The benefits of blogging for compers

Have you noticed a flurry of great competitions recently specifically for bloggers? It's a great way for a company to spread the word about their product or promotion using real people rather than expensive PR agencies. The prizes vary from iPads to holidays, and as you can imagine the entry numbers are tiny compared to your common-or-garden free prize draw!

How do I start a blog?

The most popular free providers are Blogger (which I use) and Wordpress - you can sign up and use a ready made template, all you need to do is think of a name!

So, what should I blog about? You could start off like I did, just keeping a record of prize wins - or blog about your favourite money-can't buy prizes or holidays. It doesn't even need to be comping-related; blog about your hobby, your children, your dreams. It could just be a collection of your favourite photos or memories. My parents love the fact that they can log onto the web anytime and know where to find the latest photos and videos of their grandson! My best friend Jo inspired me to start blogging with her fabulous blog A Bit of This and a Bit of That (a very appropriate name) and it goes to show, you really can blog about anything and everything. If you decide to blog about parenting issues, you'll also find your blog eligible for the annual MAD Blog Awards which have fabulous prizes - unfortunately the winners are decided on public votes, so you'll really have to badger your blog readers if you want to win!

Recent blogging competitions that I've entered have been with Playpennies and iDealy (both to win an iPad) and Food from Spain (to win £250 shopping vouchers) - I didn't win these, but I was lucky in the PriceMinister 'Blog your Tracklist' Valentine's competition, for which I picked up two iPhones - my biggest prize so far this year.

Writing a blog will also give you an advantage in competitions where you're given a unique referral link, and registrations from your link give you extra entries to the prize draw. Current examples of these are the Seabrook Crisps £10,000 draw and iDealy World Tour. You can blog about the promotion or add a logo as a click-through on your blog to generate more referrals. There are also promotions that will give you extra entries for linking to them from your blog - for example, this competition to win an Arsenal shirt (the ideal birthday gift for my other half!)

If you're a fan of voting competitions (and I can't imagine why!), having your own blog may also give you a headstart in these. These days I only really enter voting competitions that include some element of judging, as even with my blog followers, Twitter followers and  Facebook friends it's almost impossible to win a competition purely on votes. You can blog about your entry with a link to vote, or put it as a link on the sidebar of your blog too.

If I've tempted you into the wonderful world of blogging, then try this competition for starters -  it's open to newbie bloggers!

Cartwheel Farm Holidays want bloggers to write a post about farm holidays - their favourite post will win a three night cottage break for up to six people in Lynton, Devon from 22nd-25th July. Your blog can be brand new, but it needs to be published before 30 June 2011. Read more here.

For those of you that are old hands, here's one that's only open to those with a blog older than 3 months:

On the Beach want you to blog about your money-saving tips for holidays - the best will win a two week trip to the all-inclusive BlueBay Cayo Coco resort in Cuba (the holiday must be taken 7th-21st July). This time, your blog must be at least 3 months old and your post needs to be published before 16 June 2011. They will choose the winner but also the two blog posts that get the most hits, comments, tweets and shares across social networks will each win a £200 discount voucher towards their next holiday. Read more here.

If you do decide to set up a blog, don't forget to come back and post your link as a comment here so I can follow you...

Blog comp round-up: 27 May 2011

Remember the brilliant Müllerlight Fashion Treasure Hunt? Well, Impulse are giving away ten designer handbags every weekend for a month - there are two weekends left to win! Check the Impulse Diaries Facebook page on Saturday morning to find out the Superdrug stores taking part, then get there from 12 noon and tell the Impulse rep the correct password to claim your bag. The first week's locations were near London and last week's were up North, so I reckon it might be the Midlands or the South West/Wales this weekend - good luck if you give it a go! Here's your blog comps to keep you busy over the Bank Holiday weekend...

No closing date: enter ASAP
• Win gardening books with The Borrowers
• Bubba Loves is giving away a Fisher Price cot toy - make friends with her blog on Facebook to enter!

