Friday in April with the ESpares Fix it Yourself Fridays competition - prizes include an iPad3, Nespresso machines and hand-held vacuums. Tell them a 'Fix it Yourself' story to enter - the Week 1 winning entries are very well written! You can enter by email to fiy@espares.co.uk or post to their Facebook wall.

The People are offering makeovers for your local community green space by Veolia - there will be one winner for each of 4 regions: North, South, Midlands and London, and the makeover will be done in time for you to have a Jubilee Party in your community space! Enter by 15 April 2012.

If you're between 9-16 (or have a daughter who is!) you can enter to win an iPad in the Sugarscape George at Asda fashion competition - upload a sketch of an outfit inspired by Sports Luxe catwalk trends. Five runners up get a selection of 'Love2Laugh' clothes from George. Enter before 16 April 2012.

Wines of South Africa are giving away two prizes of a bottle of SA wine - to enter, email a photo of you drinking South African wine to info@winesofsa.com - read more at www.winesofsa.co.uk and enter by 20 April 2012.

Win a week in Stockholm in this fabulous LiveSwedish photo competition. To enter, take a photo that captures the spirit of Stockholm style and upload to Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #livestockholm - this will need some creative thinking! All photos will be rated and those with 5 stars judged to decide the winner. Read the full terms here and enter before 23 April 2012.

Another one for youngsters! 10-16 year olds can write a 247 word story with the theme 'The Disovery' to win £75 Bloomsbury Books vouchers and ten runners up prizes of a signed book. There's a new competition theme every month, and this month's comp closes on 24 April 2012.

Easyjet are running another competition just for bloggers - the prize is an all-inclusive week's holiday for two in Sharm El Sheikh, and to enter you need to write a post inspired by Egypt. Read more on the EasyJet site and publish your blog post before 27 April 2012.

B&Q are running a comp to design a gift card - but you need to be under 25 (darn!) You can download a template at www.diy.com/designagiftcard and email your design to designagiftcard@b-and-q.co.uk before 27 April 2012 - the prize is a £500 B&Q gift card!

And yet another for the under 18s! Design a new black card for the BBFC and you could get it shown before movies and win a BBFC training day for your class at school, as well as film goodies. Runners up will get DVDs. Enter at www.cbbfc.co.uk before 30 April 2012.

Win the opportunity to dive with sharks over at the King British Facebook page! To enter, upload a photo or video of your fish enjoying King British Fish Treats to their wall. Closes 30 April 2012.

Confused.com have made a little promo video to publicise the dangers of driving in high heels. Never mind the problems with the pedals, the biggest danger is scuffing the leather from the heels of your finest KG shoes - I've had to glue bits onto my patent pink heels many a time! Anyway, to enter you'll need to be on Pinterest and be following the Confused.com competition board 'Driving in Heels'. When you FOLLOW you will be added as a contributor, then you need to upload a photo of you in your most extravagant heels, with the caption 'I want to win a pair of Butterfly Twists with Confused.com'. The ten most extravagant pairs will win a pair of Butterfly Twists Eve shoes - I would hope they choose entries where you can see the entrant in the shot rather than just stock shots though! Read the Terms here and enter before 30 April 2012.

Win one of a hundred Jubilee Street Party packs, with party goodies for 50 people plus £100 Co-op vouchers. You need to complete a tiebreaker (max 100 words) about your local community group and party at www.co-operative.coop/food/jubilee/. Closes 30 April 2012.

Alpro are giving away Festival tickets again (I had a wonderful time at the Summer Sundae Festival courtesy of a win in their Facebook comp last year!). To enter, tell them why you can't wait for the festival season on the Facebook App, and choose from Wychwood, Cornbury, Latitude, WOMAD or REWIND festivals. Winners will be picked at random! Closes 30 April 2012.

Revlon are giving away 500 Photoready Primers, and 500 Photoready Eye Primers on Facebook. To enter, share your beauty tip or a tip on striking the perfect pose for a photo on their Facebook App. Upload a photo, and you're done. Twenty entries will also be shortlisted to win the 'ultimate PhotoReady prize', but as that involves voting I won't bore you with the details! Closes 30 April 2012.

Win a trip to Rome in the 55DSL Instagram competition, plus runners up prizes of vouchers to spend at their online store! Upload a photo showing what Italy means to you, using the hashtag #55DSLROMAFILM before 2 May 2012 (this one is open worldwide).

If you cycle round London, Barclays are giving you the chance to win a luxury hotel stay and dinner at 'Dinner'! To enter, upload a photo that captures the essence of cycling around London to their Facebook App. Winners will be judged - closes 4 May 2012 (although if you enter your photo before 23 April 2012 you could win a prize in the weekly draw too!).

Win some gorgeous Raybans over at the Select Specs blog - send them your funniest sunglasses snaps to competitions@selectspecs.com before 23 April 2012.

There are several recipe comps inspired by the Diamond Jubilee and here's the first - whip up a Jubilee Mushrooms recipe fit for a Queen and win £500. Enter on the MoreToMushrooms Facebook page before 29 April 2012.

Great British Chicken also want your Diamond Jubilee recipe, this time with chicken! The most imaginative recipe will win a London overnight stay on Saturday 2 June plus £200 in cash! Enter here by 4 May 2012.

Johnson's want to see your happy baby videos and will reward their ten favourites with a camcorder! Videos must be under 5 minutes long - upload at www.johnsonsbaby.co.uk before 11 May 2012.

Palmers are celebrating originality with their new Facebook App. Upload a photo of yourself or a friend explaining why they're original - the most original entry wins the trip to Rome, and nine runners up receive a Palmers Pamper Pack worth £30. Just a tip - you might want to hold off entering until nearer the closing date of 13 May 2012, then you can check through the entries to ensure that yours is REALLY original!

TopFruit are running yet another fun creative comp - this time you can win one of two prizes to support your team (Ireland or England) at Euro 2012. To enter, tell them the funniest reason why your friend should win the prize (I'm guessing here that you should agree with your friend that they take you along if they win!) You can read the Terms and Conditions here and it closes on 14 May 2012.

Grant Property want to know what your dream job is and where you see yourself in ten years time - this competition is ONLY FOR STUDENTS and you must have an 'ac.uk' email address to claim the £50 iTunes voucher if you're chosen as the winner. Post an entry on their Facebook wall before 30 May 2012.

myjobsplace are running another comp on their Facebook page - tell them about yourself with a story, picture or poem and there winners will get a £50 retailers' voucher of their choice. 'The more creative the better' they say - read more here! Closes 31 May 2012.

Veetee want your recipes using Veetee Dine In rice - you could win £500. Enter on their website and read the Terms on Facebook. Closes 1 June 2012.

Brabantia have launched a 'Design a Bin' competition with a grand prize of €1500 of Brabantia products - and a bin featuring your bin design! This winner is decided by judges. Unfortunately they've also decided to runs voting compeitiion alongside this, with the winner getting €1000 of products. Six category winners (judged) will also get a bin. Enter at http://brabantia.com/designyourbin/ by 10 June 2012.

Win £1000 of Thomas and Friends goodies and tickets to the Blue Mountain Movie Premiere by designing a new mystery engine called Luke! Find out more at www.thomasandfriends.com. I've read the T&Cs and there are no age restrictions at all - and the winning entry is chosen at random, so I might do a joint effort with Ryland! Enter by post or by email to Thomasandfriends@hitentertainment.com before 15 June 2012.

