Six months ago, I stumbled across a sweepstakes site online by chance. Besides cars, hotel stays and books, there was cash to be won too. Under "cash giveaway," big and small sums could be won.

What do I have to lose, I thought to myself! I filled out about 200 sweepstakes, including some for "cash giveaways." It was just an experiment, and I slowly forgot what and how many I had entered.

About 6 weeks later, the delivery driver rang the doorbell. A package arrived, and I couldn't place the sender. I opened it and found a gigantic stuffed animal in the box. Then a cover letter: "Congratulations: you've won!"

Cash giveaway

Two weeks later, I won a night's stay at an exclusive hotel in Austria, and then it actually happened. I won $1,000. I could hardly believe it. From then on it was clear: cash giveaways and the rest are now my new hobby!

My Strategy for "Cash Giveaways"

A strategy definitely makes sense. Filling out contests at random, all over the place, isn't effective. At some point you lose track completely. It's better to work in a structured way through sweepstakes portals.

It looks like this:

  • choose your sweepstakes portals
  • work through the "expires today" list daily
  • ideally pick fixed times for filling them out
  • decide which prizes you want (e.g. skip DVDs or tickets), only bigger prizes or cash giveaways
Cash giveaway

There are very many small prizes online that you don't necessarily need. Tickets for unknown artists, DVDs, key rings and so on are prizes that are less interesting. After all, hardly anyone wants to rent an extra garage!

Cash Giveaways and My Personal Goal

My enthusiasm is stoked, and I've set myself the goal of snagging five big prizes every month. I have no idea whether that's realistic, but I want to try. I work through the list on my portals, but I want to enter even more, and I'll keep looking to see whether I can find even more to fill out online.

I'm making myself a list of which prizes are actually interesting to me personally. It has become a great hobby for me, and I can't understand why my girlfriends won't join in. On the one hand they look on enviously, and on the other they do nothing for it. Because one thing is clear: no pain, no gain! And that saying probably fits here better than any other!

Entering sweepstakes takes a bit of effort, but where else do I earn so much money so quickly? A lovely night's stay in Austria. Simply wonderful. I love to travel and I'm hoping for the really big win. Besides cash giveaways, I dream of a trip to Mauritius. The Seychelles would be fine too. I'm very curious what would all happen. I'm sure a big sum of money will come along at some point!