"Congratulations! You've just won a new car!" That would be music to my ears and I've actually heard the tune 4 times now. But it wasn't easy and it took over 10 years of entering sweepstakes before I won my first car. Over the past 25 years, I've won trips, cash, gift cards, computers, televisions, tickets to sporting events & concerts, movie memorabilia...the list goes on and on thanks to some incredible sweepstakes and contests.  I love sharing my experiences with new and old sweepers alike through my articles in the SweepsU.com Sweeps University Library and my blogs, so here are a few to help you learn more about the sweepstakes hobby:

The bare basics for new sweepstakers from our Library:

• Getting Started
• What I look For in a good sweepstakes!
• Sweepstakes Abbreviations
• A Winning Sweepstakes Strategy!

Or for those who prefer blogs, the first two contain tips and information and the last two are my personal favorites sharing some special moments from my own sweepstakes journey:

• Sweepstakes Newbie? Pace Yourself!
• Sweeping?...do I need a broom for that?
• A Sweepstaking Dad!
• Sweepstaking Moms are the Best!

Lastly, check out the SweepsU.com Forums. You will find invaluable information on making the one of a kind programs on SweepsU.com work for you in the Tips category. The features in the Sweeps Management System (SMS) on SweepsU.com are exclusive to our website because they were written exclusively for us by my partner Gerald Anderson.

If you still have questions after reading all of these, just post them in the SweepsU.com Forums.

Gwen Beauchamp

Luck is spelled W-O-R-K!

Mother's Day is just one short week away and this could be a good one for many of you. Starting first thing tomorrow morning, tune in to several different radio stations and you are sure to find some good local giveaways celebrating Mom's special day. We also have dozens of national Mother's Day Sweepstakes on the SweepsU.com Sweeps List. Here are a few to get you started.

Nature’s Own MOMentous Mother’s Day Giveaway
Keurig Mother's Day Instagram Sweepstakes
Tommy Bahama Mother's Day Stories Contest
Tyson Mother’s Day Payday Game
Pier 1 Mother's Day Twitter Sweeps
Kitchen Magic Mother's Day $15,000 Kitchen Giveaway
Mother Earth “Chick ‘n Coop Giveaway”

I have always said that Sweepstaking Moms are the Best!

Gwen Beauchamp

Luck is spelled W-O-R-K!

Sweepers have a lot to look forward to this week with the sweepstakes below starting throughout the week ahead. Keep an eye on the SweepsU.com Sweeps List for full details and links and don't forget to add them to your trackers and email notifications so you don't miss entering a single day. You should also be on the lookout for Earth Day sweepstakes.

• Bojangles' Southern 500 Sweepstakes
• Boston Market 1,040 Ribs Meal Giveaways
• La Madeleine Gift Card Sweepstakes
• Camel Hump Day Monthly Instant Win Game
• HGTV Smart Home 2013 Sweepstakes

Gwen Beauchamp

Luck is spelled W-O-R-K!

Your Sweepstakes calendar runs slightly ahead of the regular one. For instance, it is still too early to start planting seeds, but gardening giveaways are popping up everywhere. The baseball season has not begun, yet you can already enter to win tickets to the games. So be on the lookout for anything associated with Spring. Sponsors marketing products for Easter, Lawn & Garden, outdoor sports & recereation and more will be offering prizes in hopes of getting you to make your purchases from them. Check their websites and Facebook pages regularly, especially your local dealerships. As always, locals are the BEST!

Gwen Beauchamp

Luck is spelled W-O-R-K!

I haven't been winning much lately! Not a big surprise since I haven't had time to enter! I work two jobs, one with a paycheck and then there is SweepsU.com which I spend most every waking moment working on. Oh yeah, I do have this other thing called "a life". Surely you've heard of it...family, friends, hobbies, etc. Yes, there are other hobbies besides sweepstaking.

Last month, I decided to challenge myself. I was going to enter sweepstakes for one hour each day. What I actually managed was 30 minutes to an hour spent entering sweepstakes about 3-4 days a week. I followed my own advice from articles in the SweepsU.com Sweeps University Library. I cannot stress the importance of this step enough. Knowing which sweeps give you the best odds of winning is critical to being successful. People who just sit down and enter any and everything without looking at the odds are wasting most of their time. 

I also made good use of the tools on SweepsU.com. More specifically, the SweepsU.com daily email notifications with the sweepstakes I had pre-selected and added to both my tracker and email notifications as well as Sweeps Unleashed which can open from 5 to 50 entry forms at once from my pre-selected list. Both of these tools sped up the entry process so that I could enter 2-3 times the number of sweeps in a given time period. These programs written exclusively for SweepsU.com also know the difference in daily, weekly and monthly sweepstakes. If a weekly entry sweepstakes on your list today was entered by you, it will not be on your list tomorrow. The system will wait 7 days from the date of your last entry to include it on your list again whether you entered from the list in your personal tracker or from the link in the email notification or by using Sweeps Unleashed. The system knows and you do not have to worry about forgetting a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly sweepstakes entry.

