YellowPages.com Mobile Ultimate Giveaway

According to the rules the giveaway ends 12/31/08 11:59pm. Went to enter for the last time and received this message:
"This promotion ended on December 31, 2008
Looks like you just missed it. We hope you had a chance to enter."

Yes, giveaways can pull their entries early, but usually it's a case of an error in programing the date.

It was very easy to enter, while it lasted.

LG Rumor is True

Flash based. Lousy entry form. Skips over male/female option buttons when tabbing. Can't always tell which field has the focus. Get to listen to the audio about the promotion during the whole process unless speakers are muted. The promotion does have a great prize.

The Barber Foods Sweepstakes and Philips "FREE Dental Care For Life" Sweepstakes

Both the The Barber Foods Sweepstakes and Philips "FREE Dental Care For Life" sweeps have been very easy to enter. Very straightforward, leaves a real good impression of the company.

AT&T Rewards for Referrals and Play it Safe

Play it Safe giveaway you have to answer their trivia questions to qualify for the instant win. Sometimes you have to listen to a sales pitch before the game loads, like in Rewards for Referrals.

Which brings to mind, I tried entering Play it Safe today and couldn't get past JavaScript disabled message, so I tried in IE and then found out I had already entered the sweeps for the day.

These are administered by ePrize, but you can tell AT&T has total control.

ePrize

ePrize is a company that administers sweeps and contests.

You can pretty much tell when you are entering a sweeps that ePrize not only administers, but has designed. Register once then you log in each day to enter, play the game. They usually have a pretty clean look and there is an option to not play the game (click here if you have Flash disabled) on the ones that offer instant wins. That leaves a good impression not only for ePrize, but the sponsoring companies.

ePrize also administers some "surveys", many times sponsoring the large prize. In this case you just take it for what it is, either you take the time to go through the "survey" or not.

The others, you can tell the company sponsoring the giveaway has the control and ePrize is just the administrator. In many of these, to have a chance to win the instant win, you have to play the game or answer trivia question.

Sites that limit entries by IP and the use of multiple identities

Sites that limit entries by IP address

I've mentioned this on a site I set up for friends and family, but it is something worth mentioning here as well.

It would seem that sites that limit entries by IP address would exclude those who use public computers. There are other ways of determining cheating or someone using an entering service. Besides, it's way to easy to work around at home. Just turn off your modem and turn it back on or in the case of dial-up, disconnect then reconnect, and viola, a new IP. Not very effective.

A little twist in IP tracking. Bravenet services are tracked by IP. At one time I entered about half a dozen different daily sweeps that used Bravenet and would receive a warning that I might be banned, it was seeing my entries as possible spam.

Another example, when I visit my Dad, I use his computer to enter some of my sweeps. Had he entered the same sweep limited to one entry per IP, it would have been a duplicate IP, even though it's two different households.

Using multiple identities

Using multiple identities is cheating, plain and simple. However, my roommate also enters a few sweeps, some, the same as me, as long as it's not a one per household. How is it determined that we are two different people? Are we disqualified because the entries originate from the same IP? That would lead to the same problem as above. Do they use cookies? Again, not very effective. Many people, like me, have their browser set to delete cookies when the browser is closed. If you have more than one person using the same computer and only have one user set up or you are using a public computer this wouldn't be the answer.

If someone has a mind to cheat, they will find a way to cheat.

ABC Family Channel 25 Days of Christmas and Lifetime's FaLaLaLa Sweepstakes

The ABC Family Channel 25 Days of Christmas has been a dream to enter. Don't have to log in to your account, just a nice simple form.

The same with Lifetime's FaLaLaLa Sweepstakes. Simple and straightforward.

Both leave a very good impression.