One of the most crucial parts of freebie trading is making sure you get credited.  Getting credited means that the freebie site you’re working on knows that you’ve successfully completed an offer.  Without credits, you can’t go green, the freebie site doesn’t get paid, your trading partner doesn’t get paid, and most importantly, YOU don’t get paid!  That’s a tragic end, to be sure, especially after you’ve spent time and (often) money completing an offer.

With this in mind, there are some things that should be done before you begin working on a freebie site.  Here’s a list for your reference (details follow):

-    Are you using AOL or another proxy server?
-    Disable all pop-up blockers
-    Accept all cookies
-    Clear cookies and cache (do this before EACH offer you complete!)
-    Make sure pop-up and cookie blockers are turned off in your security software

1.  How to know if you’re using a proxy and why it’s important:

Freebie sites and offers track you via your IP address – the unique number assigned to your computer.  This is a big anti-fraud measure that prevents people from completing offers more than once.  Proxies, like AOL and some DSL and satellite providers, are companies that assign a single IP address to groups of computers.  Because you share an IP address with many other computers, it becomes impossible to tell whether or not a user is committing fraud.

Here’s a quick and easy way to find out if you’re on a proxy server: follow this link http://www.lagado.com/proxy-test and look at the results.  Simple!  If you’re not on a proxy, you’re good to go.  If you are, hold up!  We’ll make it work, but it’ll take some doing.  Contact me and we’ll go from there.

2.  Download Firefox

Firefox is a free web browser just like Internet Explorer or Safari.  You can download it here.  It does the best at keeping track of cookies, and the cookies are what tell a freebie site when you’ve completed an offer.  I know you’re familiar with IE or Safari, but do yourself a favor and get Firefox.  It’s a small download, works almost exactly the same way as your normal browser, and you’ll do better with crediting!

Once you’ve downloaded, there are certain steps you’ll need to take before completing each offer.  Here they are, for PC and Mac users:

PC users:

A. Turn off your pop-up blocker: Tools > Options > Content > uncheck “Block pop up windows”

B. Set it to accept all cookies: Tools > Options > Privacy > check “Accept cookies from sites”

C. Clear cookies and all private data: Tools > Options > Privacy > Select “Clear Now” in the Private Data category, and make sure Cookies and Cache are selected.  The other choices are optional.

Mac users:

A. Turn off your pop-up blocker:  Firefox >  Preferences > Content > uncheck “Block pop up windows”

B. Set it to accept all cookies: Firefox > Preferences > Privacy > check Accept cookies from sites and Accept third-Party cookies, keep until: they expire.

C. Clear cookies and all private data: Firefox > Preferences > Privacy > Clear Now under the Private Data category.  Select ALL the options.  It’s a pain to lose that kind of information, but it’ll save you some crediting issues – I learned from hard experience!

How to turn off pop-up and cookie blockers in security software:

There are lots of different security software packages out there, so it’s impossible for me to describe the steps for each one.  However, run a search for your security software on FLR or Google – odds are someone else has done it before!

3.  Completing the offer

A. Click the referral link you were given and sign up at the site.  ALWAYS use valid personal information (including home address, no PO boxes or work addresses) and use that SAME information for the offers you complete.

B. Browse the offers and see what interests you.  Make sure you read the Terms of Service - they’re different for every offer, and you WILL be bound to them by signing up!  Freebie websites are not responsible for any of the offers they link you to.  It’s also a good idea to do a search of FLR, especially in the Freebie Help forum, to see what other users’ experiences have been with different products.

C. Once you decide on an offer you like, you’ll want to close the offer website and do everything outlined in Step 2. Log back in to the freebie site, find the offer, and complete the offer requirements.

- Make sure every page loads completely (it’ll say ‘done’ in the status bar at the bottom of Firefox) before you click on the next link.

- Always use valid personal information (that matches what you told the freebie site) and a valid credit card - not a pre-paid card, debit card, or Paypal plugin.  These forms of payment will be considered fraud and you will not receive credit!

- Once you’ve submitted your order and the confirmation page has loaded, stay on that page for several minutes.  Don’t go anywhere else on the Internet; give the site a chance to process your order completely without doing anything to confuse it.  I also recommend taking a screenshot of all confirmation pages - they can be (though aren’t always) useful for submitting Manual Credit Reports (MCRs) if you have to.  Keep records of all account numbers, customer service numbers, trial terms, confirmation emails, and other things of that nature.

- You should receive credit!  The freebie site will automatically email you when you’ve received credit with them.  Keep in mind that ‘instant’ credit isn’t always instant - it can mean anything from a few minutes to a day or more.

D. Move on to the next offer - don’t forget to follow Step 2 again before beginning a new offer!