Spaseekers are giving away a spa break to the most comical photo of you or your mates looking tired! Complete your details on their Facebook App, then post a photo to their wall and tag it. Enter before 29 June 2012.

Design a Beehive in the Neal's Yard Remedies comp and you can see your design brought to life, or win Bee Lovely Hand Creams and kids gardening sets. There's two age groups: Under 5s and 6-12 year olds. Download the PDF here with all the details on. Closes 19 June 2012.

Good luck - and don't forget to check out the skill-based and creative comps over at The PrizeFinder too!

Signed, sealed, hand delivered...

2012-04-11T14:56:00.001+01:00

In the last week I have taken delivery of some of the most unusual competition prizes I've ever won, and wanted to share these autographed delights with you! These fabulous framed photos are courtesy of the HTC 'Music Legend' competition, where I won my choice of music/sport/film memorabilia. I had them hand delivered as the company www.musicpicturedisc.com are based in Nottingham...

This one is fabulous - Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd on the set of Ghostbusters!

One of my favourite LPs...

Now, I love Raiders of the Lost Ark - but why have they framed the DVD alongside a still from the new rubbish movie?!

This is my favourite - I've always been a massive Kylie fan and recreated her debut album sleeve to enter the HTC competition (see my blog header!)

And here's a photo of Dennis Bergkamp to join our framed Forest shirt and letters from Arsene Wenger and Karren Brady in our football-themed downstairs loo...

And as if that wasn't enough excitement, look what arrived in the post today from a little surprise giveaway on the Olly the Little White Van Facebook page - a signed JUSTIN FLETCHER photo!

It's times like this you realise what a marvellous hobby comping is!

More voting trouble: IKEA and Yazoo sweep the cheating under the carpet...

2012-04-09T10:52:00.000+01:00

Voting competitions. I don't like them, and following my latest investigations into cheating I no longer enter them, and will only vote if I believe the entry is a worthy winner. I'm trying hard to educate promoters, marketing and PR agencies that voting competitions are NEVER a good idea, but there's still some way to go...

IKEA have invested a lot into promoting their new 'Snap a Napper' competition - google it and it's all over PR and marketing websites. The promotional videos and photos look good, and the concept is fun too. Snap a photo of a friend or family member (NOT a stranger!) snoozing, and you could BOTH win a brand new bed from Ikea. The winner is chosen at random from the five entries with the most votes.

It's still eight days until the voting ends, but take a look a the current top four. Two of the photos feature a child, when the terms and conditions state 'Entrants must not upload photographs of anyone aged under 18'. The other two entries are from a Cumbrian couple, Paul and Julie, who were recently disqualified from the Littlewoods Mum of the Year voting competition.

Poundland and Bupa recently ran similar competitions where their winners were judged from the ten most popular videos/photos. In the final 48 hours of BOTH these competitions, multiple (poor quality and mainly irrelevant) entries were submitted and gained 200+ votes in 24 hours to finish in the top ten. Luckily both Poundland and Bupa were on the ball and disqualified these entries at the judging stage - but there was still a lot of disappointment and anger amongst their Facebook fans, who couldn't understand why the entries were approved in the first place.

IKEA have included in their terms 'Fraudulent or deceptive voting practices are not permitted and any entrant that engages in such practices will be disqualified.' Most promoters now feel that including a term like this is enough to stop the cheats, and their technical team can check and disqualify votes from fake Facebook profiles, vote exchange or vote buying sites. What most companies don't realise is that many cheats can easily sabotage others' entries by voting for them with fake profiles, or by posting an anonymous vote request on a forum like freelancer.com, microworkers.com or one of the many Facebook voting exchange groups. They then email a link to the fake request to the promoter, or use another fake profile to post a screen grab onto the promoter's Facebook wall. THIS IS NOT FAR FETCHED. It happens, and if you want evidence and screenshots then feel free to email me.

I messaged IKEA via their Facebook page last week with a link to my recent blog post about cheating, suggesting they should check IP addresses and voter profiles for the top entries. They didn't respond. Yesterday I logged into Facebook to find this message in my Inbox - several other friends had also received it.

I took a look at IKEA's page to see if they had answered anyone's queries about the competition yet. I posted a response on this thread along the lines of 'Considering the investment you've put into the PR for this promotion, it would be good if you could actually start to respond to your messages and comments. It's not great customer service to ignore us!'. Not long afterwards, my comment was deleted and I was blocked from posting on their page. I returned to the thread to see that the same had happened to others - yet still no response from IKEA.

I'm aware that it's likely to be a PR company who control the IKEA social media channels, and on a Bank Holiday weekend they won't be paying as much attention as usual. But it's VERY important to respond to concerns and questions - yes, a complaint on a Facebook wall is bad PR, but a swift and polite response can also be very good PR. Removing comments entirely - and blocking your fans - should NEVER happen.

It's not just IKEA who are sweeping things under the rug. Yazoo Milkshake are also heavily promoting their 'Shake Squad' Facebook App, which offers a whopping ten grand to the best photo. They're judging the overall winner, but alongside this they're giving away £250 cash every week to the entry with the most votes. The competition has been running for 3 weeks, and for the last two weeks Yazoo have awarded the cash prize to the third placed contestant. They've not explained their reasons why, and aren't even publicly admitting this is the case. Indeed, their wall post announcing the latest winner says 'This week's winner of a cool £250 is Mark. His picture received the most votes this week'. Erm, that's not exactly true is it? They should say 'the most VALID votes' or 'the most ELIGIBLE' votes' - but that would be admitting there's a problem with cheating, so of course they wouldn't want to draw attention to that would they?

Yazoo rules simply state 'The weekly prizes will be awarded to the Entrant whose submission earns the highest number of votes within the competition gallery during the promotional period, as specified in point 3, providing they are eligible' - but there's no details of what constitutes an 'eligible' vote. If your husband and son vote for you from the same computer/IP address, are those votes ineligible?

Then there's the problem of whether people actually ARE cheating. The Yazoo entrants who were disqualified were informed that votes gained on their entry appeared fraudulent. One entrant claimed her votes increased significantly overnight and that her entry had been inflated by fake votes simply to get her disqualified.

And that's the problem: an entry has votes from fake Facebook profiles, the same IP address, or bulk votes received via a vote-buying forum. How can a promoter tell if these ineligible votes are being submitted by the entrant themselves, by a contact of the entrant, or by a fellow contestant trying to get the entrant disqualified? The truth is, they can't. So ANY voting competition can easily descend into a farce.

In an ideal world every photo, video and tiebreaker competition should be judged, but I understand that promoters want to get the viral results that a voting competition achieves. So why not try a different approach? Perhaps tiered prizes - any entrant with 10+ votes goes into a random draw for a small prize, any entrant with 30+ votes goes into a draw for a larger prize. Or every entry with a certain number of votes goes to the judging stage?

Promoters and PR agencies need to accept the fact that people WILL try and cheat - and even if they get disqualified from one competition, they will try and cheat again in another one. It's no good trying to sweep the fact under the carpet. And as long as we keep complaining about it and trying to warn promoters and agencies about these problems, then we CAN make a difference!

ENJOY PART 2: THE NAME AND SHAME HERE....

Blog Comp Linky: May 2012

2012-04-05T09:47:00.000+01:00

Welcome to my blog comp linky for competitions that are closing in MAY 2012. If you're hosting a giveaway please add it to the list, including the prize and the closing date - and your blog name if you can fit it in! You can access this post and the JUNE linky via the links on the right hand side bar.

