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[Gladiator]

Getting Started in the World of Freesites

If you're new to freesites, this guide was made to help you get on you're way to getting stuff for free! We know you’re all eager to get started bringing the prizes and cash, but the most important thing to do when you’re just starting out is to be patient. It cannot be emphasized enough to READ before you do anything. In time (not long at all) you’ll get the hang of it and you’ll be earning to your heart’s delight. Going through this guide will give you the start you need.

There primarily three types of freesites, and which are more commonly called, ‘Do-It-Yourself’ (DIY), referral based, and point based.

First we’ll start with referral based freesites since this is probably the most common type of site. There are two ways to sign up, one is to sign up unreferred and the other was is to sign up referred. Signing up unreferred means that you registered for the site through the main page of the freesite. For example, if the freesite name was www.3604free.com and you registered directly from there, which would be registering unreferred. On the other hand, if you signed up referred you would be using what is called a referral link. A referral link looks like http://www.3604free.com/index.php?ref=200000 . The number at the end (200000) is a unique number that every registered member gets so that when they refer people to the site, they are credited with referring that person. The way referral based sites work is that you complete an offer and then you have to refer a certain number of people to sign up using your referral link and complete an offer. An example would be is if you signed up for www.3604free.com and wanted to complete the requirements for the Xbox 360 system, you would have to complete an offer and refer 8 people to do the same.

The next type is DIY sites. These sites require very few, or no referrals in order to get a prize or earn money. Instead, you complete more offers yourself (hence why they’re called do-it-yourself) in order to reach the prize or cash payout. I-deal is an example of a company that is a DIY site.

There is another type of DIY sites which are called ‘Get Paid To’ (GPT). With these sites there are no referral requirements to get a prize. You just get paid by offer, for the offers you do. For example, you sign up for Blockbuster on a GPT site and when you complete it you get $30 put in your account. (if that’s the payout for that offer). From there, the site will have a minimum amount you need to have in your account in order cashout that money in the form of PayPal or check. It usually is between $25 and $30.

The last type of freesites are points based sites. They are similar to DIY sites where you complete offers on your own and don't need referrals. The prizes or cashouts are worth a certain number of points you have to accumulate by completing offers. Each offer is worth a certain amount of points which you are credited when you complete them. This is different from referral based sites in that offers in referral sites require you only to complete one offer, but get a few referrals, and here, you complete the necessary offers yourself to get your prize. If you are having trouble getting referrals, DIY or point based sites would be more for you.

If you're looking for a legitimate site, check out the forums underneath each category of freesite, the Trophy Case, or ask and we'll give you our experience will that site.

Throughout all of freesites you’ll have to complete offers. These offers can vary from free trials to buying products from sites. Some examples include Blockbuster, eFax, GameFly, PeoplePC, Sirus Radio, and Video Professor, to name a few. Throughout your freebie ventures are a few things to know about offers including how to have them credit, using the offers, and getting credit when they don’t immediately. First we’ll talk about how to have you offers to credit right the first time. Offers are credited using cookies (obviously not the edible type) to track that you clicked on the offer and then afterward to show that you completed it. Before you click on an offer to complete, you want to set your browser up so that it will correctly track the offer you completed. Under Internet Options, clear your cache and cookies, enable cookies, and then enable popups. This way the company will be able to track your completion of the offer without the interference of the browser settings. You’ll have to re-login to the site, but you’ll be ready to start looking at the offers.

It can not be emphasized enough that you should be doing offers that you’re interested in. That’s the whole purpose to the offers. So you shouldn’t cancel the offer right away since you should be trying the offer’s benefits, product and/or services. It’s okay if you find out you don’t like what they’re offering, but you should be spending most, if not all of the trial period trying out what the offers has to show you. After you’ve picked out an offer you’re interested in, you can now begin to sign up for it.

An important step before signing up for an offer is that you should read its Terms and Conditions so you know exactly what the offer is offering and what is trial or service’s terms are. Also if it wasn’t clear on the freesite’s webpage what the offer completion requirements were, here you may find them. The offer completion requirements are what the freesite requires in order for you to get credit for the offer. For example it may be purchasing a certain dollar amount of goods from a site.

In the event where you haven’t received credit for your offer in the time it should, you can request a manual credit for your offer completion. For most sites, you can only request manual credit until a certain number of days after you’ve completed the offer. That number tends to be around 14 days. Check the site's FAQs to see how long you need to wait. When that time has passed, you’ll need one major piece of information to submit that should ensure you credit. That is the confirmation email you received from the offer when signing up. It is important to save those in case you don’t get credit.

Here’s some terminology that people will use that you’ll find helpful to know. During the process of completing your requirements for a referral site there are terms associated with each part and are mostly used when trading referrals. “Gone yellow” means that you’ve signed up (referred) for the site, but haven’t yet completed offer. “Gone green” means that you’ve signed up (referred) and completed an offer, thus completing the requirements of being a referral for someone else. “Gone red/grey” or being DQ’d or “put on hold” means that you have violated one or more of the site’s terms and conditions.

