iowaholdem
CAGiversary!
- Feedback
- 17 (100%)
Be sure to expand all the
SPOILER
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. GETTING STARTED - TIPS FOR MAXIMIZING YOUR POINTS
II. QUALITY FREEBIE SITES - MY PERSONAL SUGGESTIONS
III. PHOTOGRAPHIC PROOF - THESE SITES REALLY WORK
IV. TIPS ON GETTING MORE REFERRALS FOR YOURSELF
V. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Here you'll find suggestions, hints, warnings, and links to sites and tools that will help you earn more and quicker points on the freebie sites.
II. QUALITY FREEBIE SITES - MY PERSONAL SUGGESTIONS
Here you'll find pros and cons of each freebie site along with my personal experience, prizes, ratings and suggestions of each site.
III. PHOTOGRAPHIC PROOF - THESE SITES REALLY WORK
Pictures! What else?
IV. TIPS ON GETTING MORE REFERRALS FOR YOURSELF
Now this is a unique section. Here you'll find all of my personal tips and ideas for earning referrals both on the web, in public and with friends. Be sure to check out the custom made referral cards I've made just for your success!
V. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
F.A.Q. (Found in the second post)
I. GETTING STARTED - TIPS FOR MAXIMIZING YOUR POINTS
This section here is non-specific to any particular freebie site, but should be useful for both the new and experienced users of freebie sites. The idea behind referral sites is this: The parent company (ie: the site you sign up for) has affiliate relations with advertisers (read: spammers) that want your information, namely your name, address, email and phone number. What these advertisers will do is agree to pay the parent company every time that parent company provides them with a legitimate referral (YOU!). That parent company then promises you credit for their site to intice you to sign up with the advertisers. This is how you get your freebies. It's important to remember that NO site is going to give you 100% credit for your signups and effort - however this guide is intended to give you tips to maximize your efficiency (ratio of points earned to points applied for) to ensure you get what you deserve and get many free prizes! Now on to the tips!
1. GMAIL - IT'S YOUR BEST FRIEND
Do you have an email account that you like? One with limited SPAM and important contacts? Good, protect it! Never sign up for a freebie site with your primary email address. A typical user on a freebie site will get nearly 10,000 SPAM emails in a month just for being active on a freebie site. No one wants to wade through that to get to their important emails.
Go to GMAIL: EMAIL FROM GOOGLE before ever signing up for a freebie site and create a new email address. Do this EVERY time you sign up for a new freebie site. This will help you easily isolate all emails from any given site so that you can check confirmation links, point updates, and prize requests. Also, Google has a great SPAM filter that will catch 99% of the SPAM you receive, and allows you to file emails as SPAM if they get past the filter - this will stop them from getting past again.
So remember! New freebie site? New GMAIL ACCOUNT!
When sigining up for a new freebie site, it is absolutely crucial to use 100% valid information - this means REAL NAME, REAL ADDRESS, REAL PHONE NUMBERS and a REAL EMAIL ADDRESS (Thankfully, that's been taken care of in tip 1). If you provide false information to your freebie site, how will you ever expect them to get you your prize?
Now, the subtitle of this tip is BUT CHOOSE THAT INFO WISELY. What's that mean? Well, there are certain things you can do to keep control over snail mail spam if you choose your name wisely. My personal suggestion is this, don't use your REAL first name as your freebie site first name. Instead, use a nick name or your middle name. This way, it'll still be real information you're providing, but it gives you the upper hand against SPAM. If you are a person like me, and you move relatively often for school, or jobs, or seasons, you need to forward your mail often. See where I'm going with this? Let me continue. If I live at address A and move to addreses B, I want to be sure to forward mail that's sent to me - at least the important stuff. This will be mailings addressed to my real first name. If I've tied that name to all the freebie sites and their SPAMMERS, then that crap is going to come along too. However, if the freebie sites and SPAMMERS have my nickname or middle name, I can simply choose not to forward that mail along to address B, thus stopping all that snail mail SPAM every time I move. How will you get your new prizes? Well, you'll have to update your address with your freebie site, so you may have to start up that SPAM trail again with the advertisers, but at least it'll be a new one - and the old trash will be left behind.
Caveats: Any and all offers that require your real identity - those tied to your real name and social security number, for example, are out. You won't be able to do those. But really, that's only a few offers like freecreditreport.com - and that's not really worth it. Also, this may limit the number of credit card offers you can do - but also it may not. Many sites allow you to use someone else's credit card to sign up for offers, which is essentially what it'll look like you're doing if you're using your real name on a credit card offer instead of your nickname/middle name. Like I said, this may be fine with your freebie site, but remember YMMV.