Please note, competitions MUST be hosted on a blog and they should be open to UK entries. For advice on running blog comps check out my Cybher presentation summary.
If you want to enter these competitions but aren't sure how, check out my post on How to Enter a Blog Competition for advice!

Don't forget to add your blog giveaway to www.theprizefinder.com too!

Tasty tapas: scallops in ham with white bean purée

2012-04-04T12:41:00.000+01:00

Please send me on holiday to Barcelona!

This is my last minute entry for the Easyjet tapas competition, which closes today... British scallops were half price at Sainsbury's so I managed to get eight huge ones for less than £4! I served them with white beans and sweet smoked paprika - two of my favourite Spanish flavours. Ah, I just love Spain!

Scallops in ham with white bean purée (serves 2 - 4)

4 tbsp olive oil
410g tin cannellini beans, drained
1 garlic clove, chopped
150ml boiling water
squeeze lemon juice
sweet smoked paprika
8 large scallops
4 strips serrano ham - halved lengthways

Make the puree by combining the beans, garlic, lemon juice, boiling water and 3tbsp olive oil in a saucepan and simmer for 5 minutes

Season with salt and pepper, then mix with a hand blender until smooth. Keep warm.
Wrap the scallops in the ham and secure with a cocktail stick

Pre-heat a heavy skillet with a tablespoon of olive oil
Pan fry the scallops for a couple of minutes each side
Spoon the puree into a dish and sprinkle with a little sweet smoked paprika
Remove the cocktail sticks from the scallops and perch on top of the puree

...enjoy!

London Loves

2012-04-03T11:08:00.001+01:00

I love London. Every time I visit it feels like a little holiday - we drive down to Mum-in-Law's place in Kent every couple of months and pass the Olympic site on the way, it's amazing to watch it all taking shape... and driving there at night with Canary Wharf and all the skyscrapers glowing is magical!

We spent last weekend in London for Mum-in-Law's 75th birthday, so I started the weekend by booking a free haircut at Toni & Guy in Westfield Stratford City - I won a year's free hairdressing there in their recent photo competition! The staff at Toni & Guy are charming and always want to hear my comping tips. One of the girls mentioned her best friend's mum Pauline is a comper... it turns out I've met her several times at Comping days! Westfield itself has amazing shops, a good range of smart restaurants and is neatly designed... they don't seem to run many competitions though, although next weekend there's a big 'Future Fashion' event: if it's anything like the Derby one it will be worth checking out!

Searching for Treasure
Last Friday a brand new two week Treasure Hunt launched on the GoldRun App (available only for the iPhone and iPad I'm afraid). Menswear site MrPorter are choosing locations in major cities round the globe - visit these locations in a specific two week window and you can collect a virtual shopping bag containing a prize. Most of them are free shipping codes but some lucky winners will bag designer goodies like Lanvin shoes or Paul Smith cufflinks! In London you can pick up your virtual bag by visiting one of four locations:

EMMA WILLIS: 66 Jermyn Street SW1
THE BOUNDARY: 2-4 Boundary Street E2
BARRAFINA: 54 Frith Street W1
LA FAMIGLIA: 7 Langton Street SW10

You can enter once every 24 hours! We popped into Barrafina to collect ours; you just launch the GoldRun App and it automatically knows you're in the right place and pops up a bag. You can then take a photo of the bag and Share to Facebook/Twitter if you like.

Click to move on and you'll find out what you've won; Rob and I got free shipping codes. More importantly, we got to enjoy beer and snacks at an amazing tapas bar that we'd always fancied visiting... it's funny where comping takes you! I saw on Facebook yesterday that one of my best comping friends Marie bagged a pair of APC jeans in her virtual bag at the weekend, so if you're in London it's worth having a go!

Lunch ...at Dinner!
We had a late lunch booked at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal. Not a prize this time; believe it or not I do occasionally pay for things! Having had a few cash wins lately we decided to treat ourselves to an exciting lunch date. Rob won a day at the Fat Duck with Heston a few years ago and has always been a fan of his quirky dishes so we knew we'd enjoy Dinner.

If we eat out at a fancy restaurant we usually opt for a 'tasting menu' but as this wasn't an option we each chose a starter, main and dessert from the main menu. Rob had the classic 'meat fruit' (as seen on TV!). Liver parfait enclosed in a wafer thin mandarin skin. Visually striking but perhaps a little bit too much of something so rich!

My starter was an incredible Savoury Porridge of cod palette, parsley, beetroot and herbs. The fish tasted amazing, part of it was almost raw and tender like a scallop. Yum!

The selection of mains was actually a tiny bit predictable; though we enjoyed our powdered duck with fennel and pigeon with artichokes, it did seem a bit steep to pay £32 each for them.

The side order of triple cooked chips was delicious though... with dinner we drank a lovely Chardonnay from Central Otago (I'm not much good at handling red wine at lunch!)

The dessert selection was great, I had Tipsy cake with slow roasted pineapple...

...and Rob had Brown Bread ice cream on a biscuit which looked and tasted super.

This was followed by a shotglass of chocolate & Earl Grey and then we paid £8 to have a fancy icecream made at our table. They have a specially made trolley with built in mixer, and dry ice is added to créme anglaise and mixed to make the icecream; a little bit of Heston magic! They roll your cone in tasty toppings: I had apple popping candy and sweet fennel seeds.

The meal was really great and the restaurant and staff were casual and friendly. I would definitely recommend it - but make sure you prepare yourself for the bill!

A prize with the Metro
On our way home to Nana's house we paused at London Bridge station to capture and Tweet the Metro Tablet advert on the big screen: every day last week they gave away a new iPad to someone who tweeted a photo from a mainline London station, and with such low entry numbers each day it had to be worth a go!

On our journey home yesterday I checked to see if they'd announced a winner, and squealed with delight to see my hubby @robcoke had won - they only had 13 entries on Friday!

I openly admit that I'm competition-obsessed, and if there's a creative or unusual competition about then I WILL go out of my way to enter it. It's easy to sit at home just sharing competitions on Facebook or ReTweeting on Twitter, but if you get out and about, taking photos or looking for new on-pack promos in the shops it's SO MUCH more fun! If you get the chance to have a comping away day then I highly recommend it - try and drag a friend along too (...you could even ask me!)

Cheating in Facebook & Twitter competitions

2012-03-22T22:28:00.000Z

I blog about competitions because I enjoy it. I've seen how comping can change people's lives and I want to encourage more people to get involved with this amazing hobby. I want my blog readers and Facebook friends to experience the challenge of entering, the nervous anticipation, and the huge excitement if you're a winner. I want to show promoters what a joy it is to host a creative promotion and what great interaction you can have with the fans. I try to stay upbeat about my hobby, but recently that's been getting more and more difficult. I didn't want to waste my time blogging about cheating, but I know that hundreds – possibly thousands – of you will read this blog post, so I should take advantage of this captive audience to warn you about what's going on.

This post has been in progress for some time, but the sheer volume of cheating on Facebook and Twitter recently has regrettably made it more urgent for me to put this information where people can access and share it. Cheats using multiple profiles, and those who pass off others' work as their own, are ruining our hobby and giving compers a bad name – and it's up to us to try and stop it. Before I begin, I must stress that not EVERY voting, referral or photo competition is won by a cheat – but there ARE an awful lot of dishonest folk out there who will stoop very low to try and bag a prize.

