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PayPal:
I would highly suggest that you register for a totally
free
PayPal account (if
you don't already have one) so that you can receive prompt and convenient
payment:
PayPal is like
an online bank (but not) where you can send, receive money online,
and a whole bunch of other options. I consider PayPal
(owned by eBay) an extremely trustworthy service. PayPal goes
way back to the inception of the internet and has become one of
the webs most valuable resources.
When presented
with a choice of account type - personal, premier, or business (all
of which are free) - I would highly suggest selecting premier or
business (personal accounts are limited to only a handful of transactions
per year.)
Once you have
your free PayPal account open and verified and you have been a PayPal
member in good standing for at least 60 days you may also want to
request a PayPal Debit Card that can be used as a MasterCard credit/debit
card anywhere (even online) or you can trot down to your local ATM
and take out your cash immediately.
If you have a
business or aspire to own a business then you may want to open up
a
PayPal
Business Account:
OboPay:
Another
way to send make sure that you have all bases covered in receiving your
payments fast is OboPay.
OboPay is a fairly
new online payment processing service that is cell phone / online
based. They routinely have specials for people registering
anew that will instantly add ten-dollars ($10) in totally free money
upon activation and verification. You can also refer you friends
and earn an instant free five-dollars ($5) for each referral.
OboPay is enjoying
a widespread adoption as a main form of payment for many of the
better and more established paid survey / incentive / GPT sites
out there and it is a nice optional alternative to PayPal.
OboPay temporarily
suspended their debit card program without elaborating but word
has it that the debit card program will be restarting in a matter
of weeks (news as of March o4, 2008)
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Automated
Form Field Entry Tools (...or risk typer's cramp?)
RoboForm:
Roboform is the top-rated
Password Manager
and Web Form Filler that completely automates password entering
and form filling. RoboForm was named
PC Magazine Editor's Choice,
and CNET Download.com's Software of the Year. RoboForm has both
a free trial version and full (paid for) more robust versions.
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Google
Toolbar:
...or simply go with the FREE
Google Toolbar:
"AutoFill
-- Tired of typing in your address and credit card information
every time you shop online? AutoFill makes shopping a breeze by
enabling you to fill out web forms with a single click. Just enter
your info once in the Toolbar's Options dialog box and you're ready
for an online shopping spree. (Note: your credit card info stays
password-protected.)"
It also has
a handy popup/pop under blocker to avoid confusion and keep you
on track while completing surveys and offers.
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Give the original main paying site your REAL information (if you know what's
good for you.)
I'm talking about
the original site (the one listed here on Free Cash Pro) that pays you
by sending you to other sites to complete offers and surveys.
Most of these sites have intricate verification systems that, if you
fail the test by giving fake info then, YOU WONT GET PAID !?!
This is also common
sense, if they send your check to the wrong address or to the wrong
name or try to verify at the wrong phone number then WHAT'S THE USE?
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Avoid getting swamped with SPAM email and telemarketing calls (get yourself
an alternate email address, etc.)
You do have a bit
of leeway when it comes to actually filling out the actual offers and
surveys. Some have been known to "accidentally" miss a number
on their phone number - and that may result in avoiding an unwelcomed
or unexpected call or two (smile) though I wouldn't openly recommend
this.
There are services
that offer you a totally free phone number with voice mail.
You may get notified via email that you have a voice mail message (you
can also play your voice mail messages ONLINE!) Some may use such
services and use their voicemail number for surveys and offers.
This way THEY CHOOSE when if they want to talk to telemarketers (instead
of them interrupting dinner.)
...with "PrivatePhone".
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THOU SHALT NOT use multiple
accounts!
All the sites I have
listed have very sophisticated means of tracking multiple bogus accounts
and will BAN YOU PERMANENTLY and not pay any of your accounts a cent
if discovered. Among the various KNOWN ways of tracking such bogus
accounts might range from the benign "cookie", your unique IP address,
your ISP, your address (duplicate), your phone number (duplicate), or
even your computer network name. Scripts can also recognize your
unique "mo" (method of operation.) I know of cases where users
have been caught cheating by using multiple bogus accounts and have
BEEN ARRESTED and CHARGED with fraud (yes, it IS fraud.)