Closing 29 May
• eBay are giving away a Derek Lam sundress (size 12) on their blog

Closing 30 May
• Win a Halfords camping kit at The Other Side

Closing 31 May
• Little Pea and Bertie are giving away a Green Nippers organic babygrow
• Win a 'How to Pass Exams' book at Emmaand3 
• JogBlog want you to write a running limerick to win a copy of 'Born to Run'!
• Win a Happy Hopper at Baby Toms

Closing 1 June
• Fuss Free Flavours are giving away FIVE of the £50 Sainsbury's family food planner sets

Closing 2 June
• Two Become Four have two Annabel Karmel weaning bundles to give away

Closing 3 June
• Win a year's personalised cards at the Funky Pigeon blog
• Win tickets with Gingerbread Mum to the new Operations Room on HMS Belfast

Closing 5 June
• Given to Distracting Others have two Fab lolly goodie bags up for grabs
• Win a Kiddimoto Kurve bike at KidzOutdoors 

Closing 6 June
• Win a Little Jetsetters kit at Diary of a First Child

Closing 9 June
• Win a Father's Day gift for your Dad with the Handpicked Collection

Closing 12 June
• Name Sunshine and Daisies' new wine glass charms and you could win a set!

Closing 14 June
• Win one of 5 copies of 'Open Design Now' at the Dezeen blog
• Mummys Shoes is giving away anti-allergy Puraspace bedding 

Closing 15 June
• Win GOSH products at The Boy and Me

Closing 24 June
• Win a family ticket to the Dungeons (in London, York, Edinburgh, Amsterdam or Hamburg) at Room for 5

Closing 26 June
• Win a £250 voucher to spend at Kew

Closing 30 June
• Win a Maru Kit Bag at UK Swimstore blog - tell them your embarrassing swimming story!
• I Heart Motherhood is giving away a family ticket to Lollibop Festival

Be lucky!

Make time for wine: a selection of corking competitions

I bet you didn't know that May is National Wine Month! I love drinking (and winning) wine and two of my favourite prize holidays have involved winery tours in Spain and New Zealand - it's a wonderful way to learn about wine, and if you ever see a competition to win a booze-related trip, I recommend that you enter. If you do find yourself cycling round a vineyard though, make sure you've not drunk too much champagne, it could be dangerous...

To celebrate National Wine Month, I'm accompanied by a large glass of Torrontes and have done a bit of research to bring you some lovely wine comps. First of all, get yourself to the Make Time for Wine page as there are lots of easy web entries for holidays and wine, as well as a daily email giveaway.

I was lucky enough to win a wine-tasting and cookery day earlier this year in Casillero del Diablo's Winter promotion with my celeriac and parsnip soup recipe, and I'm delighted to say they're running another competition for Spring! To enter, submit a spring recipe matched to either Casillero del Diablo Sauvignon Blanc or Shiraz - upload it with a photo at the Supper Club website by 20 June 2011. There are six prizes of a day for two at Waitrose Cookery School (with a wine-tasting of course!) and five runners up prizes of a case of wine. You can read about my day at the Supper Club here - if you've not entered a recipe competition before, this would be a great one to try as there are lots of prizes on offer.

Maris Wines - which you can buy at Waitrose - want to see photos of your 'green dinner party'. They will choose their favourite, and the lucky winner gets a trip for 4 to France to Chateau Maris - I would seriously love to win this prize, so I'm busy planning my party! Enter via their Facebook App before 30 September 2011.

Wines and Tours are offering a fabulous trip to the Douro Valley in Portugal (must be taken 25-29 August) to the lucky winner of their competition. It's not easy though - first, you need to answer the initial ten questions on their website before 15 July 2011. If you get 9 or 10 correct, you will be emailed two more questions. If you correctly answer these, there will be a tiebreak question emailed and the answers judged by the Wines and Tours team to decide the winner. It's always reading terms and conditions carefully - this prize doesn't include flights, so if you won you would have to cover the cost of getting to Porto.

