Amber Wins Contests

I recently started doing monthly winnings posts about different giveaways that I've won. Here is my June recap. June was a huge month for me in terms of winnings. Less than four months ago, I started my Instagram account @amberwinscontests and have learned a lot in such a short amount of time. I'm now spending less time searching for contests, entering less than when I began, and winning more. I've learned what contests are worth entering and which contests I should just keep scrolling past. So without further ado, here is what I've won this month. 1. @blondedbybeauty and @envycbd's contest on Instagram to win body lotion and face cream from Envy CBD. From their website, these two products are worth $75 which I would probably never spend. My face gets super dry and I've been using their face cream and it works waaaaayyyyy better than the moisturizer I had been using. I definitely recommend checking them out if you're looking for some new products. 2....

May was a pretty good month for winnings and my most successful month so far in terms of quantity of contests won. Personally, I was taking finals, graduating, moving, and starting a new job so I didn't think I would have much time to spend entering contests. However, I had a couple weeks between graduation and work when I was entering at least 10 contests per day. The first prize I won was a pair of Beats EP headphones from @the_passport_office on Instagram. I was not expecting this because you were only allowed to enter once. But when they contacted me, they said they had tried contacting two other winners who didn't respond in time. So to those strangers who didn't check their DMs soon enough, thank you for the Beats. Up next I won a couple custom corgi stickers from @taitothecorgi on Instagram. They were picking 15 winners so I knew my odds were pretty good. Then I won a $50 Amazon gift card from @armedforcesproxymarriages on Instagram. Total entries were on...

My ideal contest contains as few steps as possible. Following, possibly liking, and tagging someone in the comments. That's it. Short and sweet. Easy as pie. However, I've recently seen a trend that is making one of those steps way longer than it needs to be. There are accounts popping up giving away great prizes IF you are willing to follow the 40+ accounts they are following. For me, that's just not worth it. Sure going down the list and following everyone won't really take that much time, but when your odds are low to begin with, IT'S NOT WORTH IT. You may be asking yourself, how are they giving away such great prizes? Think a $500 gift card to Amazon or designer bags or all expense paid trips to Bali. These things are expensive. I believe that the 40+ accounts they are following all chip in some amount of money to be added to the list. A $500 Amazon gift card divided among 40 people is only $12.50 per person. When you think of how many followers the...

I thought I'd write a short post about my winnings from April to let you all know! I actually only won one thing this month, but it was still exciting! I won these earrings from Elsie + Louise on Facebook and I'm wearing them right now and love them.  All I had to do was like and comment on their post for a chance to win and they picked two winners! I definitely recommend checking them out because I've seen them do multiple giveaways, and your odds seem pretty good.  The best part? They let me choose which earrings I wanted. I picked these silver and blue because they'll match a lot of what I normally wear.  As for May? Well, I've already won one contest today and it's only the first of the month. 

Do you find yourself entering lots of contests without winning anything? Maybe you're entering the wrong contests. Most contests can fall into one of two categories. Random or efforts-based. Many people enter a lot of random contests with poor odds and don't win anything. Ever. Random contests include those that say "Share this and tag 3 friends" or "Enter your email for a chance to win" and can have a really large number of entries because they're so easy to enter. Efforts-based contests are exactly what they sound like. They involve more effort than just tagging a couple friends. These include contests where you have to get the most likes, guess the number of something in a jar, or be the first one to respond. Efforts-based contests is where I win most. The more effort involved, the fewer people who enter. If the prize is good enough, it's worth your time. This is where I won my iPad Pro, my Oreo sweater, a hammock, multiple gift cards, ...

In a past post , I mentioned that some contests are not worth entering. It can be for a variety of reasons usually that your odds of winning are super low, meaning you are wasting your time. So here is how to find some "good" contests to enter. 1. Follow #giveaway. This is something that I did when starting to help me find a lot of contests. They don't always have the best odds, but you can find plenty of contests with less than 100 entries which are GREAT to enter. 2. Follow your favorite small businesses. Plenty of small businesses host giveaways to increase their followers. Your odds are great in these, so check if your hairdresser, favorite boutique, or local restaurant has a Facebook or Instagram. 3. Find people online who enter a lot of contests. Let them know they can tag you in contests which will increase their odds and help you find plenty of contests. For the first month of my Instagram account (@amberwinscontests) I spent my time looking up a bunch of...

People often ask how I find out about contests and it honestly varies quite a bit. Recently, I've been combing through #giveaway on Instagram and have been able to find some good contests. That is how I found a video of a man (@robvelez) with a large stack of cash who said that whoever could guess the amount could have it with up to 3 people splitting it.  This was a bit different than other contests because there was no set end time. I made two guesses, screenshotted the post, and went on with my day.  I later saw in his story that no one had guessed it and he gave a hint. It was all singles. If I had not checked his story, I would not have known.  Still no one could guess.  The next morning I saw he had posted in the past 45 minutes or so that it was between $400 and $500 and someone was only $1 away.  So naturally, I went all in.  I made a list on my iPad of the guesses between $400 and $500 and started making guesses that wer...