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A word to the wise on surveys and offers (know how to spot the really nasty
ones!)
Most all of the offers are on the up-and-up.
But, always keep your guard up and always read the fine print!
A very few offers come with surprises that may turn out to be a headache
for the unwary. In my online travels I have run across offers
that seem too good to be true until you read the fine print.
Here are
a few snags to look out for:
-
Offers that state
in the fine print that you are signing up for some sort of service
(usually voice mail, or the like) that will be billed on your
telephone bill (yes, they CAN do this - even if you give them
the wrong number! -- they'll look you up and "correct" your obvious
error (smile)) This practice is called "cramming" you
phone bill (though in most cases YOU are actually signing up to
be billed if you read the fine print.) You can read a bit
more on cramming
here (FCC link.) My advice is to always read the fine
print and call your telephone service provider (AT&T, etc.)
to "Block Third Party Billing" (beforehand.)
-
Offers that are
"free trials" that charge you some nominal fee (like a buck or two)
during the trial period but if you don't cancel within the trial
period you will be charged full price (usually a much greater cost)
or that your credit card will be billed on a recurring basis until
you cancel (Argh!) Again, read the fine print! Some
free trial offers may make it difficult, laborious, or impossible
to cancel. Watch out! Free/low cost trial offers that
turn out to be extremely difficult to cancel (some customer service
numbers run perpetually busy, or put you on hold for hours, etc.
...or some web site based cancellation links just lead you to an
"error".) Read the fine print. Save all copies of emails
you receive. Print out any specifics such as login info, account
numbers, offer agreements and terms of service (TOS), etc. that
are presented on the screen. Print and keep a hardcopy file
of all confirmation screens and emails!
-
Offers that ask
for credit card or other private financial information without presenting
you with a secure server. In Internet Explorer, you will see
a lock icon
in the Security Status bar. The Security Status bar
is located on the right side of the Address bar. The certificate
that is used to encrypt the connection also contains information
about the identity of the website owner or organization. You can
click the lock to view the identity of the website. If you
are being asked for any private financial information without them
taking minimal precautions to protect that information (by using
a secure connection) then move on - don't give them any information!
-
Cell phone offers
that have you enter your mobile phone number, wait for a text (sms)
message containing a pin number or password, and then have you enter
the number in back on the web site. They will call this "confirmation".
Usually, what you actually are doing by confirming your pin number
is giving them permission to add you to a subscription service that
will bill your cell phone account some amount ($9.99, $15.99, $29.99!)
on a regular basis until you cancel. Always read the fine
print! Know what you are signing up for. To avoid costly
mistakes you may want to contact your mobile phone service provider
beforehand to see if they offer some sort of subscription service
blocking / 3rd party billing blocking service (beforehand.)
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Prioritize while completing offers and surveys (avoid co-registration):
A lot of the surveys / offers / sites present
you with other offers and surveys duplicated on other main incentive
/ GPT sites. You usually only will have one chance to complete
a particular survey/offer with your correct information. I
prefer to use that one chance up on a site that will either
pay me more, or a site that will pay me faster.
Save the "juicy" offers for the really good sites (usually listed
at the top here on Free Cash Pro.)
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Notice
methods of referring your friends and get paid!:
Most of the sites I list here have some
method of gaining credit for referring your friends, co-workers,
and complete strangers to their site. Look for your personal
"referral link" and pass it on be promoting it on forum sites, blogs,
and your own web site(s) (when the other person clicks on your link
and signs up, you get the credit.) If you are a web site owner
you can make extra money by advertising these sites using an "affiliate
program".
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The care and
feeding of your browser cookies:
Their are many people and site owners that
will try and push their own particular advise on proper browser
cookie handling upon you - unfortunately most of the popular advise
out there is patently WRONG. Using an improper cookie handling
procedure will likely cause you to miss credit for offers that would
have normally credited if only you new the secrets behind the offer
tracking and crediting system.
Before I go on... If you have no idea
what a browser cookie is I would suggest that you take a look at
The Unofficial
Cookie FAQ or browse on over to the
Wikipedia article on the HTTP cookie.