Now for the results of my personal challenge. I managed to win more in the past month than I have won in a long time. Here's the list:

•     $100 Visa gift card - Sunmaid Raisins 100th Year Contest - Facebook 1 entry
•     $100 Visa gift card - Capital One 12 Days of Pinterest Instant Win Game
•     $100 Amazon.com gift card - Real California Milk Wheel Instant Win Game
•     A baseball glove autographed by Robinson Cano - 12 Days of Spalding - online sweepstakes
•     Bella Fluted Cake Maker - Bella's Shopping Giveaway - Facebook 1 entry
•     $20 Butterball gift certificate - Butterball Pinterest Contest 1 entry MY FIRST PINTEREST CONTEST WIN!!!
•     5 $10 & 7 $5 JCPenney gift certificates from the JCP button sweepstakes

No huge prizes, but some very nice ones that came in handy during the holidays. So now I'm challenging YOU! Give it a try. Read the articles in the SweepsU.com Sweeps University Library. If you are not a SweepsU.com subscriber sign up for the 7-day free trial so that you can use the programs and set a reasonable amount of time to be devoted to entering sweepstakes each day.

Good luck everyone!

Gwen Beauchamp

Luck is spelled W-O-R-K!

If you ever dreamed of being an astronaut when you grew up...here's your chance! The AXE Apollo Big Game Sweepstakes is sending one lucky winner into space on the X-COR Lynx sub-orbital space vehicle. This could be the ultimate travel sweepstakes since it also comes with a check for $25,000 to help defray the taxes the winner will owe. For those of you who are a bit squeamish about traveling so far from home there is also a cash option of $86,000. Now that would definitely put me in orbit!

Gwen Beauchamp

Luck is spelled W-O-R-K!

As we approach the Big Game, you will notice all kinds of Football sweepstakes and contests popping up. In many cases, the best really is saved for last. You can win trips to the Super Bowl or the Pro Bowl, tickets to playoff games, a new television to watch the Big Game on, party packages and more. Retailers who can figure out any way to connect their product to the game are sponsoring giveaways. Your mission is to find and enter as many as possible. Locals are always the best, so turn the dial on both your TV and radio to listen to as many stations as possible. You just never know who will be giving what away! A sweepstaking friend of mine once won a Super Bowl party that included a Big Screen TV, food and a marching band on their street to start the party off.

We will be posting everything we come across, local and national, on the SweepsU.com Sweeps List, so check it out frequently. You can do a custom search by typing the words super bowl or football or big game in the "Contest Name" field or try a custom search using the words super bowl or football or big game in the "Prize Description" field. Here are a few to get you started:

• Pepsi Super Bowl XLVII Half Time Show Contest & Sweepstakes
• Cost Plus World Market Football Viewing Party
• Kinect® for Xbox 360® Super Bowl Sweepstakes
• Bud Light® Super Bowl Getaway Sweepstakes
• Lenovo For Those Who Do Football Sweepstakes
• 2013 New Era Super Bowl XLVII Sweepstakes
• Chunky™ Super Bowl XLVII Countdown Sweepstakes & Instant Win Game
• Chevy Silverado Drive to the Super Bowl XLVII Sweepstakes

Gwen Beauchamp

PUT THE COOKIE DOWN! Back away from it...you can do this!

Maybe we're going at this diet/fitness stuff all wrong. There is a better way to get in shape. I'm talking sweepstakes and contests that reward you with exercise equipment, gym memberships, personal trainers and fancy workout duds. There are even some that deliver food to your front door. Low calorie stuff that's good for you, of course. So if you really want to shape up and get your mind off of all those goodies you shouldn't be snacking on, START ENTERING! Here's a list of sweepstakes and contests to get you going. Details, links and all the information you need can be found on the SweepsU.com Sweeps List.

• F3 Nutrition/JACO Athletics "Train with the Reem" Sweepstakes
• The THINaddictives Get Addicted to Yoga Giveaway
• Gorton's Seafood "Get Fit with the Fisherman Sweepstakes"
• Get Healthy with Yonanas® Sweepstakes
• DietToGo.com 1,000 Meal Giveaway
• The h.h. gregg New Year's ReSolution Sweepstakes
• Brita® FilterforGood® Sweepstakes & Instant Win Game
• Eukanuba Get Fit Together Contest

Now, give me 50...entries that is!

Gwen Beauchamp

Tonight is the premiere of yet another television reality show about sweepstakers, those infamous people who win prizes! Tune in to the Oprah Winfrey Network at 9pm CT/10pm ET to watch. I've got my fingers crossed that sweepstakers will be shown as everyday people with an extraordinary hobby. Unfortunately most Hollywood producers want to focus on the weirdest most off the wall behavior they can find. It will be interesting to see where the story line goes on this one.

Click here to watch the preview video of tonight's show. Then come back later to let us know if you liked it or just want to dish on it.

Gwen Beauchamp

Halloween has come and gone, Thanksgiving isn't here yet, but the commercials of Christmas are already upon us. Every year the shopping season gets longer and Black Friday events start earlier giving sweepers the advantage of knowing what is to come on this infamous weekend. This year is no exception. Once the Turkey dinner has been consumed and the table is cleared my family switches into Black Friday mode. The Thanksgiving Day newspaper ads are divided amongst us as we decide where to go to get in on the fabulous giveaways being offered. Who spends Thanksgiving evening on a cold, dark night in front of a store waiting for the doors to open? Dedicated Black Friday sweepers!

This year, you can kill the proverbial two birds with one stone. Be sure to take your iPad, tablet device or smart phone with you, so you can enter Zagg's Black Friday iPad-an-hour Giveaway while you wait or during your in-store shopping experience. If you prefer to avoid the crowds, just enter from your home computer, but be sure that you submit your entry each and every hour for a chance to win one of the twenty four (24) Apple iPad 4 prizes. For additional entries, you can share on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Full details and links can be found on the SweepsU.com Sweeps List.

So what are you waiting for? You should be getting ready for all those Black Friday sweepstakes that magically appear once a year!

Gwen Beauchamp

Luck is spelled W-O-R-K!