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Women who win hundreds of sweepstakes per year

thehustle.co

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Re: Women who win hundreds of sweepstakes per year

#11
post #4

If one compares the amount of money that most sweepers have made to the time invested in the activity, then probably any minimum-wage job would have been more worthwhile financially. For the small amount of exceptionally successful sweepers, I still suspect that the time lost, along with the additional burden of tax accounting, makes this a pretty inefficient strategy financially. The exceptional ones are showing eff…

old boss told me once - 'some people will work harder at not having a job than they would at a job'

We call those people entrepreneurs.

Re: Women who win hundreds of sweepstakes per year

#12
post #7
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

old boss told me once - 'some people will work harder at not having a job than they would at a job'

On average, Coke enters around 300 online contests per month (about 10 hours’ worth of work) and wins £1k in prizes. That's £100 per hour which is much better than most jobs. That's most likely a statistical aberration, but if you assume the people they go back are also the people that won in the first place it probably seems to be a winning strategy. That's assuming people that go long streaks without winning then s…

£1k in prizes is not £1k cash in hand. If it is merchandise, now the winner has to do all the work involved in reselling it. If it is non-tangible earnings like travel, it cannot be resold at all.

Re: Women who win hundreds of sweepstakes per year

#13

> Kohl’s gave out 1,000 $20 gift cards ($20k total), but the ad got 10,812 retweets. According to an estimate from the data analytics company SumAll, the value of a branded retweet is $20.37. So for a cost of $20k, Kohl’s got roughly $220k in value — about 10x its investment. There's no way a retweet is worth $20-- or is this some weird power-law effect?

What would the power law effect look like here? 0.1% of branded retweets being worth $20,000?

Re: Women who win hundreds of sweepstakes per year

#14
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On average, Coke enters around 300 online contests per month (about 10 hours’ worth of work) and wins £1k in prizes. That's £100 per hour which is much better than most jobs. That's most likely a statistical aberration, but if you assume the people they go back are also the people that won in the first place it probably seems to be a winning strategy. That's assuming people that go long streaks without winning then s…

£1k in prizes is not £1k cash in hand. If it is merchandise, now the winner has to do all the work involved in reselling it. If it is non-tangible earnings like travel, it cannot be resold at all.

In the US, I believe there's also a 40% tax on winnings. It's on retail value for goods.

Re: Women who win hundreds of sweepstakes per year

#15
post #7
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

old boss told me once - 'some people will work harder at not having a job than they would at a job'

On average, Coke enters around 300 online contests per month (about 10 hours’ worth of work) and wins £1k in prizes. That's £100 per hour which is much better than most jobs. That's most likely a statistical aberration, but if you assume the people they go back are also the people that won in the first place it probably seems to be a winning strategy. That's assuming people that go long streaks without winning then s…

It also says she tuned it into a full time job, and talks about how it's really hard work.

I suspect she's mistaken about how many hours she puts into it.

Maybe not. Maybe she just worked hard perfecting her skills and can make 100 pounds / hour, but is picking the most profitable opportunities. Some side gigs are like that - you can make a huge hourly wage on something but only for a few paid hours a month.

Re: Women who win hundreds of sweepstakes per year

#16
post #4

If one compares the amount of money that most sweepers have made to the time invested in the activity, then probably any minimum-wage job would have been more worthwhile financially. For the small amount of exceptionally successful sweepers, I still suspect that the time lost, along with the additional burden of tax accounting, makes this a pretty inefficient strategy financially. The exceptional ones are showing eff…

old boss told me once - 'some people will work harder at not having a job than they would at a job'

Anything to avoid the nightmare of having to deal with some piece of shit lording his retarded asshole over the banana republic of losers that gave up on themselves.

Re: Women who win hundreds of sweepstakes per year

#17

> Kohl’s gave out 1,000 $20 gift cards ($20k total), but the ad got 10,812 retweets. According to an estimate from the data analytics company SumAll, the value of a branded retweet is $20.37. So for a cost of $20k, Kohl’s got roughly $220k in value — about 10x its investment. There's no way a retweet is worth $20-- or is this some weird power-law effect?

A single retweet can be worth several tens of dollars under twitter's ad program, depending on targeting. The pricing is really fucky.

Disclaimer: Twitter's ad program is atrociously bad.

Re: Women who win hundreds of sweepstakes per year

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

£1k in prizes is not £1k cash in hand. If it is merchandise, now the winner has to do all the work involved in reselling it. If it is non-tangible earnings like travel, it cannot be resold at all.

In the US, I believe there's also a 40% tax on winnings. It's on retail value for goods.

> In the US, I believe there's also a 40% tax on winnings. It's on retail value for goods.

Contest winnings are income, and therefore subject to income taxes. Contest winnings above a certain amount are subject to withholding, but the winner may need to provide the cash for withholding if the prize is non-monetary and the prize doesn't include an adjustment for taxes.

Re: Women who win hundreds of sweepstakes per year

#20
post #10

I was wondering why there would be publicizing of opportunities and tricks by fierce competitors in a zero-sum game. I think it's not just community and/or showing off, but part of the explanation is this: > They gather in forums like Sweepstakes Advantage, subscribe to newsletters like I Win Contests, SweepSheet, and Sweeping America, and gather at conventions all over the world. I've seen this many times in other n…

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