As of March, i’ve won 35 domain credits worth $340. That’s 23 in their Decemeber contest, and 12 in March. Plus an iPod nano grand prize in December. Read on to learn how i do it.

The image above is my NameCheap account balance. In their Twitter trivia contest i’ve won 27 credits totaling $261.63 as of March 14 (i’ve used one, so pictured total is minus 9.69). That’s 23 wins in their December contest, and 4 so far in March.

Want to know my secret?

This is the “how to win” screencast i made during the last trivia contest. It shows exactly how i prepared and what i did to be as fast as possible to get those first-answer wins.

How To Win NameCheap’s Twitter Contest from miahz on Vimeo.

Don’t forget to read all four parts of my How To Win guide.

How To Win Screencast

As promised, here are two screencasts of me going after a first-place answer in NameCheap’s Twitter contest. The first includes some explanation of the setup and what’s going on. Unfortunately, as you’ll see i came in second on that attempt. I include this because the lesson here truly is that even when things are ideal or close to it, there’s still a lot of chance. So you have to keep trying.

Please pardon the demo watermark on the video from ScreenFlow (great, easy software, by the way).

How To Win NameCheap’s Twitter Contest from miahz on Vimeo.

Menotti For The Win

And here is an actual first-place win recorded live as it happened at 03:00 on question #482 on Dec 21. I’d recommend viewing the HD version on the Vimeo site because this embedded version is limited to standard quality.

For The Win from miahz on Vimeo.

The End

Just want to acknowledge Namecheap.com for this fun contest with their new Twitter presence. I’ve been a customer for 5 years now, and miahz.com is registered through NameCheap. I think i have enough domain credits now to last until the internet expires. Thanks also to the competitors and acquaintances on Twitter that made the whole thing a fun challenge.

Merry Christmas to everyone. Except the players who used bots to answer for them while they slept. I hope you get lumps of coal, or at least lose some sleep with a guilty conscience.

[Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | This is Part 4]

The Other Half

Yesterday i covered strategies for seeing the question as fast as possible. Today is all about tweeting the quickest answer for the first-place win. Because this is a game with so many variables involved, it’s impossible to guarantee anything; and being trivia, knowing or finding answers is the biggest variable. This half of the equation is so complex because so many things have to come together to post the first correct answer. These tricks simply quicken the things over which you do have control.

The Answer

1. Prepare your tweet.
2. Use multiple windows.
3. Copy, don’t type.
4. Use keyboard shortcuts.

First things first. Every correct reply in this game has one thing in common: they must include @NameCheap followed by the answer. So the obvious thing to do is have that typed out ahead of time. I prepare mine in the minute or so before each hour. We just eliminated typing out @NameCheap.

But “where do you type it?” you ask. To which i reply, “you mean you’re not using another window to tweet your answer?” I use Twitterrific (for Mac) which is a Twitter program that floats above all other windows [the TwitterFox extension for Firefox is similar but i have not used it]. That means no matter what page or tab i’m looking at in my browser, Twitterrific is always ready to post the answer. Another plus is that there is no button — you just type and hit Enter, which is another reason i’d advocate against using Twitter’s web interface. We just eliminated switching windows and clicking the reply button.

Screenshot showing my window layout for a NameCheap time attack.

The majority of the time you won’t know the answer, so let’s assume you have to look it up. The key here is how you invoke the search. Typing is slow and prone to error, so i suggest selecting the text provided in the question. From this point there are several ways to go — the most obvious being to copy and paste into the browser’s search bar, or perhaps use a right-click menu option to search. But i use the Ubiquity extension for Firefox to trigger a Google search (Alt+Space on the keyboard, and type go for Google). It remembers your last typed command, so that’s another thing you can do ahead of time. Keyboard shortcuts will almost always be faster because you are using both hands at the same time (mouse in one hand, keys with the other). [Interesting side note — for the whole first half of this contest i was just using my MacBook Pro's built-in keyboard and trackpad, and i somehow managed to stay competitive without a mouse by using keyboard shortcuts.] Ubiquity can open an inline window and show search results in the same page, or you can hit Enter to go to a new tab with a regular results page. We just eliminated typing, right-clicking, copy/pasting, and switching tabs for searching.

Don’t forget to use keyboard shortcuts for copy and paste when retrieving and posting your answer. Unless you know the answer immediately or it is short (a number, or True or False, for example), copy/paste is quicker and safer than typing. I’ve lost several first-places due to mistyping and having to backspace and correct. There is no credit for misspelled or incorrect answers, even if they are first. We just eliminated typing and typo corrections.

