Streamline

UPDATE: NO LONGER AVAILABLE
 
Question: How does one store 50 websites and open them all on a daily basis and in as little time as possible?

I know, I know - this may seem like an easy answer. You could just bookmark them all or put them in your favorites, right? Well, yes and no. Think about the time it takes to go to your favorites, click the link, wait for the page to load, and then open another. Add the time needed to enter a form on these websites into the mix and you will find yourself spending hours in front of your computer a day entering contests.

I must admit, when I first started entering contests I found it easiest to simply store all the contest pages I entered on my desktop as links. But, as I started entering more and more I found that my desktop looked like it did back in the days of Windows 95 (see example below). Not to mention it was just as time consuming as opening them from your favorites.

Who actually used folders back then?

Solution? Batch files.

Do this: Open a new blank notepad document. Type the following:

     @echo off

     start /d IEXPLORE.EXE www.google.com
     start /d IEXPLORE.EXE www.craigslist.com
     start /d IEXPLORE.EXE www.wcupa.edu

Now, save the file to a known location with a .bat extension (eg Contest.bat). Simply click the file and your default web browser (IE, Firefox, or Chrome) will open with three tabs displaying Google, Craigslist, and West Chester University's websites.

Customize this as you wish using the same format. I typically stick with 8 to 10 links a file so that the browser is not too overwhelmed and the whole process is quicker. Now, with 5 batch files you can open 50 websites in mere seconds!

Voila! You have just streamlined the opening of your contest (or any) links! 

Note: This will only work in Windows. Also, some browsers need to be opened before clicking the .bat files or else only one page from the list will load.