Compers need to be on guard and not be afraid to Report/Block if we find someone cheating. We also need to warn promoters about what's going on! When you see that dreaded status update "We thought it would be fun for our Facebook fans to choose the winner by voting...." then it's time to act. Many agencies and promoters are still very naive and believe that their super-duper fun new Facebook competition will be won by someone who plays fair, when unfortunately that isn't always the case! Promoters – scroll down to the bottom of this post for advice on running a fair competition that won't be targeted by cheats.

So what's the truth? There are thousands of people out there tricking us, many of them sitting happily on our friends list, clicking on all the competition links we share, then going on to win prizes by deception….

Please note: I'm no technical wizard or computer geek. What I write here is what I have found from months of research and a few informative Google search results! If I've made errors please let me know.

Let's start with Facebook profiles

Compers often have a second profile for themselves with a similar name. This is usually to keep their personal life separate from their comping account, but regardless of this it BREAKS FACEBOOK TERMS OF USE. They may or may not be comping from both accounts, but the temptation is there, particularly in a voting competition...
Cheats might go on to set up accounts for family members, or even pets, then log in and use these accounts to enter competitions or to vote in competitions. A lot of Facebook compers think this is acceptable behaviour! Remember that you need to be over 13 to have a Facebook account, and it must be in your real name.
Cheats might then set up some new accounts with fake names, and a profile photo taken from a random website. If they're NOT very clever, they'll use traceable images. (See the screenshot below – comper Lucy Grove is actually VAFA member Davina Connors-Calhaem)
If a cheat has money then they can go to a site like www.accountheadquarters.com and simply buy Facebook profiles (PVAs means 'Phone Verified Accounts' - these will also be set up from separate IP addresses so Facebook won't pick up on it). The more they have to spend, the more realistic the profiles – friends, education, photos etc. can be added. Apparently there's even software to allow these fake profile pages to be 'humanised' with regular automatic updates! If the cheat's budget is smaller, they might try www.freelancer.co.uk or www.blackhatworld.com - see this example request where someone is hoping to get 1000 accounts for just $50!

So how to check someone's profile?

Start with a reverse image search on their profile photo – right-click it and copy the link, then go to www.google.com/imghp, click the camera icon and paste in the image URL. You'll soon see if that photo appears elsewhere on the internet - click the top result to see where it originates. If it's a photo of a person, often you will find it alongside the real person's name on a blog or website.

If their friends list is public, click through and check the profiles. If all the profiles have the same friends in common, chances are they're linked and are all fakes created by the same person. Clever cheats will make sure that the friends list is private!
Do they have an unusual name? Check it at www.192.com which has all electoral roll details. If it's not there then that doesn't definitely mean they're fake, but it's certainly possible...
If their wall is public, check the posts – are there lots of votes? If so, it's a profile set up specifically for that purpose. If they have friends on their list, do all their walls have the same comps in the same order? Are they linked? (see screenshot below)
Can you see what pages they like? If there are Vote Exchange groups, or any Asian pages (Mumcentre Singapore is a favourite!) they have been voting in foreign contests.

What if I'm certain it's a fake account?

Click on Report/Block - this is on the left hand menu on the old-style profile pages, or in the cog drop down menu under the cover photo on the new Timeline pages

Choose 'This timeline/profile is pretending to be someone or is fake', then 'Does not represent a real person'

You can add up to 300 characters of extra information - here you can link to the creator's original Facebook profile. If you're not sure who's behind the fakes, you could post links to any other profiles you think are connected. If the photo belongs to someone else, post the link to the real owner. I usually add 'this is a fake profile set up by XXX specifically to enter contests'.

It takes several people flagging profiles before Facebook will investigate these reports (you can imagine how many they must get) but it's only by doing this that we can make a difference. Don't be afraid to report these fake accounts!

What if I'm suspicious – but not sure?

Bookmark and screen grab the profile page and save it with their current Facebook name. Go back and check a few months later – is it deleted, or has the name changed? Three of the people who beat me in 'Most Likes' comps last year have now completely removed the Facebook profiles I bookmarked – an admission of guilt perhaps? Frustratingly, I imagine the culprits have already set up new profiles to comp from. Here's a winning post from last March showing how one lucky lady has completely changed identity since winning....

Look for similarities in the way they comment, misspell words or tweet – one cheat was recently caught out when she neglected to use spaces after commas on all 37 of her Twitter account descriptions!
If you have time to start investigations, you can do some good research at www.192.com and www.pipl.com. Also, Google their name along with 'congratulations'. You'll usually find plenty of Facebook results. If you suspect several profiles are fake, google the names together – they may have been tagged in Facebook competition photos together and you can work out who's behind them.
If you can't prove an account is fake, then don't report it. Many real people have Facebook accounts with no photo and only a few competition posts on their wall, because they're helping friends out.

How about Twitter?

With no Facebook-style phone verification system, Twitter cheats can easily set up lots of fake profiles.

In free Tweetdeck software, there are lots of handy icons across the top, one for each Twitter account – highlight them all, then paste the RT text into the box and as if by magic, they can tweet the same text from multiple accounts at once…

Autotweet software can also be used to program tweets – some compers will retweet the same competition over and over again using this method. This isn't cheating unless the Twitter competition rules state that it's one tweet per person – the problem is, most Twitter comps don't have Terms and Conditions!

Some 'bots' on Twitter are programmed to Retweet any tweets with the word 'Win'. As a result they often win Twitter comps! Some abandoned bots - like @sunian314 - still win regularly, but never claim their prizes.

And how can I report a Twitter cheat?

Use this form to submit a detailed report – you could paste in a list of links to that person's multiple profiles.

Now for a different kind of cheater – the plagiarist!

The plagiarist will enter competitions using someone else's work. It could be a poem, a photo, a recipe or a story.

The problem with photo comps is that some cheats will find a good and relevant photo to submit, so as a result the promoter – who doesn't think to check – often chooses it as a winner! Recently Laithwaites and Dizolve announced winners of their creative photo comps, only for a busybody (...yes, that would be me!) to come along with links to the blogs that the winning photos were stolen from. I don't usually out cheats in public but on this particular day I was fuming!

Some of the worst examples have been where people have entered a sob story that has been taken from a Google search – or used a photo of a dilapidated bathroom or scruffy room and claimed it as their own (see Britain's Worst Bathroom)

The example below is taken from the Co-op comp where you had to make a gingerbread man and upload a photo to Facebook. Not only is this a Googled image, the entrant lied and said he'd made them with his kids - this isn't an example of a clever cheat!

I'm suspicious! How do I find out if an entry is stolen?

Use Google to search for stories, poems, or recipes. Put key words or sentences in speech marks to ensure that Google finds them in a string together.

Use Google's reverse image search to look for suspect photos. If an image is pixellated, very small, or an odd shape (eg. square as opposed to 6x4 ratio) it may well have been pinched from elsewhere.

What happens if I see a cheater win a Facebook competition, or leading in a voting competition?

If the company has upgraded to Timeline, there is likely to be a Message button on their page for you to contact them. Tell them your concerns, with links to evidence or screenshots if possible. If there's no Message button or contact details, ask them politely on their wall for a contact email. Explain yourself clearly and try not to confuse them – link them to this blog if you think it will help.

Only post on a Facebook wall as a last resort. If the promoter does the right thing and disqualifies the entrant they would rather it kept quiet. If their wall goes crazy with accusations and screenshots, they might decide never to run another competition – which would be a disappointment for all of us!