Some people and anti-spyware software would
have you believe that all browser cookies are bad (especially "tracking
cookies".) When it comes to paid survey, incentive, GPT, and
PTS sites (hereafter referred to as the "incentive site" for the
sake of simplicity) cookies are your very best friend.
How do incentivized offers track?
Most use a combination of tracking cookies, the single pixel gif,
a sub-id containing your site membership information, and your unique
ip address.
-
When you click on an offer/survey the
incentive site's software will note your click.
-
You then will be sent to the offer's
url with a sub-id usually containing your incentive site user
name appended to the end of the url. Though is may seem
instantaneous and direct on pretty much any connection other
than dial-up, your browser is actually being sent on a wild
goose chase of many different urls to get to your final destination
(incentive sites use sponsor (or "affilate") networks as a source
of their offers - those sponsor networks usually get their offers
from other bigger sponsor networks.) The only way to properly
make sure that everyone the should be paid for your "lead" will
be paid is to send you through a daisy-chain of successive urls
(each noting and crediting themselves your lead.)
-
Ok, you arrive at the survey/offer.
You fill out information, make a purchase, or perform whatever
"action" is required to generate credit. This is where
the tracking cookie and single pixel gif come into play.
Once the action is performed then you are usually sent to a
confirmation page that will place a cookie on your computer
eventually reporting to the original incentive site that you
have indeed completed the required action for credit.
Another reporting method is the mysterious single pixel gif.
This is a uniquely named image (picture) file that is so small
(1 pixel by 1 pixel) that it is invisible to you that is placed
on the confirmation page. The gif is uniquely named so
that it specifically and only refers to you specifically.
The offer's web server knows that you have completed an action
when a request is made to "show" that one pixel gif (known as
the gif "firing" in the industry.)
-
If the offer site notices that you
already have a cookie on your system from a previous session
at that site (indicating that you are NOT a "unique lead") then
it may internally note this, allow you to continue, though ultimately
report to the incentive site that you are not qualified for
the incentive (ouch!) The same goes for if you are recognized
by your ip address or entered information such as your name,
email address, etc.) Your ip address also plays a part
in identifying if your are within the required geographic location
for that offer.
-
Once you are done viewing/completing
the survey/offer, close browser window of leave the site, and
end up back on the original incentive site then the tracking
cookie reports that you have or have not qualified for your
incentive.
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CONSIDERATIONS:
-
If your browser cookies are disabled
then you will definitely not be credited for the offers - ever
(a setting in your browser's configuration.) To make sure
that your browser cookies are set right simply go to
Google's cookies page. All browsers that I know of
default to cookies on (a minimally proper setting.)
-
If your browser is set not to display
images (any images) then you will most likely not get credited
for offers (the single pixel gif won't be requested and "fired".)
If you see ANY pictures while browsing the internet then you
are all good. All browsers default to images on (the proper
setting.) Some people change this setting usually on lower
connection speed in order to not have to wait for images to
load while surfing.
-
If something (software) or someone
(you) messes with or deletes the proper cookie from your system
before it has a chance to report back to the original incentive
site then you will not get credit for that offer. Many
anti-virus and anti-spyware software packages will delete these
cookies when scanning. Make sure that you don't have any
resident anti-spyware packages running when visiting incentive
sites (though it IS a good idea to run a through scan AFTER
you are done and logged off of the incentive site and all of
the expected surveys/offers have had their credit status finalized.)
-
Lately there has been a trend to recommend
that you clear all of your cookies between each and every offer/survey
completion - I agree with the following caveats:
-
Only delete all of your cookies
after you have gained or been denied credit for each offer
(a big waste of time in waiting the 15 or so minutes - depending),
or (better)
-
Complete a string (series) of completely
different (companies/sites) surveys/offers, delete all your
cookies only after credit acceptance/denial of all those
offers, continue on to complete another string of offers
(this time you may complete any similar offers to the first
string once before deleting your cookies and starting over
with another series. That way similar offers wont
recognize you by your cookies and you don't waste time and
effort deleting cookies when you don't really need to.
...to be continued.
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