"If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can't, you're right."

- Henry Ford

According to SweepsGoat users, these 5 sweeps were among the top sweepstakes for June 20-26. Be sure to check ‘em out! (Thanks to user billygoat for submitting this week's top sweeps!)

• Castrol SYNTEC Top Car Challenge Sweepstakes. Win $10,000 in this daily-entry sweepstakes.
• SUMMER CRUISIN' SWEEPSTAKES. Win your choice of 3 vehicles: a 2009 Mazda RX-8 Touring Coupe, a 2009 BMW 1 Series 128i Coupe, or a 2009 Volkswagen GTI 2.0T Coupe. Weekly winners will receive TVs, digital cameras, and other electronics prizes.
• Woman's World $1000 "Win Car Care" Sweepstakes. Win $1,000 worth of gift cards good for gas and car care in this daily-entry sweepstakes.
• DOLLAR GENERAL GET READY TO GAME SWEEPSTAKES. Enter this single-entry sweepstakes for a chance to win a gaming prize pack with TV, home theater system, Xbox 360, games, gaming chairs, and $3,500. 35 additional winners will receive Xbox 360s and/or games. An additional 1,000 winners will receive $10 gift cards.
• Universal Orlando Vacation & Instant Win. Win 1 of 8 trips to Orlando, Florida in this daily-entry sweepstakes. You could also win 1 of 256 theme park ticket prizes.

"The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

According to SweepsGoat users, these 5 sweeps were among the top sweepstakes for June 13-19. Be sure to check ‘em out! (Thanks to user billygoat for submitting this week's top sweeps!)

• Fine Living's Summer on the Rocks Sweepstakes. Win 1 of 30 instant win prizes in this daily-entry sweepstakes from Fine Living. Prizes include various houseware, barware, kitchen and outdoor summer supplies.
• THERE'S NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO DREAM... LIKE A VIP " SWEEPSTAKES. If you've ever wanted to be treated like a VIP, this trip's for you. The single-entry sweepstakes offers a trip to Vegas, complete with VIP tickets to receive celebrity treatment (including limo transport, VIP escorts, photos, and more) to all 7 Cirque du Soleil shows, spa treatments, dinners and more. Truly a once-in-a-lifetime trip!
• WIX Filters 70th Anniversary Celebration Sweepstakes. Win a 2009 HEMI Dodge Challenger RT Classic in this daily-entry sweepstakes.
• VIV it up in Fiji! Personality Quiz & Sweepstakes. Enter this sweepstakes daily for a chance to win a trip to Fiji or 1 of 500 instant win prizes.
• Win a Trip to China With Viking River Cruises Sweepstakes. Win a trip for 2 to China in this single-entry sweepstakes.

"I am realistic - I expect miracles."

- Wayne Dyer

According to SweepsGoat users, these 5 sweeps were among the top sweepstakes for June 6-12. Be sure to check ‘em out! (Thanks to users billygoat & spinsweeps for submitting this week's top sweeps!)

• Cisco Network Magic $10,000 Sweepstakes. Enter daily for your chance to win $10,000, or instantly win 1 of 159 cash and electronics prizes.
• SCOTCH BRAND SIMPLIFY MY LIFE SWEEPSTAKES. Win a $4,000 gift certificate for California Closets storage products in this daily-entry sweepstakes.
• Amazon Dream Registry Sweepstakes. Create a baby registry on Amazon for your chance to win $2,500 worth of baby-related products.
• National Hunting and Fishing Day Sweepstakes. Win a 2009 Yamaha Grizzly in this single-entry sweepstakes.
• Rock Your Own Cocktail and Win a Trip to a Music Festival in Austin! | Spin Magazine Online. Create an original cocktail recipe using UV Vodka, and you could win a trip to an Austin music festival.

It happened — you won! But instead of that spa trip grand prize you were actually entering for, you won an exercise DVD. Or a diet book. Maybe even one you already have!

All of the smaller sweepstakes prizes can be fun — they're great for keeping you encouraged between larger wins. But sometimes you end up with a prize you're just not that interested in. Here are some ideas for getting rid of unwanted prizes:

• Swap It: PaperBack Swap and SwapaDVD are great sites if your unwanted prize is a book or DVD. You earn credits for offering your own items, then you can spend those credits to get books or DVDs offered by the site's other users.There are no fees except the postage you spend to mail your items.
• Sell It: Try listing the prize on your local CraigsList page (it's free). For more expensive items or collectibles, eBay or newspaper classifieds may get you a better offer.
• Give It Away: You may have a family or friend who would really enjoy your prize — set aside wins year-round for Christmas-time to save yourself some serious holiday dollars. If it's something small that wouldn't work as a gift (for example, some of the inexpensive promotional items companies give away thousands of), consider Freecycling it.

Here's wishing you lots of wins, "keepers" or otherwise!

"Men of action are favored by the Goddess of luck."

- George S. Clason

According to SweepsGoat users, these 5 sweeps were among the top sweepstakes for May 30 - June 5. Be sure to check ‘em out! (Thanks to users billygoat, clevine, Jas0n, & ldc3995 for submitting this week's top sweeps!)

• The $25,000.00 Grocery Giveaway. Win 1 of 5 $5,000 prizes in Rachel Ray's daily-entry sweepstakes.
• Old Navy's Fashion Cash-In Sweepstakes. Win a $5,000 grand prize in Old Navy's daily-entry sweepstakes.
• One Haute NYC Weekend!. Win a trip to New York, including a $500 shopping spree and an LG Rumor 2, in this daily-entry sweepstakes. 5 additional winners will receive the LG Rumor 2.
• Win an Xbox Ultimate Entertainment Experience. Win an Xbox 360 Arcade console, plus a 1-year XBox LIVE subscription, in this daily-entry sweepstakes.
• Money to Burn Giveaway. Enter daily for your chance to win a grill and $5,000 cash. You could also win 1 of 63 t-shirt and cookbook prizes.

Last week, we talked about using ContestMachine to run a blog contest. While that's one good option, it may not work for everyone, especially folks using Blogger. So we thought we'd suggest 3 other ways to run a contest on your blog:

1. Comments: Comment functionality is built into pretty much every kind of blogging software, making it an easy way to collect entries for your giveaway. If your blog software allows you to collect the commenter's email address without making them include it publicly in their comment, so much the better. (Many folks are rightfully wary of putting their email addresses on display.) Once you've gathered the entries, figure out how many there are, then use Random.org to generate a random winning number.
2. Email: Instead of asking all of your readers to publicly list their email addresses, why not just list yours? Ask winners to send you an email with a specific subject line to enter the giveaway. (Having a specific subject line will help you catch any entries that accidentally get filtered into your spam box.) This method is ideal if you're asking for the answer to a trivia question, or gathering entries for a contest, so folks can't see the previous comments.
3. Google Spreadsheet Form: If you're a bit more technically savvy and want to collect your entrants' information in an easy-to-use format, try embedding a Google spreadsheet form in your blog post. This article and this one explain how it works. The advantage is that all your entrants' information is saved straight to the spreadsheet, meaning you don't have to copy and paste that info from the blog comments if you want to use it later.

Do you have any other favorite ways to run a blog contest? Do you find yourself entering one type of blog contest, but not others? We'd love to hear from you in the comments!