Once the game is played, don’t forget to spin the jackpot game that goes with it. You will be given up to 10 spins depending on your score. With Word Pop I have been able to get my 10 spins after the first round so if that is what you are after, why play for more than the first round. The jackpot games are attached to the right side of most games offered. You hit the play now button and wait for it to come back and say try again or sorry and then hit the play button again until all your spins are gone. The jackpot amount starts low and builds to a maximum of $3,000.00 where it seems to stay for quite some time. If you are going to play for the jackpot, I would suggest only playing those games that have already reached their maximum total of $3,000.00. Anything less than that will mostly likely not pay off until reaching that total and probably won’t pay off until many weeks after reaching that total.
If you are playing the jackpot game you can start a fresh round of the game you are in and continue to play the jackpot spins, just be sure to finish your jackpot spins before you reach the end of the game you are playing or it will overwrite your spins with the new allocation and you will lose whatever spins you had remaining. You will also lose remaining spins on the jackpot if you happen to go out of the game to another page, even if by accident. No way to reclaim them if you do, as far as I know. If you have to go elsewhere, open another window, it’s safer that way.
Now is a good time to mention that with IWON there are free games and there are not so free games. Be careful to know this and know the difference. I only play the free games. I am a tightwad, spendthrift, cheapskate, whatever but part of the fun for me is to get something for nothing (and most times getting nothing for nothing but that is o.k.). As with anything on IWON don’t expect too much and you won’t be disappointed. There are plenty of games to enjoy and try out. Find some you like and enjoy. Try some new ones and expand your mind. As long as you’re having fun then that is what counts. Whatever you do, whether it’s free or cost some money, look for a return on your investment, and compare that return to other activities and see which has the greater return and invest in those things. Then you will really notice a payback. If I quit having fun with the games and am never seeming to win anything then the time to move on has arrived. Even free things cost time.
Having games that cost real money on IWON is relatively new and I am skeptic enough that I just stay clear. If it is asking me to open an account and load real dollars against it, I am totally against it. There are enough free casino games on IWON that I don’t need to pay to play. Besides, if the odds of winning anything are horrible on a free game, I can just imagine what they would be like on a game you had to pay to play.
Speaking of the casino games such as slots, poker and blackjack, I have played them some and you can pick up a few coins with them but don’t expect much. It is a quick way to get bored with them and maybe cure yourself of any urges to go to Vegas anytime soon so for that I guess it is worth a little time spent. Watch out for how the game loads coin totals. Some of the games will use your existing coin balance as the coins in play and that means that you can quickly lose many of those coins that you built up to enter the sweepstakes with. The better casino games start you out with a pre-stake amount of about 1000 coins. You can burn through that pretty quickly and then try the $3,000.00 jackpot that goes with it and start all over. Just be sure to notice if you are using your money or theirs.
Also, take note that IWON has been putting up lots of ads in places that are normally just IWON items and look like links to other IWON games but are in fact taking you off site to other areas that are collecting e-mail address and are pay for play sites or at least spam magnets. As with anything on the web, be aware of what you computer is doing at all times. If you are not afraid of these things, venture forth but use your new IWON e-mail account, it will be perfect for just this sort of thing.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
Click here to go to IWON Tips Part 1, Part 2, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6 (SquareBob Spongepants Collapse).
18 October 2008
Tips for playing in IWON part 2
If your goal is to obtain as many coins as possible in order to make as many entries into the sweepstakes as possible then your best bet is to get good at the word games. The one I have had the most luck with is Word Pop. It pays off well. It can eat up a lot of time though and the biggest drawback is that there is no pause button; once you start, you play to the end, which may come soon if you need to take a bathroom break in the middle.
The key to this game as to many of the other word games is to get familiar with it then read the rules to see how the scoring is done. Word Pop does not list scoring in its rules but it acts like many of the other word games in that it gives more points the bigger the word. And it gives significantly more points for significantly bigger words. The smallest words are three letters long and there is a cap of the longest words accepted but I can’t remember what that is set at for this game, 8 or 9 letters I think. It doesn’t matter much as it almost takes too long to click on that many letters and then find out that you are missing the second ‘n’ to complete the spelling.
Speaking of spelling, they have a pretty inclusive dictionary so you might think you are making up a word and it will work anyway. Use this as a vocabulary building exercise and then you can justify your game play as educational. I have noticed that all games do not use the same dictionary because some words will work in one game that will not work in another. This is a matter of trial and error. As you play the word games you will notice that you can get very good at certain strategies. Build on them and then build from them. Hang in there and your hi scores will grow.
For example, in Word Pop start simple by going after as many three letter words as possible, building on speed in recognizing the three letter words and using hand eye coordination as quickly as possible to select each letter, completing the word and moving on to the next word. Some three letter words are easy to spot because the letters are close together while some are spread across the page. Get in the habit of looking across the whole board often. It is too easy to get stuck in one section of the puzzle and then miss all the letters that dropped down on the other side ending your round.
