If you're new to entering sweepstakes, you might be overwhelmed at all the contests available or just not sure where to find them. For traditional sweepstakes entries and skill competitions, your own interests are are the best place to start to find the best opportunities to win. Even longtime sweepstakes hobbyists who consistently enter sweeps listed in newsletters and directories may occasionally forget to go back to the basics. Here are some tips on how to find contests related to your interests.

What Do You Like?

Begin by breaking down your interests into categories such as food, clothing, entertainment, hobbies and gadgets. Look online for companies that sell these products and see if they have a sweepstakes going on. If not, bookmark the page or sign up for their email newsletters so you receive updates about upcoming contests.

Keep an eye out at the places you shop online and offline. Go beyond the basics of grocery, drug and department stores and look at the websites and on location of local car dealers, sporting goods and rural supply stores, fast food and other restaurants, malls and specialty shops. Sometimes the giveaways will be displayed in an area seen as soon as you walk in the store or you may need to keep your eyes peeled for them in the aisles.

What Are You Good At?

Skill contests give you the chance to engage your interests at another level. Some keywords to search for online include (add the word 'contest' when appropriate):

Essay
Writing
Art
Cosplay
Trivia
Science fairs
Cooking
Crafts
Agriculture
Livestock
Music
Quizzes
Surveys

Local and national arts, crafts and science fairs are easy to find. But state fairs are still good venues for agriculture and livestock themed contests. For essay and other writing contests, look at the particular genre you're interested in, especially at the websites of organizations devoted to it such as the Romance Writers of America. Writer's Digest has competitions in several genres.

A Business Perspective

Would you like to sell your winnings for extra income? This takes finding interest based contests to a different arena altogether. What items do you sell online or want to start selling? Are these things you're interested in or your potential customers or both.

Some small business owners may want to sell products that they have not personal attachment to in order to keep it strictly business oriented. That way they won't dip into their stock. Others don't want to risk being stuck with products they don't use if they're unable to sell them. Beauty products, toys and books are just a few popular categories. Do you want to specialize further within one category? This will make your search for contests narrower.

The list and tips above aren't meant to cover all the possibilities but to guide your thinking in the direction of narrowing your search for specific contests. Have fun and good luck.

For those considering a business approach to winning, you may want to consider Win Your Way To Wealth: Win Competitions and Sell Your Prizes Online