My profile looks a bit fake – what should I do?

If possible, use a photo of yourself on your profile photo - if you're shy, it could be the back of your head or a photo from your childhood!

If you don't want to use a photo of yourself, use one that you've taken so it's unique and won't be picked up on a reverse image search.

Use your real name on your Facebook or Twitter profile.

Add some comping friends that you know in real life or forums

Try to make posts that aren't all competition entries!

Interact with brands on their wall or with @ replies on Twitter

What we really need to do is PREVENT the cheats from winning competitions – and put them off even entering them! Here's some advice for promoters:

Stick to Facebook promotion guidelines and use an App. Like/Share competitions are a magnet for cheaters, who will Share on all their different profiles as they are so easy to enter! By using an App, and asking for email addresses, names, and other details, you're making it harder for the cheats to enter, so hopefully they might not bother...

If you're running a recipe competition, ask for your product to be included in the recipe. Also ask for a photo of the finished dish to be uploaded, INCLUDING your product!

If you're running a photo competition, you could ask for the person submitting the entry to feature in the photo. You could also ask for your logo or product to be in the shot. Make it clear whether you will allow retouched/Photoshoppped images - because people WILL submit them!

Before approving photo entries or announcing the winner, do a reverse image search on Google at www.google.com/imghp to check the entry is original.

DO NOT run a 'most referrals wins' competition. Cheats with multiple profiles will almost always run away with it – check the wall posts and click through to profiles to see if they're real people. You could use Offerpop and run a competition where every entrant needs to refer 2 friends to enter the draw – it's much fairer.

If your promotion is a game where the aim is to get the highest score or fastest time, appreciate that there are many ways people can cheat by slowing down Flash games, using macros or speed hacking. Perhaps you could put everyone who gets to a certain score/level into a random draw rather than rewarding only the fastest player.

DO NOT run a voting competition. Even if you think you're making it fair by incorporating judging, random prizes, or prizes for voters, it's still likely that a cheater will win. If the cheater loses the top spot or gets discovered, they may even sabotage the contest by posting fake vote requests for fellow competitors to get them disqualified (this happened to Littlewoods and Direct Holidays recently). Even in competitions with an initial judging stage, the shortlisted entrants sometimes get so desperate to win that they resort to buying votes on sites like fiverr.com. For an example of extreme cheating in recent voting competitions, see my post about IKEA and Yazoo Milkshake.

If you ARE running a voting competition, check the IP addresses and timing of the votes, and read the excellent blog post about how to detect fraud at http://www.snipe.net/2012/01/detecting-fraud-in-facebook-contests/ - be warned though, cheats will use proxys to change or hide their IP address, and many work as a group to vote, so the patterns look less suspicious.

If you're running a Twitter competition, check the guidelines. Make sure you tweet a link to some Terms and Conditions and state that it's only one entry per person.

Don't run a simple RT competition on Twitter. Ask people to complete a tiebreaker or do something that requires more effort and a unique reply. Use a unique hashtag to track entries. You could try Competwition – it's free!

If you DO run a RT competition then choose the winner using something like Tweetreach (this costs $20 for a single report) which gives you an accurate breakdown of ALL entrants and excludes multiple entries. Twitterdraw is a free alternative, but unfortunately you can't access the full list of Tweets so it's hard to know if it's accurate enough. If you know someone technical, you could ask them to write a script that regularly downloads all tweets using your unique hashtag, then eliminate duplicates and use a randomiser to choose a winner.

If you choose your Twitter winner simply by scrolling through your list of recent @ replies then you're likely to choose someone who has tweeted multiple times, ensuring they appear regularly on that list – and the people who tweeted early on won't get a look in!

When you've chosen your winner, check their Facebook or Twitter profile page - it might be obvious that it's a fake profile.

Be suspicious if you get a winner's details and they don't match their Facebook or Twitter name! Be even more suspicious if two of your winners have the same address... chances are they're NOT students sharing a house!

Finally, I LOVE my hobby. It's so much fun, and most compers feel that way. But with all the cheating going on, and so much bitching and complaining on Facebook walls, promoters will think twice about running competitions! Let's do what we can to deter and punish these cheats, and make Facebook a fun place to be again

FURTHER READING: IKEA & Yazoo: The Name and Shame.

SHOEperlucky!

2012-03-16T17:01:00.000Z

Last week at Comp Club one of the girls handed me a flyer about the 'We Are Fashion' Live event at Westfield Derby this weekend, with a free parking voucher... the flyer promised the chance to win designer handbags and shoes, how could a girl resist? The Event is still on tomorrow - Saturday 17th March - and I do recommend getting there early if you're interested in the giveaways!

I got there today just after the competitions kicked off at 10am but there was already quite a queue at the 'Hook a Handbag' stand, where loads of colourful bags were piled high.

To enter, you simply hooked a bag - inside were 5 envelopes, one of which had a winning message in (the others, although losing, still offered discounts and freebies at shops in the centre). If you got the winning message, you won the bag! By the time I got to the front of the queue I'd sussed the way to win - you needed to go for the bags that losing entrants had picked because there were less envelopes and a better chance of winning. I hooked a bag with 3 envelopes in and although I didn't win, I got a free gift of a bath bomb. When I left the stand I whispered to the ladies behind me that the bag only had two envelopes left in, so hopefully one of them won it. There would definitely be an advantage in turning up early and watching which bags were picked before joining the queue! There were also two prize draws that didn't involve queuing - one to win a Marc Jacobs bag filled with Urban Decay makeup, and one to win a Miu Miu bag.

Upstairs was an even better competition where you could try on a pair of shoes - and if they were your size, you won them!

There were 100 numbered shoeboxes and we were asked our size when we joined the queue to ensure we didn't change it to something different! They also whisked away the losing shoeboxes and swapped the shoes round so you couldn't cheat by remembering the sizes. Really, the odds were about 1 in 5 - the sizes ranged from 4 to 8 and most of the shoes were a 6, which I reckon is the average for ladies feet, so they certainly weren't diddling us out of a prize.

I was going to pick box 66 but the girl in front of me chose that - the shoes inside were indeed my size (six), but she was a seven! So when it was my turn I decided to let the compere choose by asking him his year of birth. And the shoes in Box 79 fitted me perfectly - just like Cinderella!

There were apparently a pair of Jimmy Choos amongst the 100 boxes – and whilst in the queue there was another prize draw to win a second pair of Jimmy Choos.

Whilst at the centre you could also spend £20 on a gift card at the Concierge desk and be entered into a draw to win a £250 Theatre Break voucher. The Capital FM team were also doing quick iPad surveys to win a cut and colour at a hair salon in the centre, and a lady at Sainsbury's was selling Sport Relief £1 scratch cards (a prize every time!) and I spotted this draw to win £1000 of shoes at the Betta Living stand, so it was well worth the visit. I spend a lot of my time finding and entering competitions online and it makes a change to get out and about to find new promotions - shopping centres are always a prime target for me.

This was my first trip to Westfield Derby and I was really impressed with the friendly staff and the inspired idea for the competitions - one in five entrants was likely to win a prize, so it was generous and fun too. Good work Westfield!

