Winter Comping…Brr…

It’s almost June and June heralds the start of winter and the start of many winter-themed competitions. Prizes such as holidays in the snow as well as gas heaters, slow cookers, winter recipe books, Ugg boots and the usual books, DVDs, movie and theatre tickets will probably continue to appear over the next few months.

The mid-year months are usually dominated in the media by winter sports and competitions with prizes of footy tee-shirts, scarves and those ubiquitous promotional stubby holders and key rings will probably be everywhere. As a form of relief from these, July might also bring with it promotions at restaurants for Christmas in July festivities otherwise the usual holiday cruises (for those wanting to escape the cold weather), cars and other high value prizes will all still be available if you are prepared to work at winning them.

August is probably one of the quietest comping months of the comping year but that doesn’t mean there are still not hundreds if not thousands of competitions out there to find and enter. Maybe August is a good time to look about for competitions that you don’t usually enter; new websites and magazines you have never had the time to browse through before.

Then take a little break and get ready for the roller coaster of competitions that are held during the last few months of the year. Perhaps winter is a good time to win a book (if you still read them that is). It’s not that difficult to win a book or two these days. You know those fast disappearing packages of words made from paper and cardboard. Publishers and book retailers are desperate to promote their recent releases as the market for these paperbacks and hardbacks rapidly diminishes.

I have won heaps of books over the years and continue to. They make great presents for my bookish friends. If you are a keen book reader like me and would be happy to win some for yourself or to give away to friends, it is definitely worth entering some of the many run by Publishing Houses through their regular newsletters or through their Facebook pages.

Three that instantly come to mind are Harlequin Books, Random House and Hatchette Books. To win kids books keep an eye out on family websites as well as Kids Book Review. Websites of popular foodie magazines such as Taste or Gourmet Traveller are great places to find recipe book giveaways. Most of these are also found in the actual magazines as well.

If you have moved beyond books and are now into e-reading (is that a word?) why not keep your eyes peeled for competitions with e-readers as a prize then simply download your reading matter for free. But how about a free trip to the movies on a cold winter’s day? Movie tickets and DVDs all appear to be some of the easiest prizes to win with new movies being released in cinemas and on DVD and Blu-Ray all the time.

They are effortlessly obtained from movie promoters by businesses and websites to use as prizes for their promotions and inexpensive to post out to winners. There were actually 100 double movie passes in the last competition I entered, so those were not that hard to win, the odds therefore being extremely good. If movies are your thing, it is definitely worth subscribing to movie promotional websites and Facebook pages like Icon Film Distribution Australia, Madman or Walt Disney Studios (for the kids) to keep ahead of the pack.

And if you are interested in attending a premiere of a new release you just can’t wait to see, head over to their official website of the particular movie and check out any promotions there too. Websites like Fliks and Video Ezy and radio stations are also good places to keep an eye on for movie giveaways.