My experiences in getting freebies with Points2Shop

A few weeks ago I was doing an offer on MySpace for some "YoVille" points for my wife's game. A friend told me that I could do the same offers on a site and be able to buy things using those points on Amazon.com. "It isn't the easiest thing" he said, "but if you dedicate some free time it pays off quickly."

So I did, I signed up under his ref link (mine is http://www.points2shop.com/?ref=bkistheone) and became a member of Points2Shop. So far, I've received a few neat toys thanks to this site but before I go onto that. I need to provide some ground rules.

• Only one account is allowed per household/address/IP address. Why the IP address? Because its hard to tell if your cheating or not, or most importantly its hard for the advertisers to tell. The 1 IP Address rule includes schools. So if you don't get a static IP address from your school, you'll probably get banned. Sorry College kids.
• No auto-fill or robofill applications. These apps get detected using various javascript apps and usually result in your offer points not getting approved or getting down-right denied. I learned this my first day when none of my offers were getting approved.
• Use accurate and valid information. Remember the advertisers are paying for both your time and your information. If you don't want to give your cell #, avoid doing so by 'passing' on that offer. Most do require at least a voice phone, for that I recommend Skype or another similiar company. Using false names, addresses and phone numbers can get you banned, causing you to forfiet your points.
• No Spamming when trying to get referrals. Provide insightful and unique information, this not only will esure your postings don't get tagged as spam, but also that people who sign up actually want to spend their time and complete offers. What good is having 50 referrals and none do anything? They don't enjoy the site and frankly neither do you.

Now that the groundrules are laid, I'll give you an idea and some tips on how to use the site.

When you create an account, first thing you may want to do is update your profile. Doing so will more or less bring you into the community. Not only is it a place to get free stuff but its also a great place for friends and to have a conversation. People will gladly help you out in the forums or the shoutbox depending on your demeanor.

After your profile is created, you now want to complete a few offers for points. In the main offer list you'll see a few things;

• Offer name
• The 3 step boxes
• Offer information such as how many points you earn for this offer, how many people have been awarded, how quickly it awards the offer and what percentage of the offers completed get awarded.

Usage is simple, select an offer by clicking on the 'view offer' in the step 1 box. Complete the offer and come back to the page and click 'Mark as completed' and once that is done, you'll get the Spin2Win window (to win prizes, kinda like a slot machine). If you want more information on the offer before completing it, you can click on the name which will reveal the offer graphs and detailed information.

Once you complete an offer, if succesful you'll get rewarded points anywhere from 30 seconds to 72 hours (3 days). Anytime after 3 days the offer probably won't be approved for points. This happens and is at the discression of the advertiser, not Points2Shop. Not all offers will be approved but most will provided you completed them correctly. Some tips for getting your offers approved are;

• Always use accurate information! This is the BIGGEST reason offers don't get approved.
• Use FireFox or Google Chrome. IE seems to have the LOWEST approval rate compared to FireFox or google Chrome.
• DO NOT use addons like AdBlock Plus, Autofill, Roboform, NoScripts, etc. Most of these will either block cookies, cause you to get denied on points (autofill/roboform) and such. Do NOT use the addons unless you expect at least 60% of your offers to not be approved.
• This one is hard to recommend, but many times anti-virus applications cause issues with these sites blocking their tracking cookies. If possible use a Virtual Machine or another PC to do your offers in, that way you can get a higher approval rating. Personally, I don't risk it, I take the lower approval rating over not having Anti-virus any day.

Don't get discouraged if your offer doesn't get approved, like I said earlier this happens. If you are persistant and honest you'll get points in no time. I've received a few items for my XBOX 360 and I've seen others that have received ipods, gaming systems and such. In the shoutbox on the site, click on the names of people in Green or with 'elite' or 'platinum' status. You'll see all the items they've ordered and received. Feel free to ask, and if you are ever unsure about anything, don't do it. :)

If you sign up with my referral link (http://www.points2shop.com/?ref=bkistheone) be sure to message me and I'll provide whatever help or insight I can.