EssayContests.com - The Big Prize Essay Contest Headquarters!

Where a spin around the writer's block might win you a BIG prize!

This is the Internet's longest running and definitive listing of currently-running essay, video-creation & photography contests that have homes, businesses, money, jewelry, vacations, cars or other vehicles as prizes.  All contests require that entrants use their creativity on a particular topic and send along their submission, along with an entry fee.  If you've got the write stuff, you could be a winner!

We are now listing raffles for homes, cars & businesses, where a tax exempt organization, under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, is the registered owner of record for the designated prize.  This is a requirement in all U.S. states where such joint fund-raising raffles are legally allowed.

Last updated on 09/09/10

WIN A HOME!      WIN A BUSINESS!      WIN MONEY!

A Beautiful Residence located in
Chapala, Jalisco, Mexico!

Deadline:

Received by Thursday,
April 1, 2010
EXTENDED!

Prize:

A Beautiful Residence located in
Chapala, Jalisco, Mexico!

Essay:

100 words or less
Be Creative
Use your Imagination
Make Us Smile

Entry
Fee:

US$85

Contest
Website:

http://www.chapaladream.com/

Win a Condo in Central Florida!
Deadline:	Thank you to those who have entered. "We have had a great response but in the end it is not enough to cover the expenses. All those who have entered will be receiving refunds through PayPal as stated in the rules. Please be patient."
Prize:	A 2-Bedroom, 1-Bathroom Condo in Central Florida.
Contest Theme:	Why I Feel I Should Win a Free Condo Home And If I Win, How I Plan to Pay My Good Fortune Forward.
Entry Fee:	"Due to positive response and popular demand we are keeping the entry fee at $35 for the duration of the contest. We're not greedy, we just want someone deserving to win and get fair market value."
Word Count:	Essays must be a minimum of 500 words, and a maximum of 700 words.
Contest Website:	http://www.winafloridacondo.com

Win a Successful Business in Nebraska!
Deadline:	Received by Friday, December 31, 2010
Prize:	A thriving Bar & Grill in Clark, Nebraska!
Contest Theme:	Why I Feel I Should Win a Free Business, And If I Win, How I Plan to Pay My Good Fortune Forward
Entry Fee:	$35
Word Count:	500 to 700 words
Contest Website:	http://www.winanebraskabusiness.com/

Win $2,500 in Diamonds!

Deadline:

End of each month, with quarterly grand prizes

Prize:

$200 diamond pendant
with chance to win
$2,500 in diamonds!

Essay
Theme:

Your best, romantic proposal story.

Word
Count:

750 words maximum

Entry
Fee:

FREE

Contest
Website:

www.diamondcuttersintl.com/contests/proposalstories/

DISCLAIMER: EssayContests.com and its agents are not directly connected with the contests listed above unless specifically indicated above. Organizers of the contests above with direct links to their web sites have paid a fee to have their contests listed here. EssayContests.com does not certify contests. EssayContest.com is not responsible for errors or omissions with any of its listings. Contest listings above are left on the site for 90 days past each contest's official deadline date to allow entrants an easy access point to get back in touch with contest organizers.

Click here to read about some essay contest winners.

"Writing Contest Tips - Preparing a Winning Entry to Writing Contests by Ginny Wiehardt, About.com Guide
The good news about writing contests is that only a small percentage of entries are both competently written and follow the rules!

"How to win an essay contest" by Michael Pollick

"How to win an essay contest" by Isaiah Incognito, eHow Contributing Writer

Essay Contest


It is quite rare that one hears about a fraudulent essay contest.  That is probably because organizing and promoting such a contest can take a lot of work and money, and frankly, there are much easier ways to scam people out of their hard-earned Nigerian inheritances!  Also, there is the fact that various state agencies will be watching what you do with your contest, how you run it, and how the prize is awarded to the winner(s).

However, the video to the left shows what happened to one fellow that tried to rip off folks with his beach essay contest.  The winner of his beach house will now be the county sheriff (since it was involved in a drug felony), and the winning essay will probably be considered the sheriff's arrest warrant!