In comparison, the RFU Wine Club competition is much simpler - answer an easy question and you're entered into a prize draw to win a 3 night trip to Verona with a tour of the Bolla Winery and £250 spending money - register and enter here before 31 May 2011.

Another easy one, but not many entries so far, is to win six bottles of Mirabeau rosé wine by answering the question 'At what altitude are the Mirabeau Vineyards?' on the FR2DAY Facebook wall before 29 May 2011. From the information on their website, I found the answer to be '300-400m above sea level'.

Good luck! *hic*

Are you the Bum Genius? Announcing my competition winner!

Thankyou to everyone who supported Real Nappy Week and entered my little competition to win a BumGenius nappy - your wonderful poems were touching, funny, disgusting and hugely entertaining! I hope those of you that haven't tried real nappies yet will get the opportunity to do so very soon.

After much pondering I chose this poem by Immie (with a bit of help from her Mum @emma678h I think...) as the winner! Congratulations Emma, DM me your postal address and let me know whether you want your new BumGenius 4.0 Onesize green nappy with Velcro or Popper fastenings!

My favourite colour is ravishing, Ribbit
That’s the one I’d love to exhibit
It’s clean and green in every sense
And would save my mum a good few pence
See my mummy’s a bit of a shop-a-holic
When buying the fluff in which I frolic
But the great thing about wearing cloth:
When the sun comes out I show it off!
So my family’s cloth nappy devotion
Doubles as a means for promotion
I get lots of questions from my playmates’ mothers
My cute, clever, cloth’s helping to convert others
Like a chain reaction, (my mummy would agree)
They want to ‘Go Real’ when they see cloth on me!
So winning would help me to spread the word
And ‘SHARE THE SECRET’ that must be heard

p.s
I’m also handing down half-a-dozen
To my soon to be born baby cousin!
 
This poem says it all - I love it. Enjoy your new nappy, Immie!

Blog Comp Round Up: 20 May 2011

The death of Blogger last week meant that my entire Blog Comp Round Up went missing and never returned - how annoying! Still, here's a bumper round up of comps for this week instead. I'm off to the Baby Show today, hoping to meet up with a few mummy compers whilst I'm there - and of course, enter some great comps. Which reminds me, don't forget to check out my Real Nappy Week giveaway if you missed it on Monday! In other exciting news, I've added a box over there -----> which means you can subscribe to email updates from this blog, useful if you don't use Google Reader or check into Facebook very often but you don't want to miss comping news!

Closing 21 May
• Blah Blah Becky is giving away a pair of Argento earrings

Closing 22 May
• Win a personalised Bags of Love journal at Typecast
• To celebrate Real Nappy Week I'm giving away a BumGenius nappy here at SuperLucky

Closing 23 May
• Win three Baba and Boo reusable nappies at A Fluffy Mummy
• Win another Baba and Boo nappy at Specialness

Closing 24 May
• Tinks Tales is giving away E.L.F. makeup

Closing 25 May
• Win Vileda Power Scourers at Emmaand3
• At Samantha Peach Masks you can win a mask of your choice!

Closing 26 May
• A Fluffy Mummy is giving away Jackson Reece baby wipes
• Win a Samsonite Bee Duffel Bag at All About the Boys

Closing 27 May
• Fun as a Gran is giving away lottery tickets - she could make you a millionaire!• Beach Bum's Beauty Blog is giving away GOSH bronzing kits

Closing 29 May
• Win three Leapfrog Maths Adventure DVDs at Madhouse Family Reviews

Closing 30 May
• Win a selection of Munchkins and Poppets baby goodies at The Crazy Kitchen

Closing 31 May
• Fuss Free Flavour are giving away a Morphy Coffee machine
• Win some lovely gNappies at Diary of a First Child
• Life in a Breakdown is giving away Eyeko cream
• Win a Flip to Win Hangman game at White Lily Green
• Martavine is giving away £30 of Portuguese Wine

Closing 1 June
• Win a cute handmade purse, nail files and body spray at Lovely Jubbly

Closing 3 June
• Win a Halfords Bike Helmet at The Crazy Kitchen
• Bag yourself some gorgeous baby shoes at Mummyzwordz

Closing 8 June
• Win insect repellant at Given to Distracting Others

Closing 9 June
• Madhouse Family Reviews are giving away a massive FIFTY MAM Self sterilising bottles!

Closing 10 June
• Win Boots baby reins at The Boy and Me

Closing 11 June
• Win 1 of five boxes of Spatone Apple at Confessions of a Compaholic

Closing 12 June
• Mummyzwordz is giving away a BuggyTug

Closing 14 June
• Win a Schwartz hamper at Little Family of 3

Cllosing 17 June
• WIn an Alton Towers kids birthday party package at Party Times

Good luck everyone!

The latest creative comps!

I've been busy for the last few days making videos and taking photos for various silly competitions, so I thought it was time for a round up of all the good creative promotions around right now to inspire you lot to join in!

Constable and Robinson are giving away a stack of books on their Facebook page - to enter simply comment telling them why you want to win before 20 May 2011. They don't mention whether they're judging the winner or if it's a random draw, but try and make your comment unique so it stands out.

Win dinner with lovely Groupon employee Sam James (pictured below!) The meal is next Friday night (27th May) at the Michelin starred Ristorante Simplice in London - to enter you just need to say in one sentence why you want to win - check out the details at the Groupon blog and enter before 23 May 2011.

Pick Me Up are giving away £100 and a BuyaGift Popstar Experience - upload a video of you singing to their Facebook wall before midnight on 25 May 2011 and their favourite will win the prize - if I was entering this one (lucky for you lot that I'm not, my singing voice is shocking!) I would try and include a copy of Pick Me Up Magazine in there somewhere - and how about filming it somewhere public like Tesco? (thanks to Raj for telling me about this one!)

Travel Republic are giving away a trip to Cyprus - upload your favourite holiday photo by 26 May 2011 to their Facebook page, they will shortlist their favourites which will then be voted on to decide the winner - read more at their blog.

Micro Scooters have launched a neon range of Mini Micro kids scooters - to win one, send a picture of your favourite neon thing, featuring one of the colours in the new range (these are orange, blue and yellow), to microscooters@live.com by 30 May 2011. The winner will be picked at random from all entries, but there will also be a prize for the photo with the most comments - see more details on their Facebook page.

Nectar are looking for the UK's savviest family, and will reward them with £1000 cash, £600 Sainsbury's gift card, £500 BP Fuel, 50,000 Nectar points and 4 Easyjet flights. To apply, tell them here in 150 words why you're savvy, by 30 May 2011. Up to eight entrants will be shortlisted and will have to blog about their activities before Nectar decide who is the savviest.

The Pilgrim's Choice Cheese Couture competition has already been running for a while - there's a prize of £250 fashion vouchers and 3 runners-up prizes of a £50 cheese hamper. To enter, create a fashion accessory from cheese and upload by 6 June 2011 to pilgrimschoice.com/WINwithcheesecouture Here's an entry I've been working on since yesterday (that's why the cheese has gone a little crusty...nice!)

Bing have launched a photo competition called 'Your Britain' with a prize of £10,000. You need to upload a photo taken in Britain on the theme of either: Local Britain, Natural Britain, Britain at Night, Urban Britain or Secret Britain, before 24 June 2011. The bad news? The public can vote daily, and only the top 20 most popular photos will be judged for the £10,000 prize. Although Bing maintain they will be monitoring the voting for irregularities and cheating, I still think this is a terrible way of choosing a winner in a photography competition - it should be completely down to independent judges. Enter and find out more details here.

Citroen Retail Group want to see creative photos of your Citroen - their favourite will win an iPad2. Enter on their Facebook page before 30 June 2011.

Great Hotels of the World are looking for videos of a secret hotspot in your hometown or favourite city - it could win you a five night stay in Brussels, including Eurostar travel. The judges will shortlist five videos which will go to a public vote - read more at their website. Closes 8 July 2011.

One for my younger readers is the Freederm 'Free your Future' Facebook promotion - win one of 4 'Access all Areas' days at a radio station, at MTV, at Look magazine or at a recording studio with the NME. Upload a photo that shows why you want to win the prize, and get enough votes to be in the top five by 25 July 2011. The 4 winners will be judged from the 5 most popular entries in each category. Each week every voter will be put into a random draw to win one of two prizes of a £50 Topshop voucher and Freederm goodie bag. I've had a quick look through the entries and can't see any that stand out! If you think you can get enough votes to finish in the top five, I would suggest you have your photo taken at Topshop with a copy of LOOK magazine, or with the NME at a gig, or in a record shop or watching MTV.

The Oreo Lick Race is absolute genius. It's easier for you to watch the instructional video than for me to explain it - but it involves licking a cookie and drinking milk! Upload a video of you racing your child/grandchild (or your children racing each other!) by 31 July 2011, and you could get the chance to compete in the final on 27 August - five teams will be chosen by judges, and five by public vote. I reckon fancy dress would sway the judges in your favour for this one! The overall winner will get a family trip to Florida. Read more at the Oreo website.

Birdseye Tasty Ideas for Dinner is running for the next 3 months, with a prize of £1000 to the most creative tasty looking meal each month. Simply upload a photo of one of the suggested recipes on their Facebook page (or a recipe of your own) - closing 31 May, 30 June and 31 July 2011. Here's my attempt at Mr Chicken Dippers Smiley face!

Compared to simple email entry promotions, these creative comps will get very few entries and offer a great chance of winning a prize - so charge up your camera and get snapping...good luck!

Real Nappy Week - win a BumGenius Nappy! *NOW CLOSED*

I LOVE REAL NAPPIES! I've used them on Ryland since he was a month old, and I think they're fantastic - they save you money, they save the environment and they look super cute.

This year's Real Nappy Week runs from 16 - 22 May, and there are loads of competitions and events to celebrate - check out the Go Real website for more information. If you're NOT a real nappy user, but would like to give them a try, keep an eye on the Go Real Facebook page from Monday for details of the Great Nappy Giveaway - I believe you'll need to be referred by an existing cloth nappy user, so let me know if you're up for it and I'll recommend you!

Green Mums are running a fab competition for RNW to win a holiday at Coombe Mill Farm in Cornwall (closing 22 May), and for extra entries you can make a video about cloth nappies - here's Ryland telling you why they're so brilliant!

WIN A NAPPY!

To celebrate Real Nappy Week I'm giving you the opportunity to win a BumGenius 4.0 Onesize nappy in your choice of four colours - Zinnia (pink), Moonbeam (blue), Clementine (orange) or Ribbit (green).

To enter, I'd like you to leave a comment on this post telling me which colour you would like, in the form of a poem - please also leave either your Twitter ID or email address (use AT instead of @ to avoid spambots!). I'll choose my favourite and will order the winner's nappy from the lovely www.screaminggreen.co.uk, who are offering a 20% discount on BumGenius nappies until the end of May (you can choose velcro or popper fastening). As the theme of Real Nappy Week is 'Share the Secret', if possible I would also like you to share this post either on Twitter or Facebook as well as leaving a comment - you can do this by clicking the buttons at the end of the post!

This competition is only open to UK residents, and I will accept entries until 10pm on Sunday 22 May. Good luck!

(please note; I lost this post when Blogger died so have recreated it. I'll be emailing/tweeting the early entrants so that their comments can be reinstated!)

Fancy applying for a gameshow?

There's been a recent flurry of contestant calls for TV gameshows - if you're brave enough then it's a fun and exciting way to possibly win big money. Check out my blog post How to get on a TV gameshow for some advice on auditions and appearing in front of a camera - it's not as nerve-wracking as you might think!

