The Contest Queen explains: How to win contests, sweepstakes and online competitions | Kim Komando — Transcript

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1. 0:00you know it's hard to attract a lot of
2. 0:01attention online so what a lot of
3. 0:03companies are doing right now is that
4. 0:05they're running sweepstakes and contests
5. 0:07online and you might be sitting there
6. 0:09thinking to yourself
7. 0:10whoever wins these things well that's
8. 0:13why I wanted to bring Carolyn Willman on
9. 0:15the Kim commando show today because
10. 0:17Carolyn well
11. 0:18Carolyn's not only a winner right
12. 0:20Carolyn but you have a whole strategy
13. 0:22behind your winnings and welcome to the
14. 0:24show today thank you for having me so
15. 0:27how much have you won since I've started
16. 0:29I started almost twenty years ago and
17. 0:32I've won over a quarter million dollars
18. 0:33in prizes but I know people that have
19. 0:35won far more than me that have passed
20. 0:37the million dollar mark over 20 25 years
21. 0:40so what was the greatest thing that you
22. 0:42won I like to think it was when it was
23. 0:46still being filmed here that we went to
24. 0:48England for the weekend and we had a
25. 0:50party on the Harry Potter set oh wow
26. 0:52that's and that was really cool I bet
27. 0:55what did you have to do to win that that
28. 0:58one was submitting an entry form online
29. 1:01to our local paper and there was it ran
30. 1:05for a week and I was entering every day
31. 1:08and we got lucky one of them was picked
32. 1:11no that's awesome so so do you still
33. 1:13enter a lot of contests not as much as
34. 1:16I'd like I'm I'm busy actually I'm an
35. 1:18entrepreneur and I work with companies
36. 1:20on running sweepstakes so I get to sit
37. 1:23on both sides of the table but I yeah I
38. 1:25enter every day I can't go a day without
39. 1:27entering so I understand that you can
40. 1:30enter some 200 contests in an hour how
41. 1:33the heck do you do that well the first
42. 1:37thing you have to do is be organized and
43. 1:39it depends on the contest so some of
44. 1:42them take a little longer than others
45. 1:44but the idea is you use form filling
46. 1:47software such as Robo form that will
47. 1:50fill the form and save it for you so it
48. 1:53makes it a little more automated but you
49. 1:55can't use an automation system because
50. 1:58that's or a bot cuz that's against the
51. 2:00rules so the software that you can just
52. 2:03go to the website find the sweepstakes
53. 2:05and then it automatically completes row
54. 2:08before him we've talked about it here on
55. 2:09the show now how do you actually find
56. 2:12the best sweepstakes
57. 2:13I use aggregates because other people
58. 2:16have already done the work for you nice
59. 2:19right so there's lots of websites out
60. 2:22there I have some resources on my
61. 2:24website that lists them all there's too
62. 2:26many to list and I tell people go to the
63. 2:28different ones see who's got the format
64. 2:30you like see what style suits you and
65. 2:33then they they post legitimate
66. 2:36sweepstakes open to your region because
67. 2:39there's there's ones for all over the
68. 2:41world and is that a strategy of yours is
69. 2:44to enter maybe like local sweepstakes
70. 2:47that wouldn't have as many entries as
71. 2:48say something that's global in nature
72. 2:51right I call it concentric circles so I
73. 2:54tell people to start if they're local
74. 2:56and then state and then maybe try state
75. 2:59or national and then worldwide so your
76. 3:01odds of winning are always gonna be
77. 3:02better when you're entering close by now
78. 3:06anytime you enter a contest you know
79. 3:08that you have to agree to a lot of terms
80. 3:09and conditions and quite often that's
81. 3:11giving up an email address and so I
82. 3:14think you're really smart that you use a
83. 3:16unique email address now is that just
84. 3:18for all your contests in or is that per
85. 3:20contest no it's I just set up a separate
86. 3:24email address just for entering
87. 3:26giveaways and I do that just to keep it
88. 3:28separate from work and personal you
89. 3:31don't want you know your emails from
90. 3:33Aunt Millie to get mixed in with a
91. 3:35contest win and it also helps cut down
92. 3:38on spam although I do tell people if
93. 3:41you're on the internet you have to
94. 3:42protect your computer whether you're
95. 3:44entering sweepstakes or not yeah exactly
96. 3:46I mean you know you just have to be
97. 3:48careful anywhere you go online now what
98. 3:49about taxes taxes are it depends that's
99. 3:53where it's a little tricky because you
100. 3:55probably would pay less tax than you
101. 3:57think because it's all based on your
102. 3:59income so if you have a low income then
103. 4:03you're not gonna have a high tax on a
104. 4:07prize and so I I say go for it enter
105. 4:11what you want to win and worry about the
106. 4:14taxes after you know when it first that
107. 4:16that's a problem for another day I like
108. 4:18that so in a given month how many how
109. 4:21many contests can you win per month I
110. 4:25usually win anywhere between five
111. 4:27fifteen now that sounds like a lot but
112. 4:29you got to remember a lot of them are
113. 4:31little I'm doing one right now online in
114. 4:35my local area and they're giving away
115. 4:36small prizes every day and when you
116. 4:38enter you're in the drawing for a big
117. 4:40prize so I picked up two bottles of
118. 4:43water today and an and a drink at the
119. 4:46local convenience store so technically
120. 4:50those are wins but that's only five
121. 4:51dollars with some prizes right there I
122. 4:54was gonna say that seems to be like a
123. 4:56lot of work to do for like two bottles
124. 4:58of water but you're hoping for the
125. 4:59bigger place right it's you know yes I
126. 5:03was the bridesmaid but one day I'll be
127. 5:04the bride no win but I just last week I
128. 5:07won concert tickets and a night out for
129. 5:10my sweetie so we I've got date night all
130. 5:12planned out it's gonna be great so you
131. 5:15mentioned that you're an entrepreneur so
132. 5:16but you're not winning enough to totally
133. 5:18like live off of it right no I I you
134. 5:22can't control luck so I might win three
135. 5:26prizes this week small ones and then one
136. 5:28big E and then nothing for a months and
137. 5:30then you know you can't you can't count
138. 5:33on your wins and then a lot of them are
139. 5:34consumable like I've got concert tickets
140. 5:36so I tell people it's a cheap trip or a
141. 5:39cheap night out so what I say is sweeps
142. 5:42taking enhances your lifestyle it
143. 5:44doesn't replace your lifestyle and I'm
144. 5:47also a consumer I always tell people
145. 5:48support the sponsor well that's also
146. 5:51very good advice Carolyn thank you so
147. 5:53much for joining us thank you for having
148. 5:56me I love teaching people how to win
149. 5:58because it is so much fun well two
150. 6:00hundred fifty thousand dollars in
151. 6:02winnings that's pretty impressive and if
152. 6:04you have a story that you'd like to
153. 6:06share with us here just go over to the
154. 6:08website commando.com and at the bottom
155. 6:10of every single page there's a link that
156. 6:12says contact us