Mothers Day Creative Comps 2012

2012-03-13T21:36:00.000Z

Incase you hadn't realised, it's Mother's Day this weekend! There are loads of comps running, mainly on Facebook (particularly the dreaded 'Like and Share' type) but I've managed to find you lots of great creative ones that will give you a much better chance of winning - and are a lot more fun to enter! If you're digging out old photos of Mum, why not print them off to make her a card? If you write a poem or find a particularly good photo to use, email it to yourself so you have it handy for next year's competitions too - we all know that promoters don't have too much imagination so they'll ask us to do the same thing every year! If your Mum is on Facebook, why not tag her in the posts too? My Mum was really chuffed she I tagged her in the Cheerios comp today... love you Mum!

First up, on the Cheerios Facebook page you can upload a photo of your Mum and say what she's done for you this year. Every day a random winner gets a box of Cheerios, and on Friday their favourite entry gets a £200 beauty hamper! Enter by 5pm on Thursday 15 March 2012.

Good to Know want to know your best Mother's Day memory - every day until Friday 16 March a winner will be chosen from the posts on their forum and receive a prize. Read more here.

Next, Zizzi - I can't find a closing date for this! Upload a photo of the worst haircut your Mum gave you, and you could win a luxury cabin retreat in Sherwood Forest! Enter here.

George are giving away Mothers Day gifts - to enter, say which one you would like to win and why. Enter on their blog before Wednesday 14 March 2012 at noon.

Appliances Online want to know about your WORST Mother's Day gift - leave a comment on the blog to enter. The winner gets a selection of retro Mother's Day goodies - closes Wednesday 14 March 2012 at 12pm.

Vertbaudet are giving one lucky mum £100 of vouchers and a bouquet of flowers. To ever, Like their Facebook page and post on their wall why you love being a Mum. Closes midnight on Wednesday 14 March 2012.

Comet want to see photos on the theme of Mother's Day and the best will win a canvas print of their photo. Enter on Facebook before midnight on Thursday 15 March 2012.

The Bentall Centre are giving away £150 vouchers to spend at your nearest Swarovski store. To enter, sum up your Mum in a single word on their Facebook App. Closes 15 March 2012.

Photobox are giving away a surprise prize to their favourite photo inspired by Mother's Day - read about it on the blog and post your photos on their Facebook wall by midnight on 15 March 2012.

Bounty want photos of you and your child(ren)and you could win a £150 Marks and Spencer voucher. It's voting though, you have been warned! Enter by midnight on Thursday 15 March 2012.

Bunches are giving away a years free flowers and five runners up bouquets - post on their Facebook wall saying why your mum is one on a million! Closes Thursday 15 March 2012.

I love this one because it makes a change from all the girly prizes! Win a great North Face backpack from Campfour. Nominate an Awesome Outdoor Mum - send a photo with a few words to info@campfour.co.uk or post on their Facebook page before 5pm on Thursday 15 March 2012.

Here's a Twitter one from Interflora, to win a £1000 bespoke bouquet for Mum! Tweet @mercuryman with a reason why she should win, plus the town she lives in before 3pm on Friday 16 March 2012 - see full details here.

Nisa want to know what the best thing your Mum has taught you is - leave your answer as a comment on this Facebook photo by midnight on 16 March 2012 - the winner gets a £25 Nisa Locally Voucher.

At the Card Town Facebook page you can win a £300 Red Letter Day voucher - tell them why Mum deserves a treat by Saturday 17 March 2012.

You've still got time to make a video for the Procter and Gamble comp I mentioned in my video comp round up last month! To enter, go to www.youtube.com/proctergamble and click on 'London Olympic Games'. You can upload a video (max 30 seconds), photo or just a message (max 200 words) to your Mum - the fifty best entries will win a set of four Olympics or Paralympics tickets. Closes 17 March 2012. Here's my entry - thanks Mum! x

Easy Living are giving away two 3 month subscriptions to GlossyBox - to enter, upload a 'vintage' photo of your Mum along with a few words about her and what she taught you to their Facebook page - or email to easylivingeditorial@condenast.co.uk before 18 March 2012.

Buster want you to upload a video to their Facebook page showing how much you love your Mum - every entry gets free Buster, and for one entrant their Mum will get a bunch of flowers! Closes 18 March 2012.

Small Steps have loads of prizes up for grabs - get your child to draw a picture of Mummy and email it to competitions@smallstepsmedia.co.uk by 18 March 2012. Read more on the website.

If you live near me in the East Midlands, Touch Complete Beauty in Mapperley are giving away a £20 voucher to spend in the salon. To enter, tell them on their Facebook page why your mum deserves a treat this Mother's Day. Closes Sunday 18 March 2012.

This one from Woman is chosen at random but as there are 100 prizes of an £11.99 Garnier moisturiser it's worth a go! To enter, just answer the question 'What makes a perfect Mum?' on this Facebook Photo before 20 March 2012.

Daniel Footwear want you to describe your Mum using one sentence - you could win £200 of footwear vouchers and skincare goodies. Read more details at www.danielfootwear.com - you will need to post your answer as a comment on this Facebook photo to enter. Closes 5.30pm on 25 March 2012.

I'm super busy this week as it's Compers News deadline day on Thursday, but I've added a linky to this post so I can quickly add any new Mumtastic comps that pop up - as always, I love it when you add them too - Thankyou! x

Show off: comping at the NEC

2012-03-07T13:38:00.000Z

Yesterday I spent most of the day at the NEC, visiting the KBB Show (courtesy of a VIP ticket I won on their Facebook page) and the Focus on Imaging Show (which cost a tenner to get in). A friend in my Comp Club has always recommended show visits as a great way to find low entry competitions, so I decided to conduct a small experiment to see if she was right... I love interior design and photography so the two exhibitions were right up my street!

I arrived at the NEC at about 10.30am, and headed straight for KBB (Kitchen, Bedroom, Bathroom) Show. It was teeming with men in unflattering grey suits, so I busied myself searching for comps. I was delightfully distracted by the amazing exhibition stands there - some of the kitchens and bathrooms were properly space age... but honestly, do people really need TVs built in to their bathroom mirrors?

The organisers themselves were handing out scratch cards to win a share of a million Avios (Airmiles in old lingo) - I tried 4 cards but no luck, so I concentrated on the prize draws that were on the stands. I entered about 6 iPad draws - two of these involved dropping a business card into a jar. There were only about 15 other cards in each jar! There were also draws to win spa days, champagne and gift vouchers.

I had seen on the KBB Facebook page that each day they were giving an iPad2 to someone who attended a seminar, so I popped along to the seminar theatre, saw a talk about water conservation (I think Saturday's Social Media talk would have been more my scene!) and completed an entry form. For this prize, you HAD to be around to collect it in the afternoon... at 2.30 I got a call to say I was the winner! I was delighted - my first iPad win (and about time too....)

The Focus on Imaging show was a completely different event - this one was full of balding middle aged men with rucksacks full of camera equipment! There were about 20 competitions to enter here, for some you had to scan QR codes, for others the organisers simply scanned your barcode on your ticket to get your details... oh so modern!

My favourite was this one from Manfrotto - guess the number of stress balls in the box to win bags and camera accessories. You completed your information and guess on an iPad, then they announced the daily winners on Facebook each evening (I didn't win!).

My top tips for comping at exhibitions/trade shows
These tips also apply to consumer shows like the Wedding, Good Food and Baby Shows - but at these there will be lots more visitors, and so a lot more competition entries!

Read the brochure/guide as soon as you arrive
Some stands will advertise their comps in the brochure - circle their stands on your floor plan and make sure you visit.

