If you’ve been paying even the slightest bit of attention then you’ll doubtless have heard of the People’s Postcode Lottery, which allows people to sign up using their postcode and sees all players within that postcode that are signed up to play to win a share of jackpots. It has produced a lot of adverts on television, drawing attention to itself as a result. What you might not have heard of, however, is the Pick My Postcode lottery, which is entirely different from its more famous cousin for the simple reason that it is 100% free to play, but dishes out real cash prizes to winners.
If no one wins a prize, the money rolls over to the next day, increasing the possible prize that you can win for doing absolutely nothing other than ing to check the website on a regular basis. Unlike the People’s Postcode Lottery, which requires you to pay to in much the same way that the National Lottery does, Pick My Postcode earns its money from advertising, which fits into how it works in general. It is possible for there to be multiple winners, depending on how many people with the same postcode are ed with the site and claim their winning prize.
From Humble Beginnings b5i1d
Chris Holbrook was born in Britain before moving to Canada for his childhood years. When he returned to the United Kingdom, he moved to Birmingham, which is where he was when he came up with the idea of having a free lottery for people based on their postcodes. He came up with the idea in a pub back in 2007 and spent the next four years working to make it a reality. The site finally launched in 2011, using a simple idea: getting people to logon to the site and selling advertising space to companies. He would then give away half of the advertising revenue and keep half for himself.
Rather than asking people to pick numbers or do something similar to other big lotteries, Holbrook realised that everyone in the country has a postcode. By asking people to sign up with their postcode and then paying out to winning postcodes, Holbrook figured that it would see his lottery reach the widest possible audience. He gave away £10 of his own money initially, working to build up the audience that used the site, but nowadays the prizes reach into the hundreds of pounds. The prizes are ‘day-changing’ rather than ‘life-changing’, but it’s enough to cheer people up.
The site was originally known as the Free Postcode Lottery, but when the People’s Postcode Lottery began to take umbrage with it, Holbrook changed the name. That is because the People’s Postcode Lottery had launched in 2005, meaning that it had prior claim to the name, so when the Free Postcode Lottery launched it was impinging on its title. The name was challenged legally, for obvious reasons, with Holbrook losing the argument. Whether the decision to take the name in the first was designed to provoke the People’s Postcode Lottery for the publicity and attention isn’t clear.
How It Works 2olv
The Pick My Postcode lottery works by offering punters several chances to win cash prizes for free. The fact that it launched on April Fool’s Day doesn’t mean that it’s a joke. The site sells advertising space in much the same way that something like a free newspaper or commercial television station does the same thing. The more people that go to the site, the more money it can raise from advertising sales. That money is then split into two, with one half going to Holbrook and his team to run the site and pay their bills, with the other half being paid out as prizes to winners.
Each day, you need to to the site in order to check whether your postcode is the winning one. If it is, a ‘Claim’ button will appear for you to click on. Once you’ve claimed your prize, it will be paid out to you using PayPal. It really is that simple. You don’t even need to click on any of the adverts on the site, though you are of course welcome to do so if the thing being sold appeals to you. It is simply that some people will click on the adverts, which is why the companies behind them are willing to pay money to Pick My Postcode to be featured on the site.
The more people there are ed in any given postcode, the most likely that postcode is to be drawn. It is similar to names being entered into a hat to win a prize, with the more one name has been entered meaning an increased chance of that name being drawn. The prize is then shared out not between all of the people ed to that postcode, but to the people that are ed to that postcode and to the site and claim the prize. There could be five people ed in a postcode, for example, but the £200 will only be split between two if two make the claim.
The draws are made at different times, encouraging people to head back to the site as often as possible. The times are as follows:
- Main Draw: 12pm Daily
- Video Draw: 12pm Daily
- Survey Draw: 12pm Daily
- Stackpot Draw: 9am & 9pm Daily
- Bonus Draws: 12pm Daily
There is also a mini draw, which takes place at 6pm every day and lasts until 2pm the following day. This is a ‘sneaky’ draw that is located at the very bottom of the page and offers £100 each day. It is only available to one person in each postcode and is paid out on a first-come, first-served basis. This is similar to the stackpot in that regard. The site also offers £5 flash draws, which appear in advertising spaces to random people, who simply need to click on the Claim button in order to be sent £5 over the next seven days. This is the only one in which bonus amounts aren’t added to the winnings.
