In November 1998, we sent a questionnaire out to different promotion agencies and sponsors addressing different aspects of sweepstaking. We received a fairly good response. Out of the 25 questionnaires we sent out, 21 of them have been filled out and returned to us. We will continue to send out questionnaires to other sponsors periodically. The information we have been receiving has been extremely valuable, and we will be posting various articles that contain results to some of the questions we asked. While we still continue to gather information, we're excited to be able to bring you some of these results so far!

Following are the top reasons that mail-in entries are disqualified, along with explanations of why they were disqualified. They are presented in descending order, with #1 being the biggest reason.

1. Illegible information -- The biggest reason is illegibility. Sponsors and judges aren't going to take the time to try to decipher an entry. Entrants' first names were typically written well, but last names, cities, and street addresses were often illegible.

2. Incomplete entry information -- The next biggest reason was incomplete information. This was typically the failure to provide all of the information, such as a qualifier, age, or phone numbers.

3. Incomplete or abbreviated addresses -- You may know what SSM means, but the judges may not know it's the abbreviation for Sault Ste. Marie. Sponsors don't have time to look up complete addresses. This is different from #2 in that it doesn't include qualifiers and other entry information. This pertained only to addresses.

4. Nonconformance with the rules -- This included not complying with the rules in some manner, and the most reponses showed more people not adhering to residency restrictions and number of times you were allowed to enter. We were surprised at the placement for this category. We would have guessed that this would have ranked higher for the mail-in entries, but when it says limit one entry per person, most people have been sticking to the rules and not trying to sneak another entry in. The next highest reason in this category was sending in your entry in a form different than required, for example, sending in an entry on a postcard when a 3x5 and #10 envelope were specified.

5. No forwarding information -- The last reason posted was for entrants not leaving a forwarding address or phone number. There are lots of cases in which the sponsors or judging agencies get affidavits or prizes back because there is no forwarding information. The most common occurence of this is with phone numbers, though. Sponsors would try to call, and then resort to e-mail (if available), and then to physical mail. This one showed us the importance of leaving your forwarding address with the Post Office, or even with the people who move into your old residence, if you know who they are.