How do you increase your chances of winning a car prize online? With so many raffles and competitions around, it can be difficult to pick the best ones. Although many people enjoy entering simple prize draws that don’t require any particular skill, a growing number are also turning to prize competitions. Requiring players to demonstrate skill and judgement to win a prize, these types of competitions can be a great way to exercise more control over your chances of winning than a simple raffle.

Competitions or prize draws?

Many competitions are in fact thinly disguised prize draws where little skill is required to take part. Whether it’s registering your details, completing a short survey, answering a simple question or following or ‘liking’ someone on Twitter or Facebook to qualify for a prize, in most cases the winner is picked randomly amongst all correct entries received. Given how easy it is to enter such competitions and the organisers' goal to attract as many entries as possible, such competitions usually offer relatively low chances of winning the top prize.

For this reason, some players prefer to focus primarily on prize competitions that require some exercise of skill or judgement. Depending on the rules of the competition, this allows them to distinguish themselves from others in a bid to increase their chances of winning. Unlike traditional prize draws, the winner in a skill based prize competition must be picked for reasons that demonstrate they performed better than anyone else based on the rules of the game.

With a bit of practice, planning and preparation, in some cases this type of competition can offer better chances of winning than a simple draw. Using the rules of the game, players can differentiate themselves to stand out from the crowd, allowing the more skilled or talented to enjoy better odds of winning than the majority.

Another benefit is that skill based competitions often attract fewer entries than simple draws. The more difficult the game – or the more work required on behalf of players – the more likely it is that some people will be discouraged from entering at all. This provides an opportunity for more experienced players to “cherry pick” contests where they expect less competition from others. Likewise, paid entry competitions – where players are asked to buy a ticket to take part – typically enjoy a lower participation rate from players.

Practice and research to improve your odds

If a competition is based on a quiz or a set of multiple choice questions, with a bit of research it can be possible to find the answers online. If the questions are based on the company or website organising the competition, these can sometimes be found on the website itself. Using specialist search engines and online resources is another great way to carry out research before taking part in the competition.

You would be surprised how many people don’t bother to carry out basic research before entering competitions due to the time it can take. For this reason, some players target competitions with particularly ‘tricky’ questions in the knowledge the pool of players that find the right answers will be relatively small.

There are a number of great resources online for finding answers to unusual questions, such as Yahoo Answers or Answerbank. Get involved in forums and take part in discussions to ask help from other users online who may be more familiar with the topic than you.

Puzzles (such as Sudoku or crosswords), skill competitions (such as spot the ball) and reverse auctions have become increasingly popular online. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect and taking time to understand the game and improve your performance before entering can make a real difference to your chances of winning.

Another great way of preparing yourself for a competition is to find a free version of the same game – or a similar game – elsewhere online to hone your skills in advance. If you’re lucky, some websites offer free practice of their games to allow players to get familiar with the format before taking part. You can also find free versions of many games on gaming sites and specialist competition sites. Although it might seem obvious, a good understanding of the rules of the competition is also essential.

Cater to your strengths

Skill contests can take many forms that involve demonstrating judgement, accuracy, speed, knowledge (or any combination) and in some cases you may find you are naturally more talented or more experienced than in others.

You may come across other types of contests that ask entrants to send in a fun, original or entertaining response related to a specific topic. This can involve videos, essays, photos, music or any other type of media. This is usually a great way to differentiate your entries from other players’ especially if you have a talent for that particular medium. Picking competitions that suit your natural skill set is a simple way to improve your odds of winning.

Win a car prize competitions are becoming more popular as companies and websites seek to attract new customers and develop a closer relationship with their users. Learning how to choose the right competitions that fit your own skills, together with basic research and preparation can help radically change your chances of winning a great prize.

Please leave a comment if you have any good advice for other players about skill based prize competitions. Tips and ideas are welcome, as are useful resources to help others get started. Good luck and happy comping!

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