The U.S. Postal Service and NBC's The Biggest Loser have joined forces to promote heart health awareness with the new Heart Health Forever Stamps and a sweepstakes sponsored by the U.S. Postal Service. You can only enter the sweepstakes by sending a letter of encouragement to your favorite contestant on The Biggest Loser. Each letter you send enters you for a chance to win a week at The Biggest Loser Resort, a month of healthy meals, or tickets to the 2013 Finale.

The only way to enter this promotion is through the U.S. Postal Service, so many sweepers may opt out of a great opportunity to win. Those who are willing to put out the extra effort it takes to hand write an entry, address an envelope and pay for a stamp to mail it will have slightly better odds than they would with an online entry. Just remember this: The harder it is to enter, the easier it is to win!

Gwen Beauchamp

Luck is spelled W-O-R-K!

It is a common marketing practice to use a sweepstakes to generate interest in a movie premiere, but I have never seen so many sweepstakes revolving around one premiere. Hunger Game Sweepstakes are being promoted by a huge number of sponsors. We currently have 23 Hunger Game Sweepstakes listed on SweepsU.com with more being added as we find them. If you are interested in attending the Los Angeles premiere of the Hunger Games on March 12 get your entries in quickly. Most of these promotions end from February 16 to February 29.

To view all 23 Hunger Game sweepstakes on the SweepsU.com Sweepstakes and Contest List, do a Custom Search by typing the word "hunger" (without the quote marks) in the Contest Name field.

Gwen Beauchamp

Luck is spelled W-O-R-K!

LOVE is in the air! It can also be found in grocery stores, newspapers, Facebook, websites and over the airwaves (radio & TV)! Sweepstakes and contests promoting the season of love are all around us at this time of year. Diligent sweepers should be monitoring all of the above sources for the next week or so. Short running, local promotions will be popping up everywhere and you'll have to pay attention to participate in as many as possible. Remember that radio station call-in to win promotions are much easier to win on the weekends when fewer people are listening. The next two weekends should have some nice prizes being offered by radio stations all over the country. So turn that dial frequently and listen to a variety of stations to determine which ones are sponsoring sweepstakes and contests of interest to you!

Remember that SweepsU.com posts local sweepstakes and contests as well as national. Be sure to check our list frequently for promotions in your area. You can find the local sweeps quickly by clicking on the Search icon at the top of the page to open the Custom Search menu. Then click on "by Type" and "Local". You can also eliminate sweeps open to states other than your own by clicking on "by Status" and checking the box next to the words "Hide listings you are ineligible for (by region)".

To find Valentine's Day sweepstakes on the SweepsU.com Sweepstakes and Contest list, do a Custom Search and type one of the following words in the Contest Name field: valentine, romance, love.

Gwen Beauchamp

Luck is spelled W-O-R-K!

The John Carter Super Bowl Sweepstakes doesn't start until 6:30pm on Sunday, February 5th, but you will need to get a code shown in the John Carter Super Bowl commercial to enter. Watch for the 30 second promo during the first quarter of this year's Super Bowl game, then go to the website to enter to win a trip to next year's Super Bowl game in New Orleans, LA. You can enter once a day until March 9th, but you must have a code.

Be sure to place this promotion on your SweepsU.com tracker  and I recommend adding it to your Daily Email Notifications  so you won't miss out on a single day of entering!

Gwen Beauchamp

Luck is spelled W-O-R-K!

Ok, so now that it's (mostly) done it's time for me to give you guys a little head's up on what the update today was.

First, though, an apology:  There was no blog posting announcing the downtime associated with this scheduled update.  Or, rather, there was but I got caught not paying attention.  I have a couple staging sites where I have other copies of SweepsU.com up and running so I can test various things before I deploy them on the production site.  I'd posted a blog warning on one of the staging sites thinking that I'd posted it on the production site and didn't notice until I brought everything back up today.  So - my sincerest apologies, hopefully that will not happen again.

So, to business:  A few months ago we received notice that the company we use to process our credit card billing was raising prices between 200-400%(!!).  As a small business the value we get for our dollar is very important to us and this pricing put them very much out of the range we felt was a reasonable value.  They offered to grandfather us for 90 days while we acquired another provider and migrated our application so I immediately put my nose to the grindstone and began the transition.

Today is just short of 3 months later and I've deployed the changes necessary to process payments through our new provider.  In normal day-to-day use you shouldn't really notice anything different.  However, there are some significant improvements to the system in general:

1. We are now MUCH less tightly coupled with our billing provider.  Historically I've had to touch base with the billing provider on every request to insure appropriate authorization.  Now, I maintain ALL subscription information and only communicate with the billing provider when a charge is made.
2. We now provide the interface for the transaction.  Previously when you purchased a SweepsU.com subscription you were forwarded to the providers page to actually make the purchase.  Now everything resides here and we're in control/responsible for that experience.
3. Security:  When you take credit cards for purchases you are subject to PCI compliance.  The method with which our new provider processes transactions completely eliminates (well, for all practical purposes) any PCI compliance issues for us.  Through some very cool tricks SweepsU.com NEVER sees your credit card information, it is sent directly from your browser - very securely - to our billing provider before you submit the transaction to us.  At the end of the day this is MUCH more secure, safe and convenient for you - and us.  The provider then gives us a 'token' that is submitted with your purchase request that we use to process the transaction.  This means your sensitive information is being sent back and forth half as much as is traditional meaning significantly less risk for you.
4. With the need to completely gut and recreate the billing system it was natural to continue to make the necessary changes to SweepsU.com's infrastructure to move us forward toward the very cool things we have planned next (more info forthcoming).  At this point everything is pretty much where I need it to be and my next task is to begin working on new features and the future of SweepsU.com - it's going to knock your socks off!