Seaside-home essay contest 'too good to be true'

Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - SEASIDE, Ore. – A Seaside man has confessed to creating a $99 Essay Beach House Contest to pay bills and buy drugs and he also told contestants that money generated by the contest would be donated to breast cancer research.   Theodore Zennie was arrested on Thursday, for allegedly dealing heroin.

Clatsop County Interagency Narcotics undercover agents acting on a tip said they bought drugs from the 55-year old.  Later, police served a search warrant at the home on South Columbia Street where they said they found two ounces of heroin, scales, packaging material, and cash.

After Zennie was arrested, police said he confessed to using the $99 Essay Beach House contest to raise money to buy drugs.

For $99, entrants were asked to write an essay of six lines or less explaining why you wanted or needed the cottage.  The winning essay would win the house which was advertised as "free and clear" property.  In the end, no one won the house.

The home was a quiet Seaside bungalow on South Columbia Street.  The contest was a carefully crafted on-line creation.  Legitimized through local television coverage, the story spread to newspapers and television stations nationwide.

"So $99 dollars and a pen could get you a house in Oregon," reported one television anchor in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Everyone wanted a piece of the Oregon coast for just $99.  Henry Barber was one them.

"Every news channel and newspaper throughout the country was running this thing, so hey it's gotta be real," said Barber.

Barber wanted to win the home to use as a retreat for cancer patients like himself.  He paid his $99 and waited for the contest's 2009 deadline.

"November 14th came along and I was wondering and I started to get suspicious," explained Barber.

He was told, "Sorry if you didn't end up being the winning entry."

Little did Barber or the television station know, just five days after that first report the Oregon Attorney General began investigating.  In a letter dated July 21, 2009, the Attorney General's Office wrote, "What you are doing is an illegal lottery.  The law requires that if you advertise a contest, you must give away the prize."

No one followed up with the contest's results until last week when the organizer, Theodore Zennie was arrested and charged with heroin and cocaine possession.

"He was selling it and distributing it allegedly as we have to say," explained Clatsop County Sheriff Tom Bergin.

Zennie was directed by the Attorney General to refund the entry money, but Henry Barber hasn't seen a cent.  He wonders how many people like himself believed the hype, saw the reports, and chased a $99 mirage.

As for Zennie, he was booked into the Clatsop County Jail on $115,000 bail.

KTVB - Boise, ID, by David Krough and Scott Burton

Idaho home essay contest no longer requires essay!

Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - NEAR COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – The rules have changed in a contest to win a $700,000 three-bedroom home near Lake Coeur d’Alene.

This $675,000 home south of Coeur d'Alene could become your home if you win a photo contest and send in $150.

Originally the owners of the home opened up a nationwide essay contest to win the home.  If your essay was judged by the owners to be the most uplifting, you would have won the house.

But after receiving a little less than 2,000 essays after they originally asked for 4,000 at the start of the summer, the owners changed the rules because they had such a hard time receiving uplifting essays.

Now they’ve scrapped the writing portion of the contest and all you have to do is send a photo of anything, along with $150 and you could win.

The owners said they just want the applicants to have fun.

The owners also said they contacted everyone who sent in essays and all but one person agreed to send in a photo instead.

Couple sue lawyer over home raffle

Saturday, January 31, 2009 - Detroit Free Press - A Waterford couple filed a lawsuit against their former attorney, claiming they were ill-advised when they tried to raffle off their house in October.

Joseph and Penelope VanDevelder's house on Wanamaker Road had been on the market for 18 months, but they contacted attorney Phillip Strehle to find out if they legally could raffle off the property.

In a suit filed in Oakland County Circuit Court earlier this month, the VanDevelders said they hired Strehle, created a Web site and began printing and distributing raffle tickets the attorney approved.

After much public attention, the VanDevelders sold 235 raffle tickets that cost $100 apiece. The couple says Strehle advised them to decline their snow removal contracts for 2008-09, because they would be out of the home before it snowed, and that Penelope VanDevelder quit her job and gave up medical benefits.

The suit says Strehle called the couple a few weeks later and told them to stop the raffle because it was illegal.  :It also states that Strehle attempted to change the house raffle to an essay contest.

The VanDevelders are seeking more than $25,000 in damages.