Check the Twitterfeed for the show
I searched for 'focusonimaging' and 'KBB' on Twitter to look for companies who were tweeting comps. One company offered a prize for "the first person to come to our stand and say 'chicken lips'!" (I didn't bother with that one...!)

Do your research
Check the Facebook page and Twitter feed of the show organisers to see what promotions are going on. Also make sure you're able to chat about the show if someone strikes up a conversation!

Take plenty of business cards
Business cards don't cost too much to get printed, use bright colours so they stand out. If you don't have a job just pop on your home address, mobile number and a job title like 'Social Media Manager' (I like to think that translates as 'I use Facebook a lot'). If your partner has cards, take those and drop them in the boxes too.

Smile and be friendly
One guy I spoke to said they always pick the most unusual business card as the winner! If you chat to the organiser, and make sure they get a look at your business card or your name badge, they might well remember you and decide they want you to win... naughty, but true!

And afterwards...
Keep your brochures and check the listed exhibitors' Facebook pages for comps - these will probably be brands that compers don't know about, so you might find some very low entry promotions!

Oh, and finally - try not to make an exhibition of yourself by struggling with 40 different bags. It makes it impossible to fill out entry forms!

Blog Comp Linky: April 2012

2012-03-05T11:00:00.001Z

Welcome to my blog comp linky for competitions that are closing in APRIL 2012. If you're hosting a giveaway please add it to the list, including the prize and the closing date - and your blog name if you can fit it in! You can access this post and the MAY linky via the links on the right hand side bar.

Please note, competitions MUST be hosted on a blog and they should be open to UK entries. For advice on running blog comps and more info about Rafflecopter check out this blog post.
If you want to enter these competitions but aren't sure how, check out my post on How to Enter a Blog Competition for advice!

Don't forget to add your blog giveaway to www.theprizefinder.com too!

Ryland's Jubilee Tart - a Kelkoo Kids competition entry

2012-02-27T11:29:00.000Z

As Ryland and I were trapped in the house all weekend (ah, the joys of potty training!) we decided to make a video entry for the Kelkoo Culinary Kids competition – the closing date of which has now been extended to Monday 5 March at midnight, so do give it a go! The prizes are really generous - the video judged to be the best gets £800 of shopping vouchers and two runners up get £100 vouchers each. To enter, your child must be under eight - check out all the info at www.kelkoosculinarykids.co.uk.

There are some fab entries to the comp already, and of course Ryland (who's just turned 2) isn't really old enough to do much by himself, so I'm not sure we'll have much of a chance of winning! Still, it was a great way to while away a couple of hours and gives us yet another entertaining home movie to embarrass him when he's older. It's a shame I didn't check that the camera was high enough for my head to actually be on screen though – and perhaps I should have insisted that Ryland wore trousers for the occasion, tee hee!

Ryland's Jubilee Tart
Ingredients:
1 ready rolled sheet of puff pastry

150g cream cheese

2 large roasted red peppers, cut into rectangular strips
About 10 baby plum tomatoes, halved.

For the tapenade:
100g pitted black olives
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon capers
Squeeze of lemon juice

- First, make the tapenade by whizzing all the ingredients in a blender - don't blend too much though, leave it so it's a bit chunky!

- Pop the pastry on a baking tray (trim if necessary) and score about an inch in from the edge. Prick the middle with a fork.

- Spread cream cheese all over the middle section, then add the peppers and tomatoes to make your Union Jack design. Spoon on the olive tapenade to fill the gaps!

- Bake at 190º for 20 minutes until golden.

The tart was a big success, so it'll definitely be on the menu for the Queen's Jubilee party in June!

Two more SuperLucky Stories...and the Biscuiteers winner!

2012-02-24T16:43:00.002Z

Thankyou for all the fabulous winning stories you've emailed me about your creative competition endeavours - you can read them all here. Before I announce the winner of the Biscuiteers prize here are a couple more short stories I wanted to share with you...

A few words from Claire - and her prizewinning cat Rollie:
I like comping (that's no secret!) - I love winning things, especially for school. I suppose its the thrill of the chase! Yet a little known secret is that my cat actually comps with my help. And you know what? Rollie is rather good at it! He won a weekend away at a hotel thanks to Laterooms.com as part of their pet factor competition.

Rollie has also won pet food, a rugby shirt and even £250 shopping vouchers for wearing a teacosy on his head! I love the quirky photo and video comps on SuperLucky that pets can get involved in, they're great fun to enter and you might even win a prize. So why not get comping with your pet, you never know what they might win...

And a tasty story from Julie!
My best prize, but one I worked quite hard for was won from New York Bakery on Facebook in July. This was a toughie. I had to do a 30 word tiebreaker first by email to explain why I should be Head of Taste for New York Bakery, then I had to make a 30 second video saying why, so I dressed up as an American footballer and had loads of New York paraphernalia around me, and did a rhyming ditty.

It was a voting competition on facebook and I won (surprisingly!!!!) THEN I had an hours photo shoot and lots of media interest. There are loads of articles on the web saying my tastebuds are insured for £5 million! They took over 500 photos (the one of me with the flag is the one that was used on their website) THEN I had to visit loads of bakeries in NYC and keep a blog with photos, THEN post it all on their FB page for about 6 days.... The holiday was for myself and my daughter and we stayed in a fab 5 star hotel (Mandarin Oriental) overlooking Central Park for 3 nights. The prize included $200 spending money for bagel related expenses, and flights - it was amazing!

...and so, which of my Winning Story authors has won these yummy Biscuiteers treats?

I visited the lovely random.org to choose the winner, who is Anne-Marie! I wonder if she'll share her biscuits with the neighbours, or perhaps with the ladies at Bolton Hospice....?!
Congratulations Anne-Marie - I'll be in touch soon to get your address details!

Thanks to everyone who sent stories, I'll hopefully run a similar giveaway later this year as I know a few of you didn't get your stories written in time! Until then, feel free to let me know here, or on Facebook or Twitter if you've won a fabulous prize in a creative comp I've told you about... and keep on comping!

WINstagram!

2012-02-23T08:11:00.000Z

If you're lucky enough to own an iPhone, then you MUST download the Instagram App. It magically makes your photos look retro and gorgeous – you can read more about it at http://instagr.am/about/faq/. Even though Instagram comps are restricted to entrants with iPhones, more promoters are launching them because they're fun, creative and viral. Today I'm telling you a bit about the App – and linking you to five Instagram comps you can enter!

To use Instagram, you can either open the App on your phone and take a photo, or you can add effects to a photo already in your library. You can even use an old photo - I usually email them to myself and then download from the email app to my iPhone photo library. Then the fun bit – crop and add effects to your photo. Then add a caption including the competition 'hashtag' (#AbsolutLondon for example). You can choose to share your Instagram snap on Twitter or Facebook too (in some cases, the promoter requires that you DO share on Twitter, and mention them). You can search and browse other Instagram photos using hashtags, and 'Follow' users as you would on Twitter or Pinterest – you can LIKE and comment on others' photos too.

Here's an example of a competition entry I did a few weeks ago where you had to upload an Instagram photo of 'my paradise' and Tweet it with two hashtags. You can view my entry online at http://instagr.am/p/k5jFe/.

Recently Ford UK gave away a car as a prize in their Instagram competition. Marketing agency Blue Hive uploaded this video to show how the campaign worked - and I was chuffed to see my own entry (a shot of the Beastie Boys Licensed to Ill LP) featured at the start. Sadly they don't mention which photo won the Fiesta!

