With the sudden reward I received yesterday I thought I would share some tips to increase your chances of winning in the future. The best place to start would be here. I will try and post new contest details on a regular basis. And if you find I’ve missed one, send an email to (above username – not this text!) @gmail.com or drop me a comment.

The best place to start looking is the gaming blogs. Places like Joystiq.com, Xbox360Fanboy.com and Kotaku.com are great resources for info on drawings as well as skill contests. I recommend setting them up in an RSS reader like Google Reader or (my personal favorite) Netvibes.com so you can check them all at once.

Second, keep your eyes peeled at places like Xbox.com. There is a Play & Win section rewarding you for playing games as well as occasional promotions. Most of the blogs above link to promos when they come out so you really only need to keep an eye on the current Play & Win offers. Meulfire and I won a while back for playing Dead or Alive 4!

Lastly, enter, enter, enter. You can’t win if you don’t enter. Of course, play it smart with your email address. The more junk contests you enter, the more junk email you can expect. I use gmail which is great for entering contests. Each time I enter a new contest I use the + function to make it it’s own email address. For example, gmail lets me create a distict email address like this: username+contestentry@gmail.com. It’s great! More on the gmail feature here.

There you go! Now, go win some contests!!! Good luck. 😉