A Ticket, a Dream Lands Woman $1.25M Home

Friday, January 30, 2009 - ABC-TV News - Karen McHale of Idaho Springs, Colo., may have gotten the residential deal of the century Friday after winning a $1.25 million home for $50.

An Idaho mom won a million-dollar home in a raffle.

"I was in shock and just didn't believe it and then I was kind of terrified," said McHale, who won her new home after purchasing a raffle ticket for the house.

The story begins with Marylanders Tom Walters and his wife, Dianne.  The couple purchased their dream house in Edgewater three years ago for $375,000 and decided to renovate the 1929 farmhouse.

"We just saw the potential and fell in love with it," Tom Walters said.

The Walters quadrupled the size of the home and invested $700,000 in renovations, which included adding 4,500 square feet.  But they ended up saddled with more house than they could afford, in an uncertain market.

Walters told his wife it was time to sell their house but in an unconventional way.

"Not just sell it, but he wanted to sell raffle tickets," Dianne Walters said.

The Walters teamed up with a local charity called We Care and Friends, an organization that supports families dealing with poverty, drugs and crime in Maryland.

The Walters guaranteed the charity 10 percent of the ticket sales.

The grand prize was the 6,000-square-foot custom home that featured six bedrooms, 4½ baths and two kitchens in Edgewater, Md.  All it took was the purchase of a $50 ticket for a chance to grab the Walterses' home.

"Rather than going out and getting financing of a million dollars, if you had $50, it could be yours," Tom Walters said.

For months, the Walters collected entries online and gave out 23,000 tickets, although they'd hoped to sell 31,500 (which would have raised about $1.5 million to break even).  The raffle was Friday in an Annapolis mall.

"A very worthy cause makes good money, so that helps take the sting out of it," said Tom Walters, who is now in the market for a smaller home.

McHale said, "I feel horrible. I mean, I just feel for them."

As the home's new owner, McHale said she doesn't plan to move 1,700 miles to Maryland to inhabit the house but will flip the home to pay off her mortgage.

As part of the deal, McHale won't have to pay any mortgage, liens or closing costs.  But she will have to shell out $4,808.10 this year to pay the property tax bill, which includes a homestead exemption.

The Walters family expects to be out of the house in about 90 days.

Austrian luxury villa sold in global raffle

Winner gets it for $128; seller gets $1.28 million by selling 9,999 tickets

Associated Press - January 20, 2009 - VIENNA, Austria - When Traude Daniel couldn't find a buyer for her luxury villa in southern Austria, she decided to raffle it off.

It turned out to be quite a success: 9,999 tickets priced at 99 euros ($128) each sold out within days in early December to raise nearly $1,280,000.

Daniel said the 4,305-square-foot house had an estimated value of about $1 million and had been on the market for about half a year before she came up with the idea of advertising the raffle on a Web site.

Daniel, a German, said she got inquiries from as far afield as the United States and Brazil. "The response was amazing. ... We got e-mails from around the world," she said.

Walter Egger, an Austrian, was picked Tuesday as the lucky winner of the home in Austria's southern province of Carinthia during a drawing in the southern city of Klagenfurt.

The raffle has inspired several other home owners in Austria to try to sell their homes through lotteries as the country starts to feel the effects of the financial crisis. Experts are warning of a tough year ahead.

Juergen Tatscher, who is planning to raffle off his luxury mountain bungalow, said it's an ideal way to cover one's costs, if selling high-end property the regular way proves to be tough.

"I think it's a great idea," Tatscher said.

But not everyone is as enthused.

"I'm skeptical. ... If people are seriously interested in a particular property, they'll make a bid the regular way," said Friedrich Noszek of an association of Austrian property owners.

Raffles for homes or businesses, organized by private citizens, although legal in Austria, are illegal in the United States.  That is why U.S. homeowners, looking to sell their homes in a weak traditional marketplace, turn to skill contests, such as essay contests, as a way to transfer ownership and pay off the mortgage.

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What should an essay look like?  Well, unless a particular essay contest's rules specifically state otherwise, your entry does not generally have to be limited to one of typical prose style.  You should be safe in submitting your entry as a poem, a song recording, or video presentation.  In over 12 years of aiding contest organizers, I've also seen essay contests entries submitted as limericks, haiku, photo-essays and even maps!

