Guest Author - Jennifer L. Thompson

Recently I contacted Linda, owner of the "Contestgirl" website for an interview. Here is what she had to say in part one of our series...

Jennifer: How did you get started entering sweepstakes?

Linda: My sister won a cruise holiday in a radio phone-in contest. This piqued my interest in the idea of entering contests. Since I loved using the internet, I started to explore to see what online contests I could find. I was surprised to find very large world of contests and haven't looked back
since.

Jennifer: What are your favorite types of sweepstakes and why?

Linda: My favorite type of sweepstakes are the local ones put on by newspapers, TV stations, radio stations and even shopping malls. These ones have a much smaller pool of people entering them, so your chances of winning are much better. I also actively seek ballot boxes when I'm out and about for the same reason. Having said that, it's also a lot of fun entering the huge
national or even international contests for really big and exciting prizes,
even if the odds of winning are almost nil, because I can at least enjoy
imagining winning that great trip or whatever the prize might be, and
especially if it's a one-entry only contest, because I don't feel it's a
time waster.

Jennifer: What made you decide to start your own website?

Linda: I decided to start my own website because I had time on my hands (I'm a stay at home mom), and I thought I could do a good job being a filter for some of the garbage contests out there. There are so many wonderful and legitimate contests, but there are also some poor ones, or people who use the format of contests to get your info for spamming. I saw too many lousy ones being listed on some of the contest directory sites and wanted to create a site where there was more of an attempt at filtering those ones out of the pool. I hope I'm doing a good job of that--it's sometimes just a judgement call.

Next week we will continue with part two of our interview. In the meantime, you can visit the Contestgirl HERE