Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
Make Money with online competitions
Reading Time: 7 minutesOnline competitions are an easy way to earn money from home and win free prizes with very little effort.
Making money online from the comfort of your home might sound like a dream come true, but it’s easier than you think.
Online competitions are fast, fun and free to enter, and your chances of winning big prizes are much higher than you’d imagine.
Right now there are lots of people out there snapping- up all the prizes and free cash you could be winning. But as the saying goes – ‘you gotta be in it to win it.’
Read on to find our top tips on how to make money from online competitions. But first, if you sign up to the MoneyMagpie newsletter we have a genuine competition every week.
We also offer a weekly competition on MoneyMagpie and Jasmine Birtles’ Instagram accounts. Make sure you follow us as the prizes are always fab.
All the competitions are free to enter and very easy. We have fantastic prizes like supermarket vouchers, food hampers, jewellery, hotel stays, kitchen appliances and children’s games. Sign up for free here to be in with a chance of entering.
Oh, and make sure to keep an eye on our online competition section where we have a new competition most days!
In this article you will learn how to:
- How to win online competitions
- How to win competitions in newspapers and magazines
- How to win competitions with slogans
- Warning! Warning! Warning!
how to win Online competitions
Online competitions are easy to enter. Since these are geared towards generating traffic, all they really want is your email address which is easy to provide.
Instagram Competitions
Instagram is a whole world of competition fun. And the prizes can be huge. Even we are in on this with weekly offerings on MoneyMagpie and Jasmine Birtles’ Instagram accounts. Make sure you follow us as the prizes are always fab.
TIPS TO help you win fab prizes in online competitions
Tip 1: Remember you MUST set up a separate email account to enter online competitions, or you’ll find your inbox clogged up with nasty spam.
Tip 2: Concentrate on reputable brands or companies like supermarkets and packets, jars or tins of food you know and regularly use. Also, check out the magazine site Goodtoknow for their regular fun competitions (mostly aimed at women and families).
Tip 3: Never pay to enter an online competition. If you like browsing through competition sites, stick to ones which offer free entry like these ones:
Pick my postcode!
Pick My Postcode (formerly Free Postcode Lottery gives away free cash every day to one of the postcodes on their list.
There’s no catch; the only downside is that you have to check each day to see if your number has come up. This increases the site’s traffic which helps them get advertising on it.
So if you keep checking the site you could win at least £20 – or £100s if it keeps rolling over!
Take a look at our article about how to make money from your postcode here.
gfk
For any television and radio fans, GFK Media Panel is a really easy way to win great prizes online.
Once registered, you simply complete the survey every day and give the television and radio programmes you have watched and listened to a rating.
Your opinions are used by broadcasters to shape future content. So, as well as earning some great prizes, you are also playing an exciting role in developing new content.
By filling completing the surveys, you can earn points to exchange for rewards. The surveys are quick and easy to complete, with at least one available every day.
Click here to find out more about how to win prizes from GFK Media Panel here.
the prize finder
The Prize Finder is the UK’s biggest free competitions website and offers you the chance to win cash and great prizes every day.
When you sign up, you’re automatically entered into a free draw and could win up to £500. It really is that easy.
Every day, The Prize Finder lists more free to enter competitions than anybody else, with daily opportunities to win money, cars, holidays and more.
Click here to find out more about how to win prizes on The Prize Finder.
Competitions in newspapers and magazines
Newspapers and magazines run lots of competitions with some great prizes and free cash to be won every day.
These are very similar to online competitions. For the most part all you have to do is visit their website and answer a simple question, or fill out a postcard and mail it in to enter.
Again, you’ll need to register your details as the whole point of the competition for them is to generate traffic and boost subscriptions.
Tip! It’s a good idea to grab free postcards whenever you can to enter competitions where you have to send in your answer. These sort of entry-form competitions take a bit more effort – and therefore have far fewer entrants. So if you do come across them, get your answers in as you have a greater chance of winning.
Don’t be put off by the big ticket items – remember, fewer people enter these competitions believing the odds of winning are slimmer. Check out these current competition providers:
Newspapers
Magazines
How to win Slogan competitions
Think you’ve got a bit of creative genius in you? Slogan competitions are terrific for the keen comper who’s ready and willing to put in a little more effort.
Companies love to use slogan competitions as a way to market their products at low costs and encourage consumers to think positively about what they’re selling. With most slogan competitions, the sponsor company will begin by having you answer a few simple questions to determine whether or not you’re fit for the task. You may be asked to complete some part of a phrase in an ‘apt and original’ manner.
Once again, because so few people make an effort to enter, slogan competitions are a dream for the avid comper.
How YOU can create knock-your-socks-off slogans:
- CompersNews monthly newsletter publishes thousands of prize-winning slogans. Have a look at those that have won in the past to help you get an idea of the kinds of slogans that companies look for.