I make a real effort to find good people to refer me to new freebie sites. I use the CAG forums to search for a site of interest and read threads for good potential canidates. Many times you'll find people offering incentives for sign ups. I've personally given away a VC game in the past to a referral that I was really impressed with. Other times, you'll just find people that are very willing to help you out with your site by offering tips and past experience with certain offers. This in itself can save a lot of wasted time and help maximize your efficiency on a site. Of course, you might get nothing out of it - well oh well, you wouldn't have gotten anything if you just surfed to the site yourself and signed up. At least by picking out a good referrer you've helped someone else out. Remember, when you earn points on a freebie site, you get 100% of the credit, whether you've been referred to the site or not. Of course, if you're referred, then someone else gets a nice bonus of 20% (typically), and that would make anyone happy.
Once you've been referred to a new freebie site, get a good feel for the site by doing some small 100% free offers. Familiarize yourself with how offers are completed, how quickly points are credited and learn how to spot certain hazards. There are plenty of not-so-free additions to 100% free offers. Be sure to read the TOS on any sites you're not familiar with to be sure there are no hidden agendas.
Certain things to look out for: CELL PHONE NUMBERS! If any site asks you for your cell phone number specifically, you better take a good look at whether or not they're sharing it with other sites. Certain sites like Bid4Prizes (avoid at all costs) will tag along on freebie offers to get you to agree to their service too. This service includes a monthly fee to your cell phone bill and SMS (text message) charges. If you're ever asked to receive a text message and confirm a PIN - DO NOT EVER ENTER IT IN TO THE SITE! This will automatically kick off a charge on your bill of $5-$20 that'll reoccur every month until you relize you need to cancel it. So I must stress, do not ever sign up for freebie offers that require SMS and PIN verification. Do not ever sign up for free ring tones. Do not ever sign up for dating tips, jokes, horoscopes, etc delivered by phones. These will almost always include monthly charges to your phones - even if you cancel immediately.
So you're doing your 100% free offer just fine when all of the sudden you're confronted with thousands of YES, NO radio buttons! What do you do?! Ok, maybe there aren't thousands - at least not in one offer - but here's a quick tip: remember this combo, and remember it well TAB, ARROW, TAB, ARROW, TAB, ARROW... just keep doing this until all of those little YES buttons are blank and all of those little NO buttons are filled. With a little bit of practice you'll be able to get through those pages very quickly.
If you find you're getting turned away from offers because you already have an account with them or you just never get credit for offers you know you've completed, try this little trick with your GMAIL email address.
Insert dots (.'s) into your email address when siging up for offers. For the advertisers, this appears to be a brand new signup because [email protected] is not the same as [email protected] and that can get you credit where you'd otherwise have been rejected. These dots can be placed anywhere in a GMAIL username and the emails will still reach your inbox - or more likely, your SPAM box. So if you find you're at a webpage that looks entirely similar to another you've done before - add some dots! Add a lot of dots! Just make sure you're creating a unique email address for that site.
In order to receive credit, you need to insure that your cookies are enabled. For the most part, you can probably just trust that they are, but to be sure check: How to Enable Cookies on Google. Once that's taken care of, it's important to understand that too many cookies means too few points.
CCleaner is the best tool out there for clearing cookies and traffic history. As a general rule, I never do more than three or so freebie offers without running CCleaner to clear out my cookies, and I NEVER do more than one offer in a row that's from the same advertiser without having cleared my cookies. This process is simple. Just run CCleaner (which I've pointed to the slim version of the newest build - no bloat or toolbar) with your internet browser closed and it'll clear it all away. The best way to know if this worked is head back to your freebie site afterwards, if you have to log back in, it worked. If you're still logged in, it didn't. Advertisers track users with cookies. If a cookie already exists when you visit an advertiser, kiss your credit goodbye. They'll recognize instantly that you're not new and will never pay up.
It's important to recognize that you will never receive 100% approval rating on a freebie site. Don't get frustrated right away if you're not getting all the credit you think you deserve. Sometimes offers take up to 3 or 4 days to credit, so don't just give up hope, and also don't do too much at once. Take it slowly, use the dot method, clear your cookies and only fill out 1-3 surveys at a time. If they credit quickly (which they hopefully will) go ahead and do some more. If they're not crediting, maybe you ought to take a day off to see if they credit over night. If they don't, well you might have just lost a few, go try some more. Be patient, be persisitent.