Ford Fiesta. Fiestagram campaign from Blue Hive on Vimeo.

My current favourite Instagram competition is the one that Absolut Vodka are running over a five week period, with a prize fund of 50 limited edition bottles of Absolut London. All you have to do is capture an image of something that sums up one of London's greatest features (you DON'T need to take the photo in London!). Then you must add the #absolutlondon hashtag PLUS one of these category hashtags: #london #entertainer #music #entrepreneur #fashion. You can read all the terms here and the competition closes every Thursday at midnight until 15 March.

I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the Absolut London week one winners - with another vinyl shot (I do love my LPs!). This is a photo of The Sundays 'Can't be Sure' single, a great London band on a great London indie label (Rough Trade) - it won in the #music category this week.

For those of you in Manchester, you can win prizes from Incognito and Instagoodies by taking an Instagram photo on the theme of 'One Off' and using the hashtag #oneoff. You then need to email it through to instameetMCR@gmail.com with the story behind it along with your Twitter name. Read more about the event here and enter before 28 February.

H and M are giving away clothes from their new Marni range. To enter, share your most inspirational images on Instagram with the hashtag #MarniatHM. The five images with the most votes on 1 March will win Marni at HM clothes and accessories, and the one judged to be the best will win a full outfit plus handbag. See the photos and read more on their Facebook page.

Win a £100 Firebox gift voucher by uploadng a photo on the theme of Winter with the caption 'My #Fireboxwinterinstagram @Firebox' - upload before 12pm on 9 March. Read the details on their blog.

Metro Print give away an 8 x 8 C-Type matt print of their favourite Instagram photo each week. This week's theme is SKY. To enter, tweet your photo before Thursday using the hashtag #photothursday - and make sure you're following @Metro_print! For this comp, your photo can use any retro camera App (e.g. Hipstamatic or Vintage Camera) if you don't have Instagram - you can read all the details here.

Another tip!
Apart from the Instagram competitions, you can also use the App's effects to make your existing photos more appealing and quirky for entry into Twitter and Facebook competitions. After you've posted to Instagram, you can choose to email it to yourself, then you'll be able to save it to your computer and upload it to Facebook, add to a competition Tweet, pop on Pinterest or anywhere else you fancy. And if your photo isn't great quality, using Instagram can really add a bit of life to it. Here's a Before and After shot of Ryland as an example - happy snapping!

And the Flip Winner is...

2012-02-22T08:58:00.001Z

Last week I ran a little competition to win my old Flip Ultra HD camcorder – to enter you had to choose one of the competitions from my video round up and let me know what you would film for your entry.

There were lots of great answers and after some time pondering and chin stroking I have decided that the winner is Bex, who said:

I would enter the Procter and Gamble competition as my Mother and I haven't always gotten on and I often forget how amazing she actually is. She is also a big sports fan and so winning the tickets would mean a lot to her. For the actual video I would go to all of the places she took me as a child and film a sentence about her at each place!

I thought this was a really lovely idea, and it made me think of how a competition entry can become something that means so much more to your family and friends. I look back at some of the early competition videos I made of Ryland and now appreciate that they're lasting memories of his baby years. Having a competition brief motivates you to create a structure for your home movies and means they're much more entertaining. Uploading them to YouTube (and they don't always have to be 'Public') means they're easy to share with family and friends and you know they'll never get lost!

Anyway, enough of my waffle – congratulations Bex, I'll be emailing you very soon – and I look forward to seeing your finished video. And for those of you already trying out video competitions, I'll be blogging soon with some ideas on how to make your entry stand out...

Prizewinning pancakes!

2012-02-20T20:11:00.000Z

Yay! It's Pancake Day - and I love pancakes! Last year my mates and I had a right laugh making this video for the Happy Egg Egg Idol competition (which won us £50 Amazon vouchers!) and so I decided to spend last Wednesday morning being super organised and making pancakes with Ryland in readiness for this year's competitions.

I was hugely overambitious to start with, browsing through the awe-inspiring photos at www.jimspancakes.com – and decided I was going to make a snake and an octopus. I mixed my batter and loaded an empty (and clean!) Mayonnaise bottle... but once I started squirting I released this was never going to work. In retrospect of course, I should have added a touch more flour to the usual mix to thicken it up...

But anyway, we figured that small circles were about as creative as we were going to get, so first we made a big banana face:

...and then we got out the silver balls and matchmakers to make a smiley caterpillar - inspired by one that JoJoEbi and her son made a few years ago (see here!)

It's a good job we were organised as the first of the pancake comps closed on Sunday over at the 'We Love Baking' Facebook page - and our caterpillar was one of the winners! We've won a Lyles 3D pancake Play Kit, which looks pretty mad - it's got all the gadgets I need to make these amazing Pancake landscapes as seen on their YouTube channel!

As lots of the pancake comps will only start to appear tomorrow on Facebook, this comp round up will be in the form of a LINKY at the bottom of the post, where I'll add the new comps as I find them - feel free to add any that you find too, the more the merrier!

Win Decent Proposals!

2012-02-18T22:37:00.000Z

I'm forever telling you all about how it's best to go for the low entry competitions - and if you're a lady in a happy relationship then a Leap Year is a great time to take the plunge and pop the question to your fella – and possibly win a fabulous prize as a result!

My friend Mo emailed through a great competition to me today from Renault - they're giving away two Twingo cars. To enter, think of a creative and imaginative marriage proposal - read more details at http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/renault-twingo-competition/

For the first part of the competition, you must be female and in a relationship. To enter, simply tell them your idea for the perfect proposal in London. Enter by midnight this Monday 20 February and you could win the chance to make your proposal. Five entrants will be shortlisted and interviewed by phone on 21 February - three will be chosen to go to London on 24 February and get their proposal filmed (as well as win travel expenses, dinner and a night in a hotel). The best of the three films will win the Twingo!

If you're not in a relationship, never fear! You can still win the OTHER Twingo by submitting your idea for a perfect proposal by 29 February 2012.

Win a chance to propose in the Presidential Suite at the Celtic Manor Resort in Wales on 29 February. Email your love story to MarryMe@celtic-manor.com before 23 February 2012 - read more here.

Real Radio North West are inviting listeners to propose on air - explain why you want to win and enter online here by 26 February 2012. The winner will get £2012 towards a wedding at a Village Hotel.

If you're over in the North East, you could win a wedding at the Marriott Metro Centre by entering the Capital FM competition - it's just a prize draw but five finalists will go head-to-head in a live final on 29 February so I bet not many entrants will actually want to go through with it! Enter here before 26 February 2012.

If you buy an engagement ring and propose in a H Samuel shop on 29th February you'll get entered into a prize draw to win £1000 towards your wedding (paid by cheque) - I have a funny feeling not too many people will enter this one! Read more details at www.hsamuel.co.uk/taketheleap

Ladies, successfully propose over dinner at a Park Plaza hotel restaurant (in Leeds, London or Nottingham) on 29 February and you will win a free night's stay with dinner for the first night of your honeymoon! Read more here.

Check out my latest video comp round up for details of a competition to win a Caribbean honeymoon - film your proposal to enter and submit before 31 March (warning - it involves a public vote!)

Waitrose are giving away a fabulous wedding cake and £3000 of champers. Email your proposal story (200 words max) to proposalscompetition@waitrose.co.uk before 22 March 2012 - read more here.

And finally - I wish you the best of luck if you decide to take the plunge and propose... and make sure you invite me to the wedding!