As we’re getting closer to the start of December and the insanity of advent comping season we thought we’d better revise our annual blog post about using Loquax at this most wonderful time of the year. If you’re new to advent competitions then in brief from the 1st of the month literally hundreds of online brands decide to give prizes away daily. Some run for the full 24 days up to (and sometimes including) Christmas Day whilst others go for a “12 Days of Christmas” approach. Most of these prize draws will only run for one day so it can become a tad manic and require a fair bit of time. However we want to have a stress free December and want to help you do the same. Advent comping has become ridiculously hyped. People spend way too much time with them, over think how to do them, pay to access lists of advents and even go as far as taking time off work or not enjoying festivities. That’s not good.
The Advent Forum Is Open
Our advent competition lists are already being compiled although access to them is restricted until the start of December. However the advent forum is open and you’ll see that we’ve been adding advents since the turn of November. Usually we keep things off limits to stop other sites/groups copying Loquax – and they do and they will – but it’s less stressful for us to accept this happens than trying to stop it. If you want to get ahead then visit the forum and you can see those advents that we’re pretty sure are running for 2023. Tracking codes are already in place so you start to “ignore” any that immediately don’t take your fancy. Remember if you click “ignore” then the competition won’t appear in the listings during advent. This helps make your advent list a lot shorter and manageable. One word of warning. This year is the first with our new platform. We’re not anticipating any problems but until we’re all live we may not know of any bugs that have decided to squirrel away until the last moment. We aim to get everything linked up and active in time for the 1st December but do shout if you spot anything missing?
What To Expect From 2023 Advent Competitions?
Although this is our 27th year of advents, for some of you it might be your first or you might fancy giving it another go after a few years away. Advents have changed a lot as many brands now prefer running daily giveaways for the “12 Days of Christmas” (despite the 1st to 12th not being the real 12 days). A lot run on social media, with Instagram being the popular choice. In the mix are big brands – and regular advent favourites – plus many smaller retailers and localised brands. Intriguingly we’ve noted a few estate agents across The UK are doing their 12 days of giveaways. Social media comping poses it’s own problems. Every year excited advent compers quickly end up with bans on Facebook or Instagram because of various algorithms deciding they’re spamming. This makes life difficult so the best advice is slow down, consider which comps you fancy entering and be focused. Swap across the platforms (some brands run on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook) so that you’re not spending all the time comping on just one. Not using social media however isn’t a problem when it comes to advents as there’s more than enough which use website forms for entries.
Set Your Listing Preferences
The key to stress free advents is preparation and we’re going to try and explain how to do that with Loquax. Firstly we wouldn’t pay to use anyone’s advent list, not whilst there are free options like Loquax around (other listing sites are available). If you’re being asked to pay for advents then question what that gets you versus what a free site offers. Anyway let’s get started: To help you we’ve created various advent categories based on platform (e.g Instagram) and popular prizes (e.g. Cash & Vouchers). These are good places to start as opposed to the full list. However you can also tailor things further and to your own way with your preferences and with our advent competitions tracker. By using preferences you can opt to hid various competition and prize types. If you’ve already set them them then these will apply to advents. The way competitions are listed (date added, closing date, site name etc) can also be set here.
Ignore The Advents You Don’t Want
Preferences help reduce the lists considerably but how about tailoring things further. Some will suggest you use bookmarks and folders within your browser or create a spreadsheet. Why waste time? By using the ‘Ignore’ button on the listings you eliminate any competitions you don’t want to do. Those comps will be removed from view and won’t rear their ugly heads for the rest of advent. By the way if you choose to ignore a competition but then want to see it again then you can find it via your Ignored Comps list. Everything is accessible and clickable from the advent listing pages. Now this is the cool bit! For the comps you want to see we suggest clicking ‘Entered’ and then reviewing them each day on your advent page. These comps reset every day so you can see if you’ve completed them or not on each day of advent. This page should become your go to starting point each day because it’ll list all the advents you’ve opted to be interested in. No need for bookmarks, folders, spreadsheets etc. We’ve done all the hard work already! Cool eh?
Important Things To Remember
Advent comping should be fun and stress free. In our view there’s no need to be up all hours doing them; there’s no need to take time off work; there’s no need to enter them all; you don’t need to get all wound up with fomo as tomorrow’s another day. Alongside the advents you’ll still find plenty of other regular comps and prize draws to enter and you may actually find they’re more worthy of your time investment. Focus on what you want to win rather than chase something you’re less keen on simply because it’s an advent prize. Give yourself deadlines so that you’re not spending hour upon hour liking, sharing and tagging just because “it’s advent”. And don’t forget it is the festive season. We say this every year and mean it whole heartedly. Don’t forego having a drink with friends, seeing Christmas Lights, watching a film, doing something festive etc because you’re tired from spending too much time on the computer. Why do we emphasise this? Because we used to do it pre-2012 and can safely say it’s not fun spending a lot of December worrying about advents and the remainder being under the weather having burnt the candle at both ends.
In Summary
- Use Loquax for advent competitions in 2023
- Get Prepared! Use the filters and ignore options to tailor your list now.
- After 1st Decemeber use Entered Comps list as a starting point – saves on bookmarks/folders
- Don’t pay to get lists of advent competitions (at least not until we start to charge you lol)
- Remember to focus on the prizes that you’d like to win
- Be wary of bans! Don’t go nuts on Instagram and Facebook. Mix things up!
- Don’t forget to enter the regular comps – they actually may have better prizes
- Set yourself time limits for doing advents – stick to them
- Don’t take time off work for advents. Use your holidays for better things.
- Enjoy the festive season. Advents aren’t the be all and end all! Seriously they’re not!
- Have fun. Treat them as a fun part of comping!
- Let us know if you’re a winner. We’d love to know
If you have any top tips for advent comping then let us know in the comments below.