So that's it in a nutshell.  As mentioned this release reaches into just about every nook and cranny of SweepsU.com and as it's a very complicated suite of applications there's always the possibility that some problem snuck past me.  If you have any problems or notice anything weird please let us know ASAP at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Thank you all for your patience and continued support!

Gerald & Gwen

Paramount Pictures Centennial Sweepstakes and the Higher One Deposit Sweepstakes have something in common. You can only enter them once each month. The Paramount Picures Sweepstakes is giving away a trip for two every month in 2012 and the Higher One Deposit Sweepstakes is giving $100 cash to 100 people each month through the end of February.

Both are definitely worth your time to get those once a month entries in, but how do you remember to do it each and every month for the next year? Many sweepers will have totally forgotten about the Paramount Pictures Sweepstakes by the Fall of 2012 which makes it an even better opportunity to win for those who remember to enter. SweepsU.com subscribers have an advantage over other sweepstakers. The SweepsU.com Sweeps Management System (SMS) won't let you forget to enter any sweepstakes that you have added to your tracker. Whether it is monthly, bi-weekly, weekly or daily the SMS keeps track of your entries when you enter by any of the following three methods:

1. Click on an "Enter Contest" icon from the main sweeps list or within your Tracker
2. Use the "Sweeps Unleashed" feature found in your Tracker
3. Click on the "Enter Now" link in your Daily Email Notification

Within your tracker you can view the last date you entered any sweepstakes you are tracking. You can also view the exact date that the next entry is due by viewing the "Due" column in your Tracker. If it is time to enter again it will say "Now". If it is a one time entry and you have already entered it will say "Never". If it is not yet time for another entry, the SMS will provide the date your next entry is due based on the date of the previous entry.

That is not all that your Tracker does for you. It gets even better! When you look at the Sweeps you have moved to your Tracker you will notice that the ones with entries due "Now" are always listed first and once you enter them they go to the back of the list. When you use the "Sweeps Unleashed" feature, the SMS knows which sweepstakes to include and which ones to leave off. So if you entered a weekly or monthly sweepstakes yesterday, it will not be listed today when you run "Sweeps Unleashed". The SMS will not prompt you to enter again for a week or a month whenever the next entry is due. The same rules apply to your daily Email Notifications. A weekly, bi-weekly or monthly sweepstakes may be on your email list today, but once you enter it, the SMS will not include it on the list again for 7 days (weekly), 14 days (bi-weekly) or 30 days (monthly). Daily sweepstakes will appear on both "Sweeps Unleashed" and/or your daily email notifications every day until the promotion ends. At that time the SMS will remove the promotion from your list and place it on the "Expired" sweeps list.

All you have to do is add the sweepstakes you are interested in to your personal tracker and let the SweepsU.com SMS keep track of everything for you. You never need to miss out on another good sweepstakes because you forgot to enter all the way to the end. To learn more about how the SweepsU.com SMS works be sure to watch our tutorial videos (see links below) and read the Quick Start guide in the SweepsU.com Sweeps University library.

Episode 1:  Welcome and Introduction

Episode 2: Your SweepsU.com Dashboard

Episode 3: The Sweeps & Contest List

Episode 4: Searching

Gwen Beauchamp

Luck is spelled W-O-R-K!

Update: Problem resolved.  Things should be operating normally.

Our billing provider is having some sort of maintenance issue that is causing the SweepsU.com dashboard to have problems.  Unfortunately, I can't do a quickfix to make it go away.

You can see their status here:  http://spreedly.com/

I don't expect that the problem will persist for long at all.

Also, in reference to our billing provider:  Frankly, we haven't been that happy with Spreedly and they've recently raised their prices dramatically.  I've been working on rewriting our billing system to use another provider over the last couple months and am hoping to launch it this coming weekend.  It includes a MUCH less connected solution such that problems such as this  can not occur.  I will be posting in the next day or two about the downtime for this update and other information.

Our apologies for any inconvenience,

Gerald

In the Beauchamp family, one of the biggest benefits of sweepstaking is seen at Christmas each year. Throughout the year as prizes are won, many are hidden away to be used as gifts. This year was no different. I spent a grand total of $25 on Christmas presents. That is no easy feat when you consider that Robert and I have five children, four children-in-law and eight grandchildren (with one more on the way). Having such a large family almost always insures that someone will appreciate each item we have won.

In years past, we have come close to not having anything under the tree as close as one week before Christmas. Thankfully we won a $1,000 American Express gift card from a local radio station that bailed us out quickly that year. One of my favorite Christmas wins was in 1997 when the Grapevine Mills Mall had their Grand Opening and my name was drawn as one of four Grand Prize winners of a $5,000 shopping spree. I bought Christmas presents for my family as well as five other needy families in my church and some children in the Head Start program in my community. Being able to help others in need was the best part of the prize package. Since that Christmas I have always made a point of supplying presents for at least one other family. There is no greater joy at this time each year than giving to others!

I wish each and every one of you a safe, happy holiday spent with family and friends. Merry Christmas! May God be with you all as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord!

Gwen & Robert Beauchamp

Shopping...wrapping...baking...decorating...partying...who has time to enter sweepstakes! But this is the best time to be entering steadily. While other sweepers are too busy, your odds of winning increase drastically. So do your best to allow time for at least a few entries each day. It could add up to some big wins in the New Year!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Gwen Beauchamp

Ok, everything's back up.  This was a MAJOR change in the network and systems so please keep your eyes out for any problems:  performance, look and feel, errors, etc.  There could be a problem with anything (though I haven't found anything in testing so far).  If you do find a problem please do let us know at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Thanks!

Gerald