Big War Bird's Rookie Trader Guide to Making Money

Live forum: http://forum.freeipodguide.com/viewtopic.php?t=57402

Big War Bird

21-03-2007 11:01:35

Please give karma if you find this useful and give it a bump. If more people read this we all will be better off. If there is anything you think should be added post your ideas and I will be happy to take add them (if they are good of course.)

What is Your Green Worth?[/colordda7de9364] [/sizedda7de9364]

As the person to get a green for someone you have a great deal of leverage. There are a lot more people need that last green than there are people willing to get it. Just look at the Trading Post. There are probably 20 threads from people buying greens for every one thread offering to sell them.

So how do you know what’s a good deal? The value of a green varies from network to network (and some within a network). The easiest way to calculate this is is to look at the cash prizes on a site and divide it by the number of referrals it requires. A new fairly new network, V-Bux has on some of its sites a cash prize of $1000 with a requirement of 10 referrals. Thus a Dell.V-bux green is worth $100 (some V-Bux greens are worth $80.) This is the highest I am aware of. Most networks’ referrals are worth between $40 and $50. Of course, the more a referral is worth the more work it will take to earn a green. What may be a full credit offer on other networks might be a half credit offer on the V-Bux network for example. Also be aware that some sites require you to earn two full credits and do not explicitly state this. So when you first browse the offer page it is deceptive in that you see what looks like a tremdously generous sites is really no better or worse than others. An example of this kind of site would be http//80.macrobucks.com/ If you are not sure what a green is worth on a site just ask what the cash prizes are, how many referrals they take and how many credits are required.

So what is fair? That’s a difficult question. As a new unproven trader you will be offered lower payouts or asked to wait until after approval to be paid, or both. As your TR rises people will offer you more and will pay on green as well. Its up to you decide what you want, but for just from observation the average offer is about 50% of the value of a green. Personally I offer about 75% for most sites. Obviously you cannot ask for 100% (except perhaps in an Offer of Doom situation which is described later) but try to negotiate, as your green is more valuable than what is usually offered.

Picking Your First Trading Partners & Beyond[/colordda7de9364][/sizedda7de9364]

Starting fresh you will likely be rather overwhelmed by the sheer number of trades available to you. You should seek out someone with a very high trading record. I recommend a trader with a TR of 100+ (or me!). Browse the first few pages of the Trading Post to find that there are plenty of high TR people offering cash. Send that trader a PM introducing yourself. Make it clear that you are new to trading and will need help. If they are anything like me they will be able to provide you with detailed instructions on how to to get sponsor offers done. They can answer any question you have because they (and me) have seen it all. They are online frequently and can get to your PM's quickly. While they will almost certainly not pay quite as much as lower TR trades will, you can be confident that he is not going to throw away a reputation built over months or years by not paying you. Also the higher someone's TR the easier trades comes to them making them able to submit for approval in less time than others, making your wait time to get paid shorter.

Once you have learned the ropes and are comfortable with how everything works you can now introduce yourself to the wider community. Start a thread in the Trading Post introducing yourself as available to do offers. Prepare for a deluge. I guarantee you I will send you an offer as will every other money grubbing trader that sees your post! Armed with the knowledge of what greens are worth and a little TR from reputable sources, you will be able to quickly evaluate all the trades available to you. Don't feel the need to respond to everyone, just the ones that interest you.

Referral Trading Money Making Strategy[/colordda7de9364][/sizedda7de9364]
So how much time and money and do you want to put into this? Depending on your ambition level I there are one, two or three steps you can follow to in order to make money doing freebies sites

Step One
Getting Cash for Greens[/colordda7de9364][/sizedda7de9364]

Doing greens for cash is the most lucrative activity in terms of time and money spent. Starting out you can complete sponsor offer for only a few dollars, maybe even nothing. You can spend $2 on a green and get $22 from another trader for a 1000% profit margin plus you may also earn gift cards and have access to some good services and products. And the risk is relatively low too. Even if you are scammed and never get paid you are only out a few dollars anyway. And you can get pretty good revenge by pulling your green from the freebie site and also getting that scammer locked out of other freebie sites too. You will also learn a lot about the quirks and pitfalls of the technicalities of completing offers and of the different networks.

