Knowing Your Odds

Imagining yourself winning a Thailand vacation? You're probably better off just buying your ticket. 

So you're entering dozens and dozens of contests and never win anything. Sound familiar?

If you're not realistic with your chances of winning, you're going to find yourself disappointed over and over again.

Many Instagram and Facebook contests will have you comment and tag people in order to enter. This is a great way for you to see what your odds are. As a general rule of thumb, if there are less than 100 entries (or 100 comments), I always enter. Anywhere under 1,000 entries, I enter if it is simple enough. If they want me to follow them, follow 20 other accounts, tag 37 people, and subscribe to their email list, then I probably won't enter because that's a lot of work for low odds.

Recently I had someone tag me in a contest with over 3,000 entrants that had only been open for 2 hours for a prize worth only $150. No matter how many people you're able to tag, by the time the contest ends, your chances are basically zero.

However, there are some exceptions. I find myself entering almost all travel giveaways. It's like playing the lottery. Really you're just imagining the wonderful time you'd have at an Italian vineyard or on the beaches of Bali. Okay, so I have a 1 in 16,000 chance. Someone has to win. Enter a few of these "dream" giveaways, and you might surprise yourself.

It's really best to start small. On Instagram, search your town or city's name and follow any accounts for businesses in the area that you're interested in. A lot of small businesses will do giveaways to grow their followers.

As a college student, follow a bunch of accounts related to your university. Since the amount of people that could potentially enter is smaller, your chances of winning something are better.

I've won gift cards to my school's bookstore, a thermos from the Greek Life twitter, a hammock from my dorm's Instagram account, and hair products from my hair stylist. In each of these cases, total entries were way under 100, because prizes are generally smaller.

Some of these smaller contests aren't even random. They might be who can respond the fastest or who can get the most likes. Strategies on that will come another day.

Have you won or entered anything good recently? Comment below!