Scenario:Read carefully,win a great prize,only read title,B disqualified...

Tweet

I've been doing sweepstakes for about three and half weeks now. I've won three DVD sets, an ABC flashcard set for my toddler, a Shel Silverstein book with a CD of him reading the book, A T-shirt, a fancy pedomoter and excercise bands and gift certificates to a local restaraunt. Small prizes all so far, but so fun to win nonetheless. Makes me excited to go to my mail box each day, and to see if FEDEX came too (I've only gotten one thing from FEDEX - usually its the larger prizes). And I read in sweepstakes forums for the great prizes it takes months to start getting things on a regular basis. What's funny is the amount of people who get disqualified from blogger prizes. You see there are many bloggers who receive merchandise from both companies and individuals in exchange for reviewing it and directing people to their site. They generally receive two of each item, one for them to keep and one for a lucky reader chosen at random. Many people get disqualified for doing the same thing many people do here on mylot -only read the Title which is something like, Win an Ipod or something, and like here, who knows maybe they read a line or two. Now the whole idea behind these is to bring attention to a new product or a new site. So of course, the blogger and the sponser giving away the prize wants you to read the blog AND follow very simple instructions - usually to go to the site and choose your favourite product. Most people only see the title that they likely linked to from a sweepstakes forum (I've done the same) and will say in the comments, "I want one" or, "Pick me! I deserve it!" (its almost always random so saying these things is useless). If they actually read the blog entry they would know that saying something like this without going to the other site will disqualify them. And there are some great prizes on these sites, and the odds of winning are greater then those from TV stations, or brand name foods etc, because there are less people entering. Worth taking half a minute to read through and a minute or two to visit the sponser site. So if you ever start sweeping - or entering sweepstakes, make sure to read the rules so you don't disqualify yourself - there are many ways to do so. So to make this a discussion, what experiences have you had like this, where people obviiously don't read carefully or follow directions? Or what sweepstakes or bingo or casino prizes have you won? My greatest prize - my big sweepstakes win - was the roullette wheel of life which landed on:BABY! I never expected to make such a choice but I'm grateful every day I did! In the meantime - happy mylotting!