What Prizes Can I Win Online?

Comping online has spanned over 2 decades now and in that time there's been pretty much a competition for every kind of prize you can imagine. Over the years we've seen plenty of cars, cash, holidays, gadgets and even houses offered as prizes! Million pound cash prizes have also been won alongside thousands of books, CDs, DVDs, vouchers, hampers and other goodies. So the answer to the question is "pretty much anything". The caveat to that though is "but not all the time".

Basically what can you win is determined by the competitions that are currently available! The number and nature of prizes on offer is also dictated by marketing forces and seasonal circumstances. At Christmas there's usually hundreds of advent giveaways, but come January there's always a little bit of a lull. Likewise if there's a new product launch or something seasonal like World Book Day, World Chocolate Day or Halloween, then there's usually a few giveaways to aide promotion.

How To Find Prizes To Win

The key to finding the prizes you'd like to win is by keeping close tabs on the competition sites and services that are around. At Loquax we've tried to make it easier for you to find the prizes you'd like to win by creating our Prize Directory! All competitions posted on Loquax are categorised. We have sections ranging from Electricals and Gadgets to Fashion and Beauty. At selected times of the year we also include a Christmas, Easter and Valentine's section. Whilst the categorisation is sometimes is a loose fit it does help you find competitions you might want to check out first.

You may also have to do a bit of competition searching yourself if you are after something very specific. You need to be "on the ball", especially for special events such as music festivals such as Glastonbury, sports events like The FA Cup and movie premiere tickets. In these cases using Google, searching social media and following brands may help. It's also worth looking for these kind of prizes a month or two before the events because that's when the competitions start. Over time you can put together a bit of a comping calendar.

How Have Prize Trends Changed?

It's been interesting seeing how trends in the nature of prizes have changed since Loquax's inception. For example back in 2000 a DVD Player would have been regarded as a star prize and mobile phones weren't even on offer as prizes! Mind you DVD Players back then were new and cost around £700. Today they're almost obsolete tech now everything can be downloaded. The early days of comping were great for prizes though. As the internet was a fairly new platform many promoters jumped in feet first and weren't concerned about engagement, tracking and visitor value.

It wasn't unusual for multiple prize giveaways (e.g. Bertie Bassett gave away 100s of tshirts) or for companies to just dish out money daily (e.g. Freemoney gave away £1000 a day). As the value of a DVD Player has reduced over time so has the comping. Promoters have become more savvy with their budgets. They've discovered that through social media they can attain levels of engagement with entrants/customers simply by offering smaller prizes. You only need to look at some Instagram and Facebook pages to see high entry levels for prizes worth less than a tenner. Big prizes like cars have also become a lot rarer and the Covid pandemic most certainly will have an impact on the nature of prizes offered now and in the future.

Do Brands Still Offer Big Prizes?

Although cars are less prevalent they can still be won online. ITV Competitions are probably the home of 'biggies' (cars, cash and holidays) but remember that these will attract loads of entries. Sites like MyOffers still exist too but are probably best avoided because they're more about getting your data. Thankfully we do still see a number of big prize promotions on regular retail and food brands, plus sites like Pick My Postcode (formerly The Free Postcode Lottery) have emerged which offer daily cash prizes. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter remain happy hunting grounds for compers especially on #winitwednesdays and #freebiefridays.

Raffle sites - or pay to enter prize draw sites as they're more correctly known - have become more popular recently. These are pay to enter competitions but the prize isn't awarded until a certain number of tickets have been sold. You may have seen sites offering cars this way whilst win a house competitions are covered here on Loquax. Additionally bingo sites often run promotions for holidays and other tech although these may require qualifiers. Some people say this isn't comping and it's true that many compers will avoid these sites because they involve costs or are more about gambling. We suggest that if you're interested in this area of winning online then make sure you choose reputable companies to spend your money.

Do People Win Competitions?

Surprisingly after all this time we are still asked if people win competitions? Is it all a scam and even if Loquax is a scam. Comping isn't a scam and people genuinely do win prizes. We have had many winners via the competitions listed on Loquax and plenty of biggies including ITV Winners! You can see some of our recent winners via our Winners Post section on the forum. Check out the top winners of the month too. This section features the biggest prizes won during the month. We're not the only site with this kind of forum. Money Saving Expert's competition section is one of the biggest online and their users regular share their wins in the I Won I Won section.

Facebook has also helped in demonstrating that people win online competitions. There are a number of groups such as Competition Winners where anyone "can search to see if they have been announced as a winner in a UK competition". In fact social media has helped make comping more visible and things like prize unboxing videos are increasing in popularity. Prize Unboxings are where winners - usually bloggers - go on camera to share their wins. Among the most popular of these are the monthly videos from Superlucky Di Coke. What these videos show is the mix of prizes that people win prizes.

What Have You Guys Won?

The first prize that Jason ever won from a competition online was a Carling Football and Top. This came from a caption competition on the fairly new Carling Football website. It was this win which ultimately led to and interest in comping and the eventual arrival of Loquax! As we got into comping online even more we were lucky enough to win 2 x 2 weeks in Barbados, a Vespa Scooter, £1000 cash, Hotel Breaks, Eurostar Tickets, Technics Hifi, CDs, DVDs, and a whole lot more. That was a few years ago now though and whilst we do still enter one or two competitions every now and then we are no longer prolific compers - we leave that to you guys!