We have all seen advertisements for online sweepstakes, so I wondered exactly what these companies are offering. I don’t need a tractor or land near Las Vegas. Were there any sweepstakes that I would even want to enter? I was sure that they would be invasive and flood my e-mail account with spam.

I decided to enter a few and find out for myself. Like most people I have two email accounts, I used the account that I considered already pretty public and started looking for my first entry. I found designer sunglasses, a 100 value offered. Cautiously I continued to see exactly how much information I would have to give up to enter.  I was pleased to find out that while they asked for my phone number it did not exclude me when I declined to include that bit of data.  I felt better when Hearst Communications and Woman’s Day magazine appeared as the sponsor.  All in all for that entry; my name, e-mail address, and actual address were all that was required.

 Oddly enough there was the opportunity to win a tractor, which when writing that line, a tractor was the most random thing I thought could possibly be offered. But undaunted I continued to check out the world of sweepstakes.  There is an offering of “Cash for the Holidays, by O magazine.  Oprah seems pretty straight up so I entered that one. Apparently only 9,800 other people did as well so for a national contest that is better odds that the California Lottery! Oops I just noticed it ends in 2014, I hoped for cash sooner than that. (LOL) Won’t I be surprised if I win the one I forgot I entered!

 I found a computer company with a contest ending at the end of this month. As did 138,000 other people, however with my short attention span the end of the month was perfect. They required a birthdate, but again let me enter without giving up my phone number.

So far not too bad, entering these sweepstakes is less invasive than I thought.  Certainly an easy enough hobby to do while watching Ellen and drinking a glass of tea! I am happy to have been brave, to have taken the risk and scouted ahead for of the rest of you…Good luck to all of us!!!