In one North Carolina beach house contest, one entry arrived in a box, and when unfolded, created a 6-foot tall, 2-foot wide photo essay mural.  Another entry in that same contest was submitted as a poem, handwritten in beautiful cursive style on a parchment-like paper, and then carefully rolled up and inserted into an old bottle, like you might find washed up on a beach.  Creativity counts in most essay contests, so utilize your imagination!  Just make sure that whatever form your entry takes, that you stay within the contest's published general rules as to word count or length, subject matter, etc.  If there is any doubt in your mind about the eligibility of your manner of submission, don't hesitate to contact the contest organizer via mail or email.

Here's an entry submitted in a 2007 contest in Florida:

If you are thinking about running an essay contest of your own, I can assist you in a number of ways:

I can assist you with ideas for planning and marketing of your contest - you'll find many suggestions amongst these web pages;

I can provide you with a mailing list (on self-stick labels) of individuals who have written essays and paid entry fees to participate in previous contests (for highly targeted mailings);

I can design your contest web page and handle all email questions and inquiries;

Here's a sample web page that we developed for a 1996 contest!

I can provide your essay contest additional exposure to an audience specifically looking for such activities by listing it here for a nominal per month fee for the duration of your contest;

Here are some observations about essay contests.

Here is some information on the legal aspects of running essay contests.

Here are some ideas and resources for marketing your essay contest.

Now you can accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express payments for your essay contest entry fees without the expense and hassle of setting up a traditional bank merchant account. No set-up or monthly fees!

Drop me a line below if you'd like to discuss your project.

eMail your questions to Mark!

Not quite ready to hold your own essay contest?
Well, maybe St. Joseph can help you sell your home!
Click here.

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... the Rochester (NY) Democrat & Chronicle for mentioning this site in their 7/11/00 Business News section!

... C. Hope Clark from wordweaving.com for her 3/16/01 online article, "Have I Got a Website For You!"

... the Minneapolis (MN) Star Tribune for mentioning this website in their 5/19/01 Metro section!

... the Seattle (WA) Post-Intelligencer for mentioning this website in their 12/13/01 Business section!

... the Chicago Tribune for mentioning this website in their 02/10/02 Real Estate section!

... the San Diego Union-Tribune for mentioning this website in their 03/10/02 Homes section!

... the New York Times for mentioning this website in their 11/4/02 Technology section!

... the Denver Post for mentioning this website in their 4/20/03 Real Estate section!

... CNN for mentioning this website in their 9/12/03 on-air and web-based using posted info!

Did you miss The Early Show segment on essay contests on February 8th, 2002?

If so, click here to go to the CBS News website, where they discuss the story and even allow you to view the segment in Real Video!

It happened at the Spitfire Grill ... maybe it will happen to you!

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posted here on this website!

Click here.

Want to be notified of upcoming essay contests?
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Copyright 1996-2010 by Mark Samwick, Allentown, PA. All rights reserved.
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AdVentures in CyberSpace®

	I can assist you with ideas for planning and marketing of your contest - you'll find many suggestions amongst these web pages;
	I can provide you with a mailing list (on self-stick labels) of individuals who have written essays and paid entry fees to participate in previous contests (for highly targeted mailings);
	I can design your contest web page and handle all email questions and inquiries; *Here's a sample* web page that we developed for a 1996 contest!**
	I can provide your essay contest additional exposure to an audience specifically looking for such activities by listing it here for a nominal per month fee for the duration of your contest;
	Here are some observations about essay contests.
	Here is some information on the legal aspects of running essay contests.
	Here are some ideas and resources for marketing your essay contest.
	Now you can accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express payments for your essay contest entry fees without the expense and hassle of setting up a traditional bank merchant account. No set-up or monthly fees!

Did you miss The Early Show segment on essay contests on February 8th, 2002? If so, click here to go to the CBS News website, where they discuss the story and even allow you to view the segment in Real Video!

Did you miss The Early Show segment on essay contests on February 8th, 2002?

If so, click here to go to the CBS News website, where they discuss the story and even allow you to view the segment in Real Video!