- Winning slogans typically have rhyme, rhythm or a pun. Go out and grab yourself a rhyming dictionary and a dictionary of English idioms at Amazon, which takes all the hassle out of creating history’s next greatest slogan!
- Remember that the point of the slogan is to advertise the product in a positive light. Your slogan should always make the product look good.
- Word limits are key! Slogans that surpass the given word limit will not be considered. Always stick to the competition rules.
- If possible, enter more than once. But be careful – don’t send in several horrible slogans. Instead, come up with two really good ideas that are different in their approach – for example one that’s clever and witty and one that’s more direct and serious. Be careful to check the terms and conditions of each competition as some specify that you can only make one entry.
- Remember – the more obscure or difficult the competition, the fewer the entrants and the better chance you have of winning.
- Join websites like Loquax and CompersNews for free details on upcoming competitions.
So, remember: set up a separate email address for any unwanted junk mail, and enter as many online competitions as you can. The more you enter, the more likely you are to win!
Warning, warning, warning!
scam competitions
Make sure the competition you are entering is genuine before you enter any of your personal details.
In fact, even if it is genuine, be careful how much information you give them. Most genuine competitions won’t ask for your bank details, National Insurance number or date of birth.
If you don’t know where the competition is coming from and you don’t recognise the company running it (like the MoneyMagpie competitions, magazine competitions or newspaper competitions) then err on the side of caution: don’t give them your personal information.
Nationwide found that seven in ten of us will give out all sorts of personal details in competitions where we don’t know the company offering the prize. This can be dangerous as they can use your details to commit ID theft against you.
Nationwide have produced a video on how easy it is to get people to give their personal details away. Take a look here:
cut down on the spam
If you enter an online competition you’ll be asked to include your email address. This generally means that your inbox will soon be flooded with spam – lots and lots of it. To avoid this problem all you have to do is set up a separate email account.
Try Outlook (formerly Hotmail), Yahoo or Gmail for a free email account. This can be your ‘competition account’, where everything competition related gets sent. That way your personal email account gets left alone, and you still get the chance to win big prizes. Don’t let the spam win!
Do also note that for some of these competitions you have to give your phone number. Not all these companies give you the choice of opting out of receiving marketing texts etc, so make sure you check the terms and conditions if you hate receiving them.
For genuine offers and real prizes, take a look at our competition section on the website here to find the latest great competition offers.
LargeManchester are giving away 2 tickets to see Dylan Moran (black books, run fat boy run, etc) in Manchester on the 16th June
Enter here largemanchester.com/win-two-tickets-to-dylan-morans-stand-up.
Great competition from LargeManchester where you can win a trip to Finland for 2, visit the site and enter to win, couldn’t be easier
Great read!
I save money by spending an hour or two in the kitchen at the weekend and making cookies and flapjacks for the kids lunch boxes for the week. So much cheaper than buying cakes at the supermarket, and far healthier.
My top money-saving tip: I put a stove kettle on the electric hob after cooking and capture the lost heat by heating up water and storing it in a flask.
The best way to earn “A Good” income is , learn a trade(one that involves doing something you enjoy), they usually pay you 50% to twice what you can earn in an “ordinary” job; trust me, I have now more than doubled my income in just three years! Always do a “Good job”, and the work just keeps coming in.
Hi Abraham just read your comment in moneymagpie,could really do with some extra money is there any way you could help? Thanks..
On the bottom of supermarket receipts it tells you what you have saved on your shopping. I religiously save this amount each week and this pays for my christmas.
thank you
Hello I really enjoyed your article on how to win prizes and freebies and signed up to Get Me A Ticket but when I tried to enter the competitions it was asking me to fill in a survey which would entail receiving text messages charged at £4.50 for 2 billed text messages and you have to text back STOP to stop getting them and being charged any more. This pretty much means that the competitions are not free and you do have to ‘purchase’ the texts to be in with a chance of winning. Unless I have misunderstood something here,… Read more »
Hi Helen,
Thanks so much for bringing this to our attention. I’ve contacted ‘Get Me A Ticket’ and will keep you updated regarding their response. In the mean time I will take down our mention of them until we know the answer.
Lauren, Moneymagpie team
Hi Helen, I’ve just received this response from ‘Get me Ticket.’ I hope this helps to clear things up for you: “Hi Helen, Thank you for your email. I’m very glad you sent me this, as we’d like to clear up any confusion here. When entering a competition, our members will be invited to fill out a small number of surveys in order for their entry to be validated. Each one will have the option to answer ‘no’ or ‘not interested’, and any person who responds negatively can expect not to have any correspondence from the company in question. We… Read more »
a great way to save money is to shop around. I know it sounds obvious but it can save you a great deal. For example, napoleana pasta is currently 75p for a pack in Iceland, whereas in Tesco it is normally £2.00! Big savings if you take note of different prices. I promise!