The main reasons websites and companies host free online competitions are to:

• Increase traffic to their website

• Raise awareness of their brand

• Promote a new product

• Increase their newsletter subscriber base

Pretty much all online competitions ask for your email address so that they can add you to their newsletter list and market their products and services to you in future. Some competition forms ask you whether you would like to hear from the company or their partners via email in the future; sometimes this box is already checked for you, sometimes it's not - so be aware of this.

Unfortunately, many companies don't disclose that they will add your email to a newsletter list or share it with other companies, therefore it is very important that you create a brand new email address exclusively for entering online competitions. If you only enter competitions a few times a week, you will still be giving your email address to dozens of companies every month. At this rate, it wouldn't be long before your email account was unusable.

Don't Lie or Cheat

I strongly encourage you all to adhere to the rules of any competition you are entering. If you try and enter multiple entries from the one computer then you will likely be disqualified. Likewise, it isn't in your interests to give a fake address or phone number when completing a form. After all, if you do win a prize the company will need to contact you about it.

Increase Your Chances of Winning

The more competitions you enter, the greater your chances are of winning a prize. This will be obvious to most of you but it's an important thing to remember.

There are enough online competitions around for you to spend hours every week prize hunting however it makes sense to spend more of your time entering competitions for prizes you want to win (though you can always enter others if you have time).

Many browsers now save common information you enter to save you time when completing forms. If your browser doesn't do this by default then there should be a widget available for it. Failing that, you could use something like Google Toolbar or Roboform.

Good luck,

The Competition Hunter team