Many of my friends and family are constantly amazed at the number of cool things I’ve won over the past couple of years.

Here’s a small list of some of the prizes I won in a two-year period:

• An all-expenses paid trip to the Switzerland, spending money, airfare, music festival tickets, transportation
• 20” Apple iMac Computer
• Apple iPod
• 46” LCD TV
• Home Theater System
• Sydney Crosby Autographed Hockey Jersey
• Two Microsoft Xbox 360s  + a handfuls of games
• Concert Tickets
• Japanese Action Figures?
• DVD Box Sets
• Nintendo Wii
• Two Dell Laptops
• Flip Mino HD Camera

Some make the mistake of saying I’m very lucky. I think luck had nothing to do with it and you can do the exact same thing.

Here’s how I did it:

Every morning when I  arrived at my office I did three things:

1) Made coffee

2) Caught up on reading hundreds of blogs

3) Entered 20-30 online contests

That was it. Some people can’t imagine the time I must have spent to enter that many contests each day but it really only took me about 15 minutes. I was able to do this at the same time I was catching up on blogs and sipping on my morning coffee.

Tools Required:

• Internet Connection
• Firefox
• Windows Users : Roboform
• Mac Users: 1Password

The two pieces of software are tools that allow you to store your identity and contact information. Once stored the software will allow you to press a single button and auto-fill various forms…like……..contest entry forms!

Ta-da!

They are also very handy for password management and even if you don’t plan on entering contests I’d recommend getting one of these programs.

This automates the process of having to enter your name and contact details by hand and cuts down the time required by about 98%. Occasionally you’ll need to fill out a security code or correct some details that the software entered incorrectly, but overall these are the best tools out there for this.

Next you’ll need to go somewhere and get a list of current contests.

There are various websites that get updated  daily with lists of the newest online contests and giveaways.

For Canadians:  Use this site – www.contestcanada.net (this is the website I used 99% of the time but there are others)

For Americans: try this site: www.contestgirl.com

Very quickly I’d  go down the list and open all the new daily contests in Firefox tabs. (skipping anything that didn’t really interest me like a years supply of poodle shampoo)

Then it was simply a matter of jumping from one tab to the next and hitting a single button to input all of my contact information.

That’s it. That was the method I used to win all of the prizes listed above.

As I already mentioned above some would say I’m extremely lucky. My brother watched in awe as I won all the time so he started following my exact same routine.

You know what happened? A few months later the phone started to ring. Then FedEx would show up with boxes.

His list is equally impressive.

Surely there must be hundreds of thousands of people entering all those contests right?

In some cases I’m sure the odds of winning are very  low, but in others I’m willing to bet the odds are very good.

I spoke to a friend this past summer who actually worked with a contest management company for many years.  He explained that the employees would get used to seeing the same winners names over and over again. He was not shocked at all that I’d been winning so much stuff.

He said that most people would be surprised at just how good their odds are for winning various prizes. He continued to explain that many times the response rate for contest entries was extremely low even for the biggest companies with the most expensive and lavish prizes.

I’m not sure why I stopped entering contests but after making this blog and looking back at what I won in two years I think I’m getting back into it.

Strolling through the Swiss Alps