[bdda7de9364]You can earn a lot of cash very quickly just by being a referral for others.[/bdda7de9364]

If all you want to make some easy extra cash doing greens for cash is by fair the simplest way to go. You can earn several hundred dollars by doing greens for others with minimal hassle and risk. I estimate you could do up to 30 trades before exhausting sponsor offer that can be done profitably. At $30 a trade that would $900. After expenses for offer taken out you will have a profit of about $600 to $700. No bad!


Step Two
Completing Your First Freebie Site by Trading Greens[/colordda7de9364][/sizedda7de9364]

If you are like most serious traders though you will want to get some big prizes for yourself. However don't set you sites too high. Completing a site is not as easy as it looks, especially when you are first starting out. Before try to complete a Freebie site for your own prize, I recommend doing a minimum of 5 greens for paypal cash first. This should earn you between $100 and $150. This much money will be an adequate bankroll to both pay for future sponsor offers that you will need to do.

After getting cash in your wallet you should next look to trade greens for greens. This is where two traders agree to be referrals for each other on their respective sites. No money changes hands so there is no risk of losing money. However that is not to say you cannot still be scammed. Your trading partner may renege on getting a green for you and his green can just as easily turn out to fraudulent as a green that you paid for. Also you will want to be sure that the respective greens are of comparable value. You do not want to be stuck getting a green worth $80 when your site was only worth $40. Trading greens can be very quick or extremely lengthy. If both do offers that credit instantly and there are no issues in crediting then a trade can take less than an hour. However, if either does offers that take days to credit and/or there is a crediting problem then a simple trade can drag on for weeks as manual credits are applied.

Much like doing offers cash you can probably do a maximum of 30 trades before running out offers to do. However at the end you will have completed site and received cash and prize worth $1200 or so. atfter expense will have a profit of $900 to $1000. However it will have take you a lot more time and work to get that money than the person that just did the offers for cash.

This step is going to require a you to spend quite bit more time on the forum boards sending PM's and maintaining your Trading Thread.

Step Three
The Really Hard Part[/colordda7de9364][/sizedda7de9364]

Congratulations you have made yourself a pretty good chunk of change! Now here is the bad news. You now have to start paying for greens cry Paying for greens is risky, expensive and difficult to do. You can still trade referrals from time to time as new offers become available, but paying is now your main tool. Looking at the Trading Post, everyone is paying for greens and you have to compete with them. Paying for greens is a slow process. Frankly your best bet is to just walk away from freebies and get a real job, you will make more money that way! Trying to pay others will make you feel very unloved. Your thread in the Trading Post will go days or weeks without a response. It will now take you much longer to complete sites for prizes. The only way to compete with high TR trades paying for greens is to pay more and pay faster. This of course lowers your profit margin and exposes you to scammers. If you look carefully at both the Scammers section a lot of the people that have problems with getting scammed will have TR of less than 75 - they are in the same boat you are - having to take a lot of risk and little profit.

Some Personal Experince[/colordda7de9364]

The first prize I earned, $850 from Primo Dinero, took me about 2 months of work and waiting. It took a few hundred PM’s, many, many hours typing those PM’s and I paid out around $400 for referrals before I ever got a penny. But this was not even my first attempt at completing a prize. I spent $250 and nearly three months pursuing a $350 prize from the Offercentric Network. I was scammed out of $25 by a trader named Truekeeg and had to fork over $75 for a green worth only $50 because Offercentric requires an Offer of Doom (OOD) to be completed by one of your referrals. If I had been more familiar with that network I never would have pursued it. OOD's are the expensive and/or difficult to complete sponsor offers such as web hosting or satellite TV service. If you are looking to sign up these services you should post in the Trading post that you want to do these offers to cover someone's OOD requirement.


Patience, Patience, Patience[/sizedda7de9364][/colordda7de9364]

Whether you are trying to green for someone else or trying to gather the greens for a prize, patience is the most important personal quality you must have. Nothing here happens as quickly as anyone would like and its easy to get frustrated. Freebies sites know that and depend on a healthy percentage of people quitting before either earning a full credit or completing a site. In my experience thus far, about half of my referrals will not earn a full credit green. Maybe they run into crediting problems, don't want to spend more money, get bored, but in the end they just quit. You will only make money by being patient and presistent.

condra

21-03-2007 11:15:14

this is great

D

hieuandthuy

23-03-2007 22:09:21

thanks for your post . with newbie.. this post is very good

gmario

24-03-2007 02:32:03

Well the reason V-bux pays $100 per green is because refs gotta go threw hell to earn that green which to me is not worth it. wink , anyways nice guide tho lol

sandra habina

25-03-2007 02:58:21

Thankyou Big War Bird, good information. Thanks for sharing with us.

Excel

25-03-2007 08:19:54

Pretty good tips, I hate to see when some people take advantage of newer people and rip them off.

Bhall3

25-03-2007 16:10:51

Good info. This should be a must read for all newbies when they sign-up.

booklover1104

26-03-2007 06:27:15

Yep...love this post...
How come you didn't post this before I got started?!?

Javin

29-03-2007 11:28:46

Thanks for a very informative post. As a complete newbie, it was very helpful to me. I've been in here trying to soak up every bit of information before getting started, so this helps put things into perspective.

[quoted7172fda97]What may be a full credit offer on other networks might be a half credit offer on the V-Bux network for example.[/quoted7172fda97]

This threw me, though. I haven't seen anything about half credit and full credit offers. What does this mean?

laurelwm

29-03-2007 18:18:32

[quote4ea1aec866="Javin"]Thanks for a very informative post. As a complete newbie, it was very helpful to me. I've been in here trying to soak up every bit of information before getting started, so this helps put things into perspective.

[quote4ea1aec866]What may be a full credit offer on other networks might be a half credit offer on the V-Bux network for example.[/quote4ea1aec866]

This threw me, though. I haven't seen anything about half credit and full credit offers. What does this mean?[/quote4ea1aec866]

The network or site determines how much each offer is worth. Some sites only require one offer (or 1 Level A offer on Trainn), some have full credit and 1/2 credit offers (in which case you need to do 2 1/2 credits to fulfill your green), and some sites require more (v-bux is one that comes to mind - harder to green, but has a much higher payout/ref rate).

If you are not familiar with a network before agreeing to a trade, it is ok to ask about the offers available.

Laurel

secondjob

29-03-2007 20:12:07

Not bad advice. The only thing I might add, is that instead of newbie's posting a thread saying "newbie here will go green for cash" I would just start clicking on the threads that are already on the forum looking to pay for greens. I made the mistake of posting a thread declaring that I was a newbie when I first started and I got a little, ok a lot stressed out. I got pounded with pm's, it was crazy. This way newbies can take one trade at a time and have a more successful experience

Big War Bird

29-03-2007 21:40:20

[quoteb5ae25a6e6="secondjob"]Not bad advice. The only thing I might add, is that instead of newbie's posting a thread saying "newbie here will go green for cash" I would just start clicking on the threads that are already on the forum looking to pay for greens. I made the mistake of posting a thread declaring that I was a newbie when I first started and I got a little, ok a lot stressed out. I got pounded with pm's, it was crazy. This way newbies can take one trade at a time and have a more successful experience[/quoteb5ae25a6e6]

Done! +Karma for you

Big War Bird

03-04-2007 20:42:50

Revised and bumped

rsuave

03-04-2007 21:24:46

Thank you for this post, it is very helpful.

linway

05-04-2007 19:30:46

I agree, this was a big help to me. I've read everything I can...just wish all the helpful info could be in one forum instead of so spread out. But I have copied/pasted everything into a folder for quick ref.

Thanks Big War Bird,
Linda

moneymoneynow

09-04-2007 09:58:50

I found this helpful too, so I am bumping it.

toast

Big War Bird

09-04-2007 15:20:37

Revised and Bumped

papillon

09-04-2007 18:29:19

You put into rather concise terms some very important info - things that most newbs just don't realize or think about.

Great Post!

Papillon

qzsue

09-04-2007 22:16:07

Great information, thank you for taking the time to post this. )

HerbieBalls

11-04-2007 16:29:23

I like how you put it out there. Good job, man. -) I want to eventually learn how to make my own freebie site.

guelah75

11-04-2007 19:08:23

nice work, thanks for sharing with the forum

keep up the good work

Jeorgius

11-04-2007 20:51:12

Well done D

Big War Bird

15-04-2007 05:00:48

Revised for clarity

valchat

16-04-2007 11:06:51

Just when I think I'm ready to jump in and get started, I find a thread that reminds me how little I actually know. ) I am grateful for the information and the help. Thanks.

