i think over time you become more attuned to your own tolerance levels....like how badly do i want the 29 snickers bars that i've won recently vs. how much time did i spend on it.....and on and on......throughout it all..dont forget to have fun, and enjoy it

what's up with the captchas you can barely read????? It's getting harder and harder to make them out. sometimes they aren't even words or numbers , they are symbols that i can't find anywhere on my computer.  lol.

Talking about the evolution of sweeping.  I'm 56 years old and I remember winning a record album when I was about 15 years old. I remember I was in high school.  My next memorable win was a hand mixer from a radio call-in contest. I still have that working hand mixer all these years later.  I used to sweep back in "the olden days" when there was no internet.  Hand print those 3X5 papers and cards, hand address the envies, send them out every day, having a tickler system to keep up with the daily entries.  I've won a fair amount of stuff over the years that way.  Now, there's the internet and everything is right there at your fingertips.

I am disabled and money is tight.  All my Christmas gifts were from wins this past year.  The kids loved their Crayola Dream Maker boxes and the older kids (grown) liked their selections of DVDs and such.  I look at this as a job.  I spend at least 5 hours a day on the computer, sometimes, if I feel well, more.  I'm all over the map, I'll admit. Some days, I enter every single one I can find.  Other days, I skim over the "poor" ones and dig into the "rich" ones.  I do think that over a long period of time, my method will work in my favor.  I can't imagine only sweeping for 2 months and already getting discouraged.  Shoot, the big ones don't even notify you of a win for 2 months after the sweep is over!  I guess instant wins are fun for some. I've never gotten into them that much.  I guess I have a threshold of what I will spend time on.  To win a candy bar? No. Wouldn't do it.

There is certainly an evolution.  Just when I was getting into a groove with internet entries, along comes Facebook and Twitter and all that other stuff.  Call me an old fogey, but, I just can't catch on to all the social media.  I guess I'll stick to what I know and make it work for me.

To be honest, I have not kept good records of my wins over the years. I can remember the big ones.  I've won 3 really nice trips (one was worth $10K), $500 in gift certificates to a grocery store, lots of things that have gone on to be nice gifts for others.  I suppose if I'd kept a good list of wins, I could reflect on it from time to time and get motivated.  Hurray for all your wins.  I'm happy for each and every one of you who snag a prize on a regular basis.

Speaking of evolution, 20 years ago, I was the KING of radio call-in contests in Chicago. Won everything from records and tapes to concert tickets and cash. My biggest win was a shiny new red 1990 Mustang GT (funny, I already had a white 1990 GT - took $12000 cash from the dealer instead of the car). They used to have call-in contests every weekend and I could invariably win. I remember once I won $500 while I was at work and they couldn't figure out why I wasn't whoopin' and hollerin'. Now, all the stations are on a "nationwide" kick - how impossible is it to get through when there are a hundred stations involved and they want caller 20? Now I'm in Nashville and hardly listen to the radio anymore although there would be less competition due to the reduced population here. They're just not giving good stuff away any more.

I remember those days a bit. I *tried* to enter numerous call-in radio contests. I once won Ski Tickets to a nearby Ski Place. I didn't ski though...so it was a waste. Later (in the 90's), I won 20 instant lotto tickets and won $20 or something like that. That was the total of my wins way back when. Not quite like yours'! LOL

I find if I request  new captchas, like 5 to 10 times,  the code is very easily read by my 70 year old eyes.

I know what you mean, bud! Oh...and speaking of captchas....I want to make another separate comment about something I saw!....

Yep. Bots are *why* we have captcha's - that and people using multiple addys to target one sweep {DELF}