Hello there! Miss B. here.  I want to thank you all for your patience while we dealt with some serious coding problems.  The winners box looks likes it’s in good shape and we are ready to announce winners on time if the contributors get us their winning answer tonight, as you may know sometimes they have a hard time deciding.  We had a little coding problem back in November as well and it looks like there was never a winner announced for Cavallini & Co.!  How could that be? So we will add a Cavallini & Co. winner tomorrow. Again, thank you for being patient and understanding The BSP is a labor of love and something we do while having full-time jobs and families and sometimes we will have some bumps in the road, but we are always striving to smooth them out and make this a very happy experience for you.

I get a TON of email everyday and rather than answer you all individually (I wish I could) I thought it would be better to just answer you here.  Here are some of the frequently asked questions (FAQ) and if they aren’t answered in the FAQ tab they will be added by Miss Lindsey soon. Please feel free to leave an answer in the comments section if you feel you have a better way to explain anything below or have a question I didn’t answer today.

How do I leave an answer to a feature?

I get this question asked a dozen times a day.  I believe it’s because a lot of people get The Bright Side Project In their readers.  If you are getting this in your reader you need to click on the title of the post to take you to the site.  You need to be on the site to answer.  Once you are on the site in the upper left corner of the feature is a box with numbers that reads the current number of answers and ‘leave yours here’. Click the box, scroll down and answer away.

How long are contests open?

Each feature allows you ONE WEEK to try to win!  At the bottom of each feature it gives you the end date of when the contest closes.

What are the numbers next to the names in the winner box?

Those numbers are the date we received the winners name and added them to the winner’s box.  Winners have ONE WEEK to claim their prize before their prize is up for grabs and your fellow Brightsider can SWOOP!

What is a SWOOP and how can I do it?

We instituted SWOOP because we don’t have time to chase down winners and many prizes were going unclaimed.  In fact it makes me downright grumpy when a winner doesn’t claim a prize because I know it makes the contributor feel icky and that’s so not the way anyone should feel when they participate in the BSP. In order to SWOOP (trust me if you do this wrong your email gets deleted), a day after the prize has been left in the winners box, you can SWOOP by sending us an email to sunshine[at]thebrightsideproject.com between 9am-12pm Pacific time with the subject SWOOP + name of prize you want to SWOOP and in the body of your email your full name, address + phone #.  I will work on an example above it seems we have MANY prizes that were listed on Tuesday 02.02, that means the winners have until today 2.09 midnight to claim.  If by 2.10 they haven’t claimed you have from 9a.m.-12p.m. Pacific time (feel free for those in another country to set your email) to SWOOP and steal their prize away!  And let me tell you I am always THRILLED to see an unclaimed prize get stolen!

I have an idea for a monthly theme or a brand/designer I would love to see featured what do I do?

Email me! Sunshine[at]thebrightsideproject.com.  Don’t be shy, I love to hear from you and since it’s just me and Miss Lindsey doing the scouting we welcome the suggestions.

Can I win more than once?

You my dear can win as many times as a contributor picks you or your number comes up via the Random number generator.

I know this post is getting wordy, but I wanted to add a few more things here:

-One-under NO circumstances is a winner to contact a company directly for their prize.  Why? Because that means that we have left your name in the unclaimed box and someone is going to SWOOP it because we think that you are too lazy to check in with us or already have so many fabulous things that you don’t need one more fabulous thing.

-If you just want to come in and answer questions and don’t care about the prize maybe you can add a ‘SKIP ME’ in your answer so the contributor can pick someone that really wants to win.  There’s nothing wrong with playing just because you like answering the questions, in fact we encourage your participation in any form.

-When you win and there are chances that you will win here (you can’t imagine how many emails we get that start, ‘I have never won anything in my life’), well, when it’s your turn to win, in your email feel free to write something to the contributor. I usually just CC your email to the contributor so I am sure they would be thrilled and appreciative to know how much your win means to them.

-If you win and have not received your prize within 4-6 weeks contact us a.s.a.p!  Your prize should NOT take months to get to you.  We will contact the contriubutor on your behalf and try to get you a tracking # or ship date.