The winning postcodes for the various draws is chosen by a computer draw. The computer, obviously, doesn’t know anything about where the postcode is located. It is all automated and done according to the rules of the Random Number Generator, so there is nothing that can be done to influence the outcome of any of the draws. It doesn’t matter whether you live in a council house or a ten-bedroom mansion, you’ll stand the same chance of winning. That is, of course, depending on how many people there are in your postcode that are entered into the draws.
There Are Draws Other Than the Main One 4y3k5h
One of the things that helps to draw customers to the site, and therefore increase the amount of money that rs are willing to pay, is that there is more than just one draw done each day. The main draw is the one that pays the biggest amount out, largely thanks to the fact that the prize rolls over if it isn’t claimed, but other draws are still worth checking. The first is a video draw, which requires punters to watch an advert or other form of video before the postcode is revealed. The video is normally only a minute or so in length, with the postcode revealed after and having a prize of £100 or so attached.
Once the video postcode draw has been watched, the next one offered is a survey draw. This keeps the postcode hidden until the player has answered a question as part of a survey, usually linked to what the company knows about you. The question can be as basic as what your gender is or what type of job you do. Once you’ve clicked on your answer, the postcode is revealed and the prize available to claim. Again, this can offer punters the likes of £150 in prize money, which isn’t too bad when all you’ve had to do to be able to claim it is click an answer in a survey.
The final specific draw that is done on the site is the stackpot draw. This is when a list of ten postcodes is revealed. There is nothing that needs to be done in order to reveal this stack of postcodes. Instead, you just need to open the page, with the list of postcodes usually interrupted with an advert or other form of video. There are also adverts underneath the stockpot, which helps to bring in revenue. The prize fund here is usually just £10 per postcode, but given the fact that you’re getting it for free and don’t need to do anything special, that’s not too shabby.
The other part of the website is what is labelled as a ‘bonus draw’, though it isn’t a draw in the same way as the others. Instead, s can add an amount of money to anything they win by taking part in other bonus offers. This can include the likes of getting free access to a magazine for a few months before being charged for the access, if you don’t cancel your hip. Over time, you add money to your bonus by taking part in such offers and once you’ve added £5, you get to take part in the £5 draw, £10 for the £10 draw and £20 for the £20 bonus draw.
Once you’ve added the necessary amount into your bonus pot, you’ll then be able to check the postcodes in the same way that you would the other draws that are made and claim the prize if you’re a winner. It is designed to get people to engage with the companies that offer their services to the s of the site, but you can take advantage of the offers in question regardless. These, as with the main draw, rollover when they are not claimed, which is the same for the video draw. Unclaimed stackpot draws roll over for a maximum of three times.
Is It Really Free? l5h
The most obvious question that you’ll no doubt be asking is whether or not Pick My Postcode is really free to play. The answer, of course, is yes. You don’t need to actively do anything in order to take part in the various draws that are available on Pick My Postcode, other than consistently check the website. To date, the company has given away more than £1 million in prizes. The more people that up, the more they are able to give away thanks to the fact that the money that is given away is generated by advertising revenue. This way of making money allows the company to keep it ‘free’.
Whilst the site could charge people a nominal amount, such as £1, it generates plenty of money by having the adverts on it instead of doing that. This also allows it to remain free, which means that more people can have access to it. The fact that thousands of people have written testimonials for the site on the likes of Trustpilot indicates that it isn’t a scam, so you can sign up for it knowing that your information will be safe and will only be shared with the companies that you have agreed to sign up to. With some people have earned as much as £8,000 in bonuses, there is plenty of money to be won if your postcode comes up in a draw.