First step get a twitter account and it is free.

Confession time here- I do not text and have a pay as you go phone. The good news is that you can twitter by web from your computer. Your choice on how you set the account up. Post from the web or your phone or both. Answer all the questions, poke the help buttons and learn lots of interesting stuff that may or may not apply to you. Choose a user name. In my case the user name I wanted was taken. Darn- add another letter or a number to the name you wanted- it worked for me Two weeks later I could not remember it, but I did write it down. I now have a clean desk and found both my user name and password.

I decided this twitter account would be for only sweepstake entries. If you already have an account or will be doing friend and maybe even business tweets consider a second account for sweeps. Do you really want your boss knowing you tweeted to win toilet paper?

Three important questions after opening you twitter account. Go to your account settings to complete this information.

Email- Check the box Let others find me by my email address. You do want your fellow sweepers to be able to follow you right?

Tweet Location - Check or do not check the box. Add a location to your tweets. This is your preference. Do what makes you feel comfortable. I choose not to add that. But you decide what is best for you.

Tweet Privacy ­ Do NOT check Protect my tweets Wording below this option is - Only let people whom I approve follow my tweets. If this is checked, your future tweets will not be available publicly. Tweets posted previously may still be publicly visible in some places.

Twitter is your entry into a sweepstakes - IF they can not read your tweets- why bother to post it.

Remember to click save at the bottom of this page after completing these questions.

Is your brain tired from all this twitter stuff?  Mine is and there is more to tell.

I promise to continue in the next blog post. If you want to learn more now, search Google using the phrase how to use twitter. There are hundreds of good, weird and what the heck are they talking about pages to read.

Follow me on twitter. My twitter name is rose7am and I promise to follow you too.

Roseann

1. SweepsU.com does not support Internet Explorer 6.  The Sweeps and Contests section will likely look horrible and not function correctly.  There are no plans to support IE6 at this point as it is a very small portion of internet users, it's very old and outdated at this point,  and it takes a great deal of work above and beyond the other browsers.  We strongly recommend Firefox for your browser as there is a LOT of flexibility and tools that can make sweeping easier.  However, modern Chrome, Internet Explorer (versions 7 and 8), Safari, Opera, etc are all supported.  I'll post links at the bottom for these downloads.
2. In order for the SweepsU.com Enter Sweeps to work, you must set all pop-up blockers to allow SweepsU.com to open pop-ups.  Otherwise SweepsU.com will not be able to open the pages for you.
3. SweepsU.com was designed to use resolutions of 1024x768 and greater.  As I develop and test the system I have my browser sized to look as though that's the resolution I'm running on.  Anything lower than 1024x768 isn't supported.  The reason for this is that there is a lot of information and functionality I need to put in front of you to help you be productive.  At lower resolutions that becomes VERY difficult to do.   1024x768 is also the commonly accepted standard for web design currently.  Due to the nature of SweepsU.com's utility, phones and small screen netbooks probably will not give you a very good experience.  At some point in the future, if it's requested by enough folks, I'll create a "light" version that can be used on these devices.
4. SweepsU.com does not enter contests for you.  When you click the Enter button it will open the contest entry form (or as close as I can get to it) in another tab or window of your browser.  From there it's up to you to fill in the form, submit, and close that tab or window.  Therefore the information you used to register for SweepsU.com does not necessarily have to be the information you use to enter sweeps and contests.  Automated is a big and interesting subject that we will talk about more as time goes on.  However, it's typically very frowned upon by the folks running these promotions (and can disqualify you in some cases).  However. . .
5. There are a number of tools that are commonly used to help you fill out forms.  The two I am most familiar with are Roboform and Sxipper.  Roboform works on Internet Explorer and Sxipper works on Firefox.  There are a ton of these out there and I'm sure something for just about every flavor of browser.  If somebody has other form fillers that they like, please post a link in the comments below.  These tools are pretty much invaluable to a sweeper.
6. Don't burn out.  Sweepstaking is a marathon sport, not a sprint.  Successful sweepers are those that continue at a regular pace over a long period of time.  Don't start out trying to enter every sweepstakes and contest listed.  My personal advice (and this is MINE, I do not claim to be a great sweeper and haven't been doing it all that long.  Gwen will have other articles talking about this later):  Figure out how much time a day you want to spend, 30 minutes, 2 hours, 6 hours, whatever and search for sweeps that are offering prizes you really want that fill up that time to enter.  I try to do about 30 minutes a day and I can go through 30-50 sweeps following the above advice regarding browsers, tools, etc.  I'm seeing a lot of the new folks get on, spend 5-10 hours tracking and entering sweeps then not seeing them again.  Remember consistency is the key, and as Gwen tells me all the time, "Luck is spelled W O R K".

Ok, Sam's getting hungry so I have to go for now.  I hope this helps you folks and please do let us know if you have other comments or questions (can post comments in response to this blog post, or use the forums, etc).

Gerald

Browser Links:

Firefox 3.6 (All platforms) (SweepsU.com Recommended)

Internet Explorer 8 (Windows)

Chrome (All platforms)

Safari 4 (Windows, Mac OSX)

Form Fillers:

Roboform (Internet Explorer)

Sxipper (Firefox)