For those of you that are new to comping - or Advents - Advents are competitions that are run by companies in the lead-up to Christmas. They are often run daily (but in some cases every few days) and typically last 12, 24 or 25 days; for example, "The 12 Days Of Christmas".
Most importantly - for all intents and purposes Advents are just regular competitions that are run at a much higher frequency by companies in the lead-up to Christmas. Whilst a few do, indeed, have different ways to enter - the majority will follow the same standard format; Like & Share, Follow & Retweet, Commenting and Apps/Widgets!
Because of the sheer volume of Advents we have to do them a little differently than regular competitions.
Rather than link directly to the post / tweet / etc each day we only link to the main Facebook / Twitter page of the companies running Advents.
To make things as easy as possible we try* to only show the competition when each daily competition post is likely to have gone 'live'. For many competitions, that'll be midnight; for others, it'll be anywhere from 9 AM in the morning to late in the evening - depending on how the company chooses to run their competition.
* If on one day they put their competition post up at, say, 9 AM - we'll make the competition start the next day at 9 AM, too. If they are late, our listing will go live too early. If those cases, tell us and we'll push it back the next day! Of course... this is an inexact science and the next day they could start their competition at 8 AM!
First - pace yourself! The Advents can seem overwhelming!
Our Advents list is huge - take each one at a time and look for the relevant method of entry for that day. It's sometimes easy to think the post for that day has already gone up by mistaking the one from the day before.
If the competition is live on our site but the post for that day is not yet up - let us know!. Please either use the provided link (on each competition) to report a problem or use the Advent Chat facility - just below the regular chat facility. Please read the details below about the Advent Chat facility!
If you don't like the kind of competition running on a particular company use the "Ignore" facility and you will not see it for the rest of the Advents! Our advice is to not be afraid to remove competitions from your list - unless you manage to complete the entire list you could otherwise be missing out on other Advents that you'd love.
Don't forget we also have the "Ignore for 3 hours" facility. The competition will disappear temporarily - if you get time later in the day you can come back to it when it re-appears!
After the first couple of days your list should be trimmed (by ignoring competitions you don't like) and entering Advents will be a breeze!
We can't tell you how many to enter on Facebook - but what we can tell you is that you're more likely to get a temporary ban from entering Facebook competitions if you enter too much in too short a space of time.
Our advice? Be selective! Nothing will stop you in your tracks like a Facebook ban on the 3rd of December!
What you'll lose in not entering the odd low-interest Facebook competition you'll make up for in entering more Website/Twitter/etc competitions and by being involved throughout the Advents!
And what about spamming all your friends and families walls? Get them involved! Send them to Competition Database and see if they can't win a prize or two over the Christmas period!
Because of the huge volume of Advent Competitions (over such a short space of time) we aren't able to check the Terms and Conditions to the level we usually do. (Even normally we miss things, of course - but we do try to be accurate!). Because of this, we strongly suggest being aware that Advents may come with additional caveats that we haven't listed.
For instance, it's safe to assume that if a shopping centre is offering a prize it is for collection only. This may also apply to other shops - especially smaller businesses. If you notice this restriction please let us know and we will add it as a warning!
Registration is free and very simple!
You will then be able to:
Because of the volume of Advents please check the competitions you enter thoroughly! For instance, assume that shopping centre competitions are collection only if not specified and let us know of warnings that need to be added to the listing!
Hundreds of daily competitions and some amazing prizes being given away!
Here are our useful tips:
Please remember the following:
