Organizing

If you are a serious sweepstakes a-holic, then you must devise a way to keep track of all the entries you are sending out. There are as many ways to organize your sweepstakes entries are there are to organize your monthly bills. The key is to find a system that works for you and stick with it.

If you are not a “computer person,” don’t worry. You can organize the “old fashioned way.” Even choosing to keep a hard copy filing system, you will have options to choose from.

Perhaps you will choose to file according to the sweepstakes’ deadline. Get an index card box and use dividers to break the box into 31 categories, one for each day of the week. File index cards with the contest name, sponsor, prizes and deadline on it. Also, leave a space in the upper left or right corner so you can track how many times you have entered the sweepstakes. This can be a running tally, so if you complete and mail 10 entries one day, you can make the notation on the card. As the deadline approaches, quickly add those tallies together to see if you need to send a few more to beat the cut off date.

Since you will likely be entering sweepstakes several months in advance, include files in your system for the months following the current month. For instance, you might have 1-31 days in your file box for the month of May. Behind the 31st divider, have additional dividers labeled June, July, August, September and farther if you wish. Then, at the beginning of each month, rearrange your contests by deadline dates.

You may find that keeping track of your entries in a spiral notebook is more helpful. You might have to look through a few entries, but you can record the same information and have it available at your finger tips without all the additional organizing and reorganizing you would have to do by the monthly index card method.

For people who are computer savvy, file your information electronically. Use a spread sheet to set up your information. Spread sheets in programs like Excel are quite easy to set up and maintain. You can even have your spreadsheet total the number of entries per month, quarter or year that you are sending.

Since technology allows us to enter sweepstakes by mail and Internet, it will probably be helpful for you to also record your method of entry no matter which filing system you decide to keep. This will help you keep track of how much money you spend in postage each month or year as well.

Organizing your sweepstakes information can save you a lot of time in the long run. Since some sweepstakes limit the number of entries each person can have, either total number of entries or entries per day, knowing exactly what you are entering, how many have been sent and when the deadline is vital to making efficient use of your time. That’s just more time you can be entering other sweepstakes to win even more prizes!

Bob Benson is the founder of Sweepstakes online. You can check out our website at http://www.instant-win-sweepstakes.info

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