II. QUALITY FREEBIE SITES - MY PERSONAL SUGGESTIONS
1. GAMING LAGOON
Referral link: http://www.gaminglagoon.com/?ref=21423
PROS:
100% legit
Offers are well divided into sections: 100% Free, Credit Card Required, Purchase Required, Free But May Not Credit, Financial Offers, Daily Surveys
Great support: Scheduled hotline calls, support tickets, forums
Very high approval rate as of recent
Loads of contests for free points
Daily gaming card give aways
Ability to custom order from nearly any site
CONS:Offers are well divided into sections: 100% Free, Credit Card Required, Purchase Required, Free But May Not Credit, Financial Offers, Daily Surveys
Great support: Scheduled hotline calls, support tickets, forums
Very high approval rate as of recent
Loads of contests for free points
Daily gaming card give aways
Ability to custom order from nearly any site
Dangerously strict with banning people that appear to have multiple accounts or that ever access their account on someone else's computer
Support ticket system is very slow
Verification of account can be a pain in the ass
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:Support ticket system is very slow
Verification of account can be a pain in the ass
This is the first freebie site I signed up for. And this is the site on which I have had by far the most success. They were great in the beginning, then really slacked off for awhile, though within the last few months they really cleaned up their act and approval rates have soared again. Credit card offers are plentiful, and almost alway credit. If they don't, there is a system to requesting manual credit with the support tickets. The support forums are very active and a great resource. I definitely recommend this site for first time freebie goers.
MY PRIZES:
(2) Wii Classic Controllers
(2) Nyko Wii Remote Chargers
(2) Referral Cards to Give to Friends
(1) Point Donation to Ella
(1) Guitar Hero III Bundle for Wii
(185) Best Buy Gift Card Credits
(1) 2000 Wii Points
(2) Triwing Screwdrivers
(1) Logitech Action Wireless PS2 Controller
RATING:
(2) Nyko Wii Remote Chargers
(2) Referral Cards to Give to Friends
(1) Point Donation to Ella
(1) Guitar Hero III Bundle for Wii
(185) Best Buy Gift Card Credits
(1) 2000 Wii Points
(2) Triwing Screwdrivers
(1) Logitech Action Wireless PS2 Controller
SUGGESTED USER BASE:
Everyone! This site is great for beginners. The expectations are well layed out and it's easy to understand what's needed to do for credit. Also, there's something about hitting [COMPLETED] after each offer that really lets people know that they're submitting an offer for evaluation and credit. This site can be a little intimidating at first though. With the phone call validation at sign up to the voice message validatation of identity before receiving your first price, it can feel a little daunting. But once that's taken care of, the site is top notch, and has, by far, the most potentia to earn a lot of points and big prizes.
Referral link: http://www.prizerebel.com/index.php?r=2637
PROS:
Easy sign up process - very little information required
Amazingly fast support system - answers in MINUTES
Offers credit very quickly - if they credit
Custom orders from Amazon.com - including Amazon Gift Certificates
CONS:Amazingly fast support system - answers in MINUTES
Offers credit very quickly - if they credit
Custom orders from Amazon.com - including Amazon Gift Certificates
No support forums
No manual credit for credit card required offers
Custom order ONLY from Amazon.com
New offers aren't common
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:No manual credit for credit card required offers
Custom order ONLY from Amazon.com
New offers aren't common
This has been my little side site for gaming goodness. In the beginning, I found it amazingly fast and easy to use, but recently I think it's gotten harder for freebie offers to credit. This might just be me, but I don't often do offers anymore. Prizes have been shipped very quickly, however there's little in the way of communication between PR staff and the user with updates on prize status. Lacking the [COMPLETED] button of Gaming Lagoon, it's easy for users to feel as if this site is not legit if several offers go uncredited in the beginning. Of course, if you've read the GETTING STARTED portion of my guide, you should be well prepared to earn plenty of points.
MY PRIZES:
(1) Wii Nunchuck
(1) Guitar Hero III Bundle for Wii
(35) Best Buy Gift Card Credits
RATING: (1) Guitar Hero III Bundle for Wii
(35) Best Buy Gift Card Credits
SUGGESTED USER BASE:
I think Prize Rebel is a great site for two types of people. The first being those that have already got a good understanding of a freebie site like Gaming Lagoon that are looking for a secondary site to earn anywhere from 20-100 points for some extra schwag. I also think this is a good site for people that don't want to mess with the validation of a site like Gaming Lagoon. At sign up, all that is required is a name, email address, password and agreement of the TOS. They'll never ask for your phone number for identity verification.