This brings us to breaking the site’s terms and fraud and ways that you could break them. Many, if not all freesites, have basically the same terms when you sign up (with small differences between DIY and referral based sites etc). There are many different ways to break them and we’ll go over them. By not doing, or not doing any of the following, you risk losing the prize you’re going for by being banned from the site. The first is when you are signing up for the site to use your, accurate personal information. Don’t make up a street address or a phone number. I’ve never had a freesite call me, so there’s no need to worry. The information is just for verification purposes to make sure you are who you say you are. Also sites only allow one person per household to sign up for a single site. So if you live with your brother, he can’t do the same site you have/are done, but if he lives down the street from you, then that is fine. The next thing is not to use a proxy when connecting to the freesite or to do offers. If you don’t even know what a proxy is, then you shouldn't have to worry. Using a proxy is where data from your computer is sent to a “proxy server” before being sent to the server you’re connecting to. Essentially it is a way to hide your computer to the server (website). I know you’re asking, why would someone want to do this and the reason is from the previous do-not-do, of signing up multiple times for one site. A proxy will change a person’s IP address and so they can sign up again and try to complete the site twice. Some internet service providers (ISPs) use proxy servers with their services (including, but not limited to, AOL, Earthlink, Netscape, DirectPC, and some DSL providers) and you are urged not to use these ISPs when completing offers. In many cases, you are put on hold immediately for using AOL internet.

Back on the subject of offers, there are ways to get disqualified (or put on hold) through the offers. One thing is that you can only complete an offer once, ever. Doing an offer more than once is considered fraud. Also excessive canceling of offers quickly can be considered offer fraud. You can’t have a legitimate interest in an offer if you’re canceling the service a day later. Take advantage of what the offer is giving you, because there are some sweet deals out there. If you’re a resident outside of the United States, make note of which sites only allow U.S. users to sign up and from which countries they do allow users to sign up. Lastly, try to avoid using a prepaid credit card or giftcard. It is now considered fraud to use one for many reasons. One reason is that people are using them so that when the trial period was over they couldn’t charge them for the service since there wasn’t enough money on the prepaid credit card. What those people are doing is fraud. So don't get lazy and restore to the easy way out by not paying them if you like the service or product. One way to help keep track of what offers you've done is to setup a spreadsheet (in Excel or whatever you have available) and write down important information about the offer (including the name), such as the date of signup, length of trial period, offer contact information, and cost associated with the offer (if any).


There’s so much emphasis on fraud since it’s the biggest way that’s killing the freesite industry. When people fraud offers, advertisers have the pay the cost of a bad quality lead to their site and eventually they stop offering their free trial services. Advertisers (such as Blockbuster) pay freesites to bring them potential customers to them. In return, the freesites pay you to try these offers. When you fraud, not only do you lose when you get caught, everyone else loses since the offers will pay out less.

If you do find yourself put on hold by a site, it may not be a permanent ban from the site. The sites reserve the right to put your account on hold if you violate any of their terms so that’s where it is important to read them. For minor offenses such as having a proxy, but unintentionally since your DSL provider uses them, there’s a good chance of being taken off hold. It’s mainly a case by case basis whether you’ll be able to continue perusing your prize.

Enough about all of the bad things you could possibly do, let’s talk about getting all that nice free stuff. You may wonder how you’ll be receiving all these goodies. It depends on what the item is. If you’re requesting a cash payout, then the mainstream method of payment is through PayPal, which is an online electronic way to receive funds and also a safe method for those skeptics of internet handling of money. Receiving a check is usually always available as an alternate method of payment. If you do have a PayPal account, make sure your account is verified or else they may not send the money until it is. When you sign up for a site, you do not have to use your PayPal email address as the email you enter; it could be whichever one you want. You’ll be prompted later for your PayPal email address and you can provide it then. If the prize is an item such as an iPod it'll be shipped by whichever method of delivery the site uses (USPS, UPS, FedEx or DHL) and tracking numbers are usually available upon your request. One thing you will have to do when you receive a prize that is worth over $600 or if you earn more than $600 from a network of sites in a year is to submit a W-9 tax form to the freesite you have received the prize from. This basically is for the freesite's records to report to the IRS that they paid out this amount of money to you. You will also have to report these earning when you fill out your taxes.

Now how will you get all of those referrals you’re going to need to complete those sites? There are quite a few ways (and some new ones you may come up with). The most common way is to trade being a referral for someone in exchange for them being a referral for you. Another way is for you to pay someone to be a referral or the opposite; they could pay you to be a referral. Prices vary depending on how popular the site is and how credible it is. You are encouraged to create a thread in the Trading Center forum to trade being referrals with others, but spamming referral links and creating tons of threads will not be tolerated. Also you could advertise your referral link on the front page of FreeLunchRoom and those that are looking to signup for certain prizes will use those links! (coming soon) You could also use your own personal webpage to get referrals or even ask friends and family. The ways are nearly countless. It’s up to you to think of new ways. You’re now ready to take on the freebie world. Remember to always read before reacting and when in doubt, ask!

[johnq]

wowzerz! lot of good info. thanks!

[Administrator]

Let us know if you need any more information or help!

[rmann216]

I am reading all that I can before getting started. Thanks for being so detailed and helpful. Makes it a bit less intimidating!

[Gladiator]

Anytime! If anything is unclear just ask and we'll clear it up.

[ruth9396]

Will be doing lots of reading... need all input
Thanks

ruth9396

[soupie]

thanks for info.

[Steph]

WOW, Ok I think I'm almost ready. Thanks for the information.

[Drpat]

Originally Posted by Gladiator

Anytime! If anything is unclear just ask and we'll clear it up.

Thank you for all the info.
Drpat

[cpballard3]

I do agree, it's a lot of helpful info. Thanks

CP