By the way, Word Pop likes to drop letters on the ends so be sure to work at keeping the end columns lowered first then work with the middle. You may notice that the letters drop from the top in a back and forth motion working from one end to the other, and you can also work back and forth following the letter drops and generally keep up the new letters as they drop.
Once you have three letter words down pat start looking for four letter words. Many three letter words can be made into four letter words by making them plural, as simple as adding an “s” at the end. In fact, adding any common suffix to many words is an easy way to get the bigger letter count. Look to adding “s”, “es”, “ed”, “ing”, “ful”, etc. to any of your basic words and you have instantly increased your point tally.
The other thing you can do after playing the game for awhile is notice what words you see and use a lot of, then think of what bigger words you could create if you just added a letter or two. Then the next time you played look for those extra letters when you come across your commons words. That way if you are always seeing “and” then look for “band” or “sand” and after that look for “brand” or “strand” and always remember to add a suffix and make “brands” or “stranded”.
One last thing to know about the word games is that some letters are more common than others and you will get too know which ones are which as you play. There are many times I have wanted to spell what I thought would be a common word but would be missing one of the letters to complete it and I would have to stop, clear the word, and start on another. There are also many tricky letters thrown in with the hopes that it will stump you. “Q” and “X” are two that come to mind but if you have some quick words at the ready you will not be stumped. There is usually always something you can do to play them.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
Click here to go to IWON Tips Part 1, Part 3, and Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6 (SquareBob Spongepants Collapse).
The key to this game as to many of the other word games is to get familiar with it then read the rules to see how the scoring is done. Word Pop does not list scoring in its rules but it acts like many of the other word games in that it gives more points the bigger the word. And it gives significantly more points for significantly bigger words. The smallest words are three letters long and there is a cap of the longest words accepted but I can’t remember what that is set at for this game, 8 or 9 letters I think. It doesn’t matter much as it almost takes too long to click on that many letters and then find out that you are missing the second ‘n’ to complete the spelling.
Speaking of spelling, they have a pretty inclusive dictionary so you might think you are making up a word and it will work anyway. Use this as a vocabulary building exercise and then you can justify your game play as educational. I have noticed that all games do not use the same dictionary because some words will work in one game that will not work in another. This is a matter of trial and error. As you play the word games you will notice that you can get very good at certain strategies. Build on them and then build from them. Hang in there and your hi scores will grow.
For example, in Word Pop start simple by going after as many three letter words as possible, building on speed in recognizing the three letter words and using hand eye coordination as quickly as possible to select each letter, completing the word and moving on to the next word. Some three letter words are easy to spot because the letters are close together while some are spread across the page. Get in the habit of looking across the whole board often. It is too easy to get stuck in one section of the puzzle and then miss all the letters that dropped down on the other side ending your round.
By the way, Word Pop likes to drop letters on the ends so be sure to work at keeping the end columns lowered first then work with the middle. You may notice that the letters drop from the top in a back and forth motion working from one end to the other, and you can also work back and forth following the letter drops and generally keep up the new letters as they drop.
Once you have three letter words down pat start looking for four letter words. Many three letter words can be made into four letter words by making them plural, as simple as adding an “s” at the end. In fact, adding any common suffix to many words is an easy way to get the bigger letter count. Look to adding “s”, “es”, “ed”, “ing”, “ful”, etc. to any of your basic words and you have instantly increased your point tally.
The other thing you can do after playing the game for awhile is notice what words you see and use a lot of, then think of what bigger words you could create if you just added a letter or two. Then the next time you played look for those extra letters when you come across your commons words. That way if you are always seeing “and” then look for “band” or “sand” and after that look for “brand” or “strand” and always remember to add a suffix and make “brands” or “stranded”.
One last thing to know about the word games is that some letters are more common than others and you will get too know which ones are which as you play. There are many times I have wanted to spell what I thought would be a common word but would be missing one of the letters to complete it and I would have to stop, clear the word, and start on another. There are also many tricky letters thrown in with the hopes that it will stump you. “Q” and “X” are two that come to mind but if you have some quick words at the ready you will not be stumped. There is usually always something you can do to play them.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
Click here to go to IWON Tips Part 1, Part 3, and Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6 (SquareBob Spongepants Collapse).
Tips for playing in IWON part 1
Tips for playing in IWON part 1
Since I have noticed that there are others out there that have an interest in the IWON web site I thought that I would pass on some of the insights that I have come across as a user myself and maybe pass along some tips that I have picked up in the many lost hours spent trying to actually win something on IWON. As I write this the IWON website claims that there are 2,195,042 registered users so maybe one of you will find this interesting.
First of all, if you have a slow computer or a slow connection to the web, don’t even bother. IWON is a power hog. It will use whatever you throw at it and still want more. It continually updates (though I am not sure that is the true term for it) its pages and each update seems to require more resources than the last. They are continually looking for ways to through ads in your face so just be aware of that going in.
If you do decide to register the first thing I would do is set up one of their free e-mail accounts first then you use the e-mail account to register your IWON game account with. Be forewarned though, the e-mail account in the old days was pretty good and useable but they have made changes that have turned made it a pain to use. Remember those ads I was talking about. They have managed to use up a lot of available space on your screen leaving very little to actually read your e-mail with. Also note that their spam detector is not very great, and then couple in the fact that just selecting the e-mail from the list opens a preview pane which is equivalent to opening up your spam and publishing your e-mail address is like asking for one bloated e-mail account.
So why get an e-mail account from IWON? Because everyone should have at least one throw away account and this can work for that purpose as well as being a useable interface with IWON themselves. They tend to send out a fair amount of stuff on their own, but if you do actually win something this is a good way to be notified of it. If you do sign up, be sure to uncheck many of the boxes concerning your interest in your preferences setup or they will see that as an open invitation to send you e-mail.
As far as the winning of prizes is concerned, please don’t get your hopes up too high. They claim to have given away over $72 million dollars worth but that number has not changed much in the last few years. I recently noticed that the prizes they do give out are getting smaller and less frequent, if at all, with an IWON water bottle being the latest addition.
Just be aware that the odds are strongly against you winning anything. I have been a player since Oct 1999 and only recently won three $10 Amazon gift certificates. If you spread that out over the time spent it might work out to about $0.0000001 per hour. Don’t view this as a part time job or count it towards your retirement plan. It will give many of you a good appreciation for what the odds of winning a lottery are without having to drop real money. Trying playing the sweepstakes with any strategy you wish and in as many ways possible. If you win, share your secret, but if you are like the great majority of us, fill grateful you weren’t using hard earned dollars.
You may have noticed from the above that I have not discovered the secret to winning the daily, monthly or annual sweepstakes so I can’t pass on anything there. I still play but what else are you going to do with all those coins. What are the coins you ask? Well, as you play the various games on IWON you can win and earn coins. Save up 100 coins and you can make one entry into one of the sweepstakes. It is not too hard to earn some coins but it does take some time. It takes a lot more time than it used to in the old days when compared to making the equivalent number of entries into the sweepstakes. In fact I don’t think you can make in one day the number of total sweepstakes entries you used to get in the past.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
Click here to go to IWON Tips Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6 (SquareBob Spongepants Collapse).
Since I have noticed that there are others out there that have an interest in the IWON web site I thought that I would pass on some of the insights that I have come across as a user myself and maybe pass along some tips that I have picked up in the many lost hours spent trying to actually win something on IWON. As I write this the IWON website claims that there are 2,195,042 registered users so maybe one of you will find this interesting.
First of all, if you have a slow computer or a slow connection to the web, don’t even bother. IWON is a power hog. It will use whatever you throw at it and still want more. It continually updates (though I am not sure that is the true term for it) its pages and each update seems to require more resources than the last. They are continually looking for ways to through ads in your face so just be aware of that going in.
If you do decide to register the first thing I would do is set up one of their free e-mail accounts first then you use the e-mail account to register your IWON game account with. Be forewarned though, the e-mail account in the old days was pretty good and useable but they have made changes that have turned made it a pain to use. Remember those ads I was talking about. They have managed to use up a lot of available space on your screen leaving very little to actually read your e-mail with. Also note that their spam detector is not very great, and then couple in the fact that just selecting the e-mail from the list opens a preview pane which is equivalent to opening up your spam and publishing your e-mail address is like asking for one bloated e-mail account.
So why get an e-mail account from IWON? Because everyone should have at least one throw away account and this can work for that purpose as well as being a useable interface with IWON themselves. They tend to send out a fair amount of stuff on their own, but if you do actually win something this is a good way to be notified of it. If you do sign up, be sure to uncheck many of the boxes concerning your interest in your preferences setup or they will see that as an open invitation to send you e-mail.
As far as the winning of prizes is concerned, please don’t get your hopes up too high. They claim to have given away over $72 million dollars worth but that number has not changed much in the last few years. I recently noticed that the prizes they do give out are getting smaller and less frequent, if at all, with an IWON water bottle being the latest addition.
Just be aware that the odds are strongly against you winning anything. I have been a player since Oct 1999 and only recently won three $10 Amazon gift certificates. If you spread that out over the time spent it might work out to about $0.0000001 per hour. Don’t view this as a part time job or count it towards your retirement plan. It will give many of you a good appreciation for what the odds of winning a lottery are without having to drop real money. Trying playing the sweepstakes with any strategy you wish and in as many ways possible. If you win, share your secret, but if you are like the great majority of us, fill grateful you weren’t using hard earned dollars.
You may have noticed from the above that I have not discovered the secret to winning the daily, monthly or annual sweepstakes so I can’t pass on anything there. I still play but what else are you going to do with all those coins. What are the coins you ask? Well, as you play the various games on IWON you can win and earn coins. Save up 100 coins and you can make one entry into one of the sweepstakes. It is not too hard to earn some coins but it does take some time. It takes a lot more time than it used to in the old days when compared to making the equivalent number of entries into the sweepstakes. In fact I don’t think you can make in one day the number of total sweepstakes entries you used to get in the past.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
Click here to go to IWON Tips Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6 (SquareBob Spongepants Collapse).
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