Referral link: http://www.rewards1.com/index.php?referrer_id=7919
PROS:
Easy credits on free offers
Support tickets and support forums
Literally any prize can be ordered from Amazon.com - not limited just to gaming supplies
Will attempt to order BUY IT NOW eBay auctions
Can custom order any gift card from any store
CONS:Support tickets and support forums
Literally any prize can be ordered from Amazon.com - not limited just to gaming supplies
Will attempt to order BUY IT NOW eBay auctions
Can custom order any gift card from any store
Tough to tell if credit is coming
Terrible break down of different categories of offers - Free, Credit Card - Free, Credit Card - Pay, Cell Phone offers all mixed together
Not a whole lot of offers available
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:Terrible break down of different categories of offers - Free, Credit Card - Free, Credit Card - Pay, Cell Phone offers all mixed together
Not a whole lot of offers available
I was able to very quickly earn points to order a $30 Best Buy gift card. Fulfillment of that prize took a full three days, which is a little slower than exepected, but well within the range of times they quote (2-7 days for prize validation). This site was really exciting at first, but quickly died out for me as it got very hard to keep earning points as there are so few offers. I do like the site a lot, but it's nothing amazing. As far as personal preference, I like it more than Prize Rebel (which is rated lower, based on it's quality of being a freebie site), though I doubt I'll earn nearly as many points with it as I did there.
MY PRIZES:
(1) $30 Best Buy Gift Card
(1) $15 Best Buy Gift Card - Can't be processed due to PR's credit card
RATING: (1) $15 Best Buy Gift Card - Can't be processed due to PR's credit card
SUGGESTED USER BASE:
Looking for some really quick points from free offers? This is the place to go. Set up much like Prize Rebel, the site is very easy to get started on and even easier to earn points. Again, there are not too many offers, only about 115 (maybe a 1/10 of what Gaming Lagoon has), but I earned over 20 points in my first 24 hours on the site. Don't expect to earn points along the scope of getting a gaming console - though they are listed as prizes - there just aren't that many offers. However, quick points can be earned as the free offers tend to have quite large point values.
REFERRAL LINK: http://www.freeprizesite.com/?ref=79
PROS:
Just like GamingLagoon - in essence - which could be good
Fastest offer approvals experienced
Run by one person - which could be good
No identity verification like on Network Lagoon sites
Prizes confirmed in under 24 hours
Over 1200 offers at opening
CONS:Fastest offer approvals experienced
Run by one person - which could be good
No identity verification like on Network Lagoon sites
Prizes confirmed in under 24 hours
Over 1200 offers at opening
None, at the moment
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:
This site has been absolutely perfect so far. Granted, it's only a week old, but it's still nailed every point that makes a freebie site great. Offer approvals are blazing fast (generally less than 5 minutes), and I was able to earn enough points to order a $10 eBay gift certificate by the second time I sat down to do some offers. That prize request was fulfilled in less than 24 hours, too. Below you'll see that this site is getting a 5-star rating. That, I imagine, is just the initial excitement. The site is great right now, though I expect it to slow down at some point, and then I will readjust the rating.
MY PRIZES:
(1) $10 eBay Gift Certificate
(55) Best Buy Gift Card Credits
RATING:(55) Best Buy Gift Card Credits
Anyone that wants to get on board a new freebie site in its infancy. KoA/FredericoX comes from a good freebie site background, so he should know how to run the site pretty well. If not, I bet he can find some help with the Dietzel staff.
III. PHOTOGRAPHIC PROOF - THESE SITES REALLY WORK
1. GAMING LAGOON
[media]http://youtube.com/watch?v=nXfKhXOOb2U[/media]
IV. TIPS ON GETTING MORE REFERRALS FOR YOURSELF
"All this is nice, but how do I get referrals?!" Oh this must be the most asked question in this history of freebie sites - that and "How do I cancel my free trial?" Well the real trick to getting referrals is finding good places to refer people! That and being creative and not annoying. No one likes a spammer. Seriously, no one. Check out these easy methods of earning referrals.