A Few More Tips

The point of all that is to hopefully shave enough seconds from the whole process that you can answer before anyone else. Here are a few more things to keep in mind. Take the time to fully read and understand the question. If you quickly scan it and start searching, you may end up going after the wrong answer. I have done that several times. Sometimes the question is oddly phrased or uses words that don’t produce useful search results. This is where understanding the question helps, so you can get the search going in the right direction. For example, if the question involves a movie i’ll generally head to IMDb, or to Wikipedia if it involves a specific person or date. They’ll usually be at the top of Google’s results anyway, but sometimes you have to coach it a little bit. By the way, Ubiquity can search IMDb, Wikipedia, and many others just by typing the name — it’s pretty quick.

That’s all i can think of for now. Don’t forget: the How To Win Screencast is coming soon. Follow @miahz.

[Part 1 | Part 2 | This is Part 3 | Part 4]

This is my Strategy

As i said before, the only way to ensure a win is by submitting the first correct answer for a question. That means speed. The fastest answers post less than 10 seconds after the question is published. I break it down like this: first, you need to see the question as soon as possible. Then, you need to be able to post your answer as fast as possible. I’ll talk about the first one today.

Quick Question

I view the questions (and search for answers) in Firefox. In order to make sure i see questions as soon as they post, i eliminate everything i can that might add delay. I load only @NameCheap’s profile page, not my home page on Twitter where everyone else’s tweets are also loaded. I turn off image loading in Firefox, because all i’m after on the web page is the question, which is text — don’t need images. I also turn off JavaScript in Firefox’s Preferences because Twitter does all kinds of stuff with scripts, some on third-party sites, which can really lag page loading.

Update: as quasihellfish mentioned in the comments, the Mobile version of NameCheap’s Twitter profile is actually a much better way to achieve the same effect as turning off images and scripts in the browser. It’s a stripped-down version of the page intended for light mobile devices so there are no scripts and a minimum of images. Perfect.  If you go this route, you can disregard the browser settings in the previous paragraph.

Your computer and what’s running on it can have a big affect on how responsive it is; similarly, Firefox can get sluggish being open for a while with too many tabs and windows open. Short of upgrading your computer, try a reboot and start your browser fresh. I’m curious if anybody uses some Twitter client or something else to view the questions.

Don’t forget about the social/environmental conditions. This is Twitter after all — one of the most popular social web sites alive, and it’s not without its problems. During peak hours, traffic can slow the site; late at night/early in the morning fewer competitors are awake.

Having an accurate clock is crucial. As soon as the clock flips on the hour, i start hitting reload in Firefox [F5 key]. The answer to the previous question tweets first and the new question of the hour immediately follows. Again, if your clock is not synchronized and is off by even a few seconds, you might be losing precious seconds on your reaction time. The question generally lands within 3 seconds of the hour.

Question #507 on NameCheap's Twitter Profile

Updates:
Forgot to mention that i have Cuckoo installed on my MacBook Pro to chime every hour on the hour. It’s just one more thing to aid in timing.
If you have lots of extra programs or services running on your computer that might be sapping processing power or may interrupt things, exit or disable them if possible.
Again, the goal is to minimize anything that will increase the time it takes you to see the question.

I’m gonna be posting the other half of my winning strategy, as well as the How To Win Screencast coming in a few days. Now go play!

[Part 1 | This is Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4]

@Dreamer08 missed a win yesterday, so i now stand alone with most daily wins (16 = $155.04). 16 wins in 19 days (84.2% win ratio); 14 have been first correct answers, with only 2 random-pick wins. I already used one of the $9.69 domain registration credits, hence the $145.35 figure in the image above.

Currently i’m in third place overall for correct answers (top 3 spots win an iPod nano). I’ve correctly answered 346 of 450 holiday-related trivia questions (76.9%). I’ve attempted 400 questions, which means i’ve only missed (didn’t submit an answer, usually while sleeping) 50 questions as of #450.

What’s my secret?

Good question. I’ll be publishing a screencast in a couple days of what i do at the top of each hour when going for a first-place answer, aka: how i win. Make sure you follow me on Twitter (@miahz), and subscribe to my feed here at miahz.com, so you don’t miss it.

Want a tip?

Everything i’ve done to “get good” at this contest follows some logical strategies. The first tip i’ll share, which goes for pretty much any contest, is: you have to play to win. NameCheap is tweeting questions every hour on the hour for 25 days — that’s 600 opportunities to play. And each question has 3 winners — that’s 1800 chances to win. But you gotta be ready to answer when the new question is posted. And for me that means an alarm clock.

I found the free Alarm Clock 2 app for Mac, which let me set hourly alarms on my MacBook Pro at 3 minutes before the hour (enough time to get set up and ready — more on that later). Pretty sure there are similar alarms for Windows. You also want to make sure your system’s clock is synchronized and accurate. I also set up some extra reminders on my phone.

If you’re late to the game, your chances drop dramatically. The odds of snagging one of the two random wins each hour are pretty bad with hundreds of players answering within minutes. A first correct answer is the only way to guarantee a win.

I’m gonna be posting more tips, and don’t forget about the How To Win Screencast coming in a few days. Now go play!

[This is Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4]