Most racing enthusiasts spend many hours online entering their details into online entry forms, but while enthusiast communities and message boards do exist, there is no denying that this can be a repetitive and tedious task.
Although form filling software can speed things up a bit, it is not a substitute for a competent and professional entry service, which will do all the work for you and you will never get bored or miss a closing date.
Automatic competition entry has been around for some time, but it has suffered a bad reputation from some unscrupulous operators who simply spam contest providers with hundreds of identical entries at a time. But the benefits are clear: I wouldn’t go back to a washboard by hand, when a washer can do the job better in a fraction of the time, right?
So what’s stopping you from signing up? We have heard the following reasons:
1. Why pay? – I could get in myself for nothing.
That’s true, you could participate in competitions in your free time, but that time isn’t really free. Why not? Well, it all has to do with what is known as ‘Opportunity Cost’. That’s the money you lose when you could have done something that would have earned you more. For example, if you spend just one hour a day participating in competitions, when you could have been working, then you’ve lost £6 (based on UK minimum wage). And remember, that is the minimum, it does not include the cost of electricity, heating, light, your computer or your Internet connection. With an automatic entry service, you only have to pay your subscription and you have your free time available to spend with family and friends.
2. I don’t think anyone wins this way.
Yes, they really do: every competition entry site will have a winners page, and any site that doesn’t produce winners will soon be taken down, as most new members come through referrals. Obviously luck plays a part, just as it does when you enter your own details, but reputable sites will list their winners and make the winners’ emails available for inspection. Look for sites that include proper names and locations; ‘Mr. XYZ of England’ does not inspire confidence. Auto-enter sites rely on the good will of winners to inform them of their winnings, so you can be sure that the winnings you see represent only a fraction of the total winnings generated.
3. I will not know what I was signed up for.
A good competitor entry service will provide a subscriber login page so each subscriber can find out exactly what they signed up for. This must be updated in real time and show the date and time of each entry. You should be able to choose the types of award you want and the location of any national holidays so you can decide if you’re ready to travel.
A really good competition service will back this up with regular statements, so each member will have a full record of their participation history, plus they’ll have participation confirmations in their competitor email account to check whenever they want.
4. I will receive too many spam emails.
A professional auto-entry service will be able to separate legitimate competitions from fast-paced sites that collect address details, and will always tick the “Do not send me more information” button where possible.
The best ones will set up new email accounts specifically for their competitions so their regular mailbox doesn’t fill up with marketing emails.
5. They don’t participate in as many competitions.
That may be true for some of the more basic services, you should always check how many inputs you should expect.
Remember that even small prize contests attract thousands of entries, so a good contest entry service must generate thousands of entries for your entry to have a reasonable chance of being drawn.