1. REFERRAL BANNERS - DUH
2. DON'T SPAM - OBEY THE T.O.S.
3. REFERRAL CARDS - FREE ADVERTISING, BUSINESS METHODS - CUSTOM REFERRAL CARDS INSIDE
4. iTUNES - SHARE YOUR REFERRAL LINK WITH YOUR MUSIC
5. CONTESTS - EVERYONE LIKES TO WIN
"All this is nice, but how do I get referrals?!" Oh this must be the most asked question in this history of freebie sites - that and "How do I cancel my free trial?" Well the real trick to getting referrals is finding good places to refer people! That and being creative and not annoying. No one likes a spammer. Seriously, no one. Check out these easy methods of earning referrals.
1. REFERRAL BANNERS - DUH
Every site has a nice little section with referral banners. Might as well utilize them, right? I've nabbed a nice selection from my freebie sites for use in this thread. But you could have figured that out, right? Let's get to the real secrets, iowaholdem!
Making accounts at every message board on the interwebs and spamming your referral link isn't going to work. If anything, it'll get you ridicule and a hefty amount of BANS! Generally it's also against the T.O.S. of your freebie site - so if you do this, hopefully someone will report you to your freebie site and get your ass banned. Ok, I had to say that. I swear, good methods are coming up.
Our friends at Gaming Lagoon offer a previously free - now 0.05 point - referral card. This is a great way to get started on the site. After you earn your first points, order some referral cards. This will get your account verification out of the way and give you an immediate method of earning referrals with people you know. If your freebie site doesn't offer referral cards, go grab some paper stock and make your own! Actually, as part of this thread, I'll whip some up in Photoshop and post them here - be on the look out for that update.
Get these referral cards in to peoples' hands! Otherwise, what's the point? Don't feel like handing them out personally? Well, take them to class and drop them in public places. Leave a few in the library or on desks. Those that aren't interested will simply leave the card, those that are interested though, they'll nab it up like candy and there you go, you've got a referral.
Something I personally do that has worked out great is send out a referral card with every package I mail out from eBay auctions, CAG trades, and Goozex sales. I simply drop a card in with the packing slip and a "thank you for your purchase" note and hope for a referral. It's worked out really quite well.
See, had you thought of that referral method? Enjoy it!
Something I personally do that has worked out great is send out a referral card with every package I mail out from eBay auctions, CAG trades, and Goozex sales. I simply drop a card in with the packing slip and a "thank you for your purchase" note and hope for a referral. It's worked out really quite well.
See, had you thought of that referral method? Enjoy it!
What? How am I going to do that? Well, really it's quite simple. This is personally my favorite idea for getting referrals. For those of you that live in community settings like dorms, fraternities, or apartments - you've got the audience, now get your word out! Just go grab some good music - I used Zelda: Ocarina of Time mp3's and relabeled them appropriately. Now, all you've got to do is get those tracks in your iTunes and share that library! Make sure your library has an eye catching name to get people intrigued. Here's my example:
Now that you've got your library ready to share, grab your laptop and get out in the public. Dorms, libraries, class rooms, coffee shops and the like are great places. Anywhere someone's got an internet access, you can bet there are people with iTunes ready to read your referral link!
Find a good message board and plaster the wonderful words "CONTEST" and "WIN" all over your topic. Offer your potential referrals incentives to becoming your actual referral. Offer up Virtual Console games, XBOX points, Paypal cash or old games. Whatever it is, consider it an investment. Tell your referrals if they earn you 3.00 points, they'll earn a 500 point Wii game. What's that do for you... 3 points is less than $5!? Well, you're getting your referral's feet wet in the system. If they earn you 3 points, that means they've earned themselves a VC game (or similar) and 15 points, so they're well on their way to earning a good prize, so surely they'll continue, won't they?
Lure people in, force their hand to give the freebie sites a shot. It'll pay off big in the end if you get a referral like me - on Gaming Lagoon I've earned my referrer over 30 points. On Prize Rebel, I've earned him over 20 points. On Rewards1, I've already earned my referrer 4 points in one day. None of them offered me anything - boo - but that's ok, they snagged a good one with me. Maybe you'll be so lucky too!
Lure people in, force their hand to give the freebie sites a shot. It'll pay off big in the end if you get a referral like me - on Gaming Lagoon I've earned my referrer over 30 points. On Prize Rebel, I've earned him over 20 points. On Rewards1, I've already earned my referrer 4 points in one day. None of them offered me anything - boo - but that's ok, they snagged a good one with me. Maybe you'll be so lucky too!
Last edited by a moderator:
