 |
| Emperor & Empress in Dalat! |
 |
| Playing gongs in the Central Highlands! |
 |
| Riding elephants at Lok Lake! |
 |
| Water Buffalo Surfing: Wet Rice Farming! |
Please check out my posts on this blog, which have links to all sorts of great things to do in Vietnam, and also see www.centralcoastvietnam.com and “like” their page on Facebook for more incredible things you can do in Vietnam: https://www.facebook.com/CentralCoastVN
On Twitter I also won a $20 eBay gift card, from, yes, eBay! 🙂 And as I am a Total eBay Fanatic (if not for eBay, the Elkhorn Inn would look like Wally World!) this will Definitely come in handy!
I won a $50 gift card to C-A-L Ranch Stores http://www.calranch.com/ (got a cool, heated seed-starter kit for this winter!) for my photo of the Elkhorn Inn with our sunflower meadow that Dan planted… and then I won $1000 from Marlboro www.marlboro.com for two projects I submitted: Replanting our sunflower meadow across from the Inn, and building a photography platform for Railfans in McDowell County, West Virginia!
From Passports with Purpose passportswithpurpose.org I won a $169 Travelmate Deluxe Product Bundle provided by the blog Cloud Surfing Kids: http://cloudsurfingkids.com/
 |
We also got to enjoy the three months of truly beautiful flowers from Bouqs www.bouqs.comthat I won last year when I was awarded “Marketer of the Year” Runner-Up from www.bedandbreakfast.com (The other parts of the prize were an award, which we have displayed at the Elkhorn Inn, and a $100 gift certificate to Lowe’s- which Dan used immediately!)
 |
| Labor day flowers from Bouqs! |
 |
| Flowers from Bouqs! |
 |
| My Award |
Since I started entering sweeps and contests in 2002, I have won us 6 fabulous trips with plane tickets (Vietnam, Chile, Israel, San Diego, Virginia, and Arizona), absolutely gorgeous designer shoes, beauty products, makeup, and perfume, fine jewelry, clothing, kitchen things, books, gift certificates, cash, food, and lots of other cool stuff! (My friends all made fun of me until I started winning trips with plane tickets. LOL) Many of my friends insist I must be terribly lucky, but if you enter 100 sweeps and contests a night you’ll get “lucky” too! 🙂 I always tell people interested in entering sweeps and contests my three key rules:
1. Read the rules! I cannot stress this enough, especially with regards to contests. If you are going to spend the time creating an entry, make sure you know the rules so you don’t inadvertently disqualify yourself! One entry only, or daily entries? Are you eligible to win? Is it a skill-based, judged contest, or a random drawing? What are you supposed to write or photograph and how? You get the idea!
2. Check your email- DAILY! You often have only 24 hours to respond to a winning notification email, or the prize will be awarded to someone else! Thanks to entering sweeps and being on so many email lists, I now have to scroll through about 1800 emails a day, and yes, that it is pain, but the payoff has been pretty fabulous! Consider it part of your “job” and it will feel less onerous. LOL
3. Only enter for things you Really want to win! Apropos this, my favorite sweeps story is about winning a giant box of condoms! Dan was incredulous- WHY, he wanted to know, did I enter to win stuff like that?! I had actually entered to win the $10K trip to Vegas- but instead of winning the Grand Prize, I had won the First Prize- and the sweeps had been sponsored by Trojan! 🙂
And I also always thank those responsible, and try to give the people and companies who sponsor the sweeps and contests I win publicity and promotion- a “bang for their buck”, as it were- on this blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ etc., because sweeps and contests are created to SELL STUFF, and sharing is caring! 🙂 I learn about a lot of great products through entering sweeps and contests, and we do buy many of them!
Good luck, and have fun sweeping!
Let me know in the comments if you’ve won something- whether it was wonderful or just hilarious!