Sky are calling all TV fanatics to get off their sofas and step into your television - every week pairs of passionate TV viewers are going to have their knowledge put to the test. If you know your Boardwalk Empire from your Big Brother, then get in touch NOW and you could be winning big! Email quizcontestants@twofour.co.uk for an application form - auditions are in London (21/22 May), Manchester (14 May), Birmingham (15 May), Glasgow/Dublin (18 May) and Cardiff (27 May). If you're interested, apply ASAP - I sent off my form on Sunday, got a call yesterday and have an audition on Saturday!

Series 3 of Scream if you know the Answer is being filmed in LA next month - to apply, email screamapplication@liontv.co.uk or call the application hotline, 020 8846 2191.

ITV2 are recruiting teams of five people to play Minute to win it - the show sees two teams compete alongside celebrities in an attempt to bag themselves big money, with deceptively simple games that require teams of savvy contestants to compete under pressure against the clock. They are looking for teams of 5 fun, fabulous and enthusiastic friends/family or work colleagues to get involved - apply online at www.minutetowinituk.com

Finally, Red or Black is Simon Cowell's new venture for ITV.  It kicks off on 11/12 June at Wembley Arena with a series of spectacular events, each with two possible outcomes - Red or Black. If you choose the right outcome, you continue to the next stage of the show at a number of locations around the UK, where more rounds will be played out: who will jump higher, where will it land, who will be quickest, etc. There will only ever be two possible answers - Red or Black. The final stage takes place live on ITV1 in September - seven contestants will each get the chance to become a millionaire. There will be 7000 contestants at the initial Wembley events - apply to be one of these at http://www.itv.com/redorblack/

Good luck!

Viva España!

We've just returned home from a wonderful break in Barcelona (flights and spending money courtesy of Smooth Radio, and accommodation from a Barratts Shoes win!) and I wanted to share some photos as this was my first holiday abroad for 18 months... talk about itchy feet!

Ryland was great on his first flight - and loved the airports too (I thought he might be toddling around by 16 months old, but no such luck - he's a lazy crawler!)

I first visited Barcelona six years ago and was really excited about going back - it's an amazing city with so much to see and do, we stayed for 4 days and didn't retrace our steps once.

On our first day we sheltered from the rain (typical!) in the Boquería Market, where we stocked up on picnic essentials like manchego, ham, tomatoes, olives and my favourite - anchovies! Ryland didn't seem that interested in shopping mind you...

  

We jumped on a tram (easier than the metro with a buggy!) to the Sagrada Familia - the interior has only recently been opened to the public and although the €12 entry fee was somewhat frightening, it really was worth it to see the incredible architecture and museum inside. 

In the early evening the sun shone through the beautiful stained glass windows high in the Apse, bathing us in red light.

Barcelona Zoo was a great place, there were hardly any visitors and the animals all seemed super laid back. Seeing all the fluffy baby animals almost turned me veggie again... but not quite!

We caught some tortoises doing the conga (very slowly...)

All the food we ate was delicious - Ry was a big fan of tapas, in particular black rice (with squid ink) and paella...

...but for me it was all about the 'pescados fritos' and sherry. Salud!

Barcelona has loads of incredible architecture - and not just the wibbly wobbly Gaudi buildings. Museu Blau is the striking new natural history museum at the Forum, which we stumbled across by accident.

As for places for Ryland to play, we hung out at Barceloneta beach and at Parc de la Ciutadella (the free places are always the best!)

Our apartments had a lovely swimming pool but the water was way too cold for Ry to even dip his toes in, so he just pointed and laughed whilst we braved the cold like true Brits.

On our final night, we went to the Feria de Abril - in May, which was rather odd! Essentially this was lots of tents, food, booze, funfair rides, flamenco and noise (we put Ryland's Snoozeshade to good use!). All the local ladies put on their best dresses and danced about randomly, while people sang, ate paella, drank wine and generally partied (we went on a Wednesday so I can only imagine what it's like at the weekend when it's open till 4.15am!)

So after a first successful trip abroad I'm now on a mission to win another holiday - although I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to go long haul with a toddler, I think that a prize trip to Italy or France would definitely be fun. Let me know if you see any good comps to win one!