Valerie

Big War Bird

20-04-2007 20:23:26

This just needs bumping

Big War Bird

25-04-2007 18:15:33

Sticky Me?

acrys

25-04-2007 18:20:26

Thanks for the tips. It's very helpful for us newbies.

Big War Bird

29-04-2007 08:10:18

Added new section on patience

aviendha47

01-05-2007 18:22:39

Thanks Big War Bird, lots of good things to keep in mind. I do have a question though... you wrote that you can get rid of a green you did for someone if they don't pay you? How do you do that? Thanks- L )

tinkerjenn

01-05-2007 19:00:00

AH! A Jordan fan )

whiteeagle

03-05-2007 10:17:29

Best detailed Newbie advice so far! Good job. Wish there was more.
All those offers with acronims- TIDy/ BvBuz /Czmos etc etc etc about which we newbie's know Nada - incredable, really.

Guess it's a great lesson in 'Caveat emptor' eh?

don roll

skepticalcynic

03-05-2007 10:53:59

Welcome to FIPG, whiteeagle!

I can personally vouch for Big War Bird's advice - it has helped me stay out of trouble ;)

There are many people here who are very willing to help others and answer questions. All you need to do is ask if you ever need any help.

Good luck 8)

mwh2007

07-05-2007 21:13:37

Thanks for the great advice

kzasu

08-05-2007 04:52:19

I am just starting and find this info very helpful. I would like to know if survey sites I have done can effect me with trading

kimph

13-05-2007 14:38:43

WOW! VERY INFORMATIVE
THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME
KIMPH

cubbieco

14-05-2007 00:36:44

[quote9a51d25cfb="kzasu"]I am just starting and find this info very helpful. I would like to know if survey sites I have done can effect me with trading[/quote9a51d25cfb]

Not likely. The surveys are basically like the offers. Make sure you don't do the same survey twice.

Sweetmama

18-05-2007 00:56:16

Thanks, all your advice has been helpful. BUMP

weebles_five

18-05-2007 05:44:42

Some really great info!!

llanago

18-05-2007 16:21:26

Thanks, Big War Bird, for this info! I just joined and this was the first post I read after reading the rules. I still really don't have a clue as to how all this works, yet - have alot more reading to do, but I sure appreciate your words of wisdom. I am quite sure they will help me avoid some costly mistakes.

Thanks again!
llana

tinkerjenn

24-05-2007 11:46:41

This really should be sticky

Also KNOW AND LOVE THESE TERMS

[b749621aa63]on green[/size749621aa63][/b749621aa63] - when you complete the offer(s) and get credit, you get paid. If something happens and you go on hold, you are expected to pay that money back

[b749621aa63]on approval[/b749621aa63] [/size749621aa63]- you get paid when the person you greened for gets approved and paid. period. This is NOT a form of scamming. This is the buyer protecting themselves from scammers. Have some patience because you WILL be paid!

OurLoot2Boot

30-05-2007 18:04:19

great info, can anyone please tell me how to get newbie removed from my info. been here since jan. and i have donated and added a saying but still have the newbie hanging on me.
thanx

KeithA

30-05-2007 18:16:52

[quotee2b0f58c85="misndon"]great info, can anyone please tell me how to get newbie removed from my info. been here since jan. and i have donated and added a saying but still have the newbie hanging on me.
thanx[/quotee2b0f58c85]

Keep posting. -)

OurLoot2Boot

30-05-2007 19:10:23

lol...thank you. should have known that

zecritr

13-06-2007 13:47:35

very nicely done,keep up the good work

Big War Bird

28-06-2007 13:15:45

Major Revisions!

Big War Bird

21-07-2007 04:15:54

bumpage

Big War Bird

01-09-2007 10:33:29

bump

LovelyLady

16-09-2007 12:43:33

This was extremely helpful. Thank you!

bizkit363

05-10-2007 12:37:04

A wonderful beginners post to learn from !!

Thank you!
(bump for you)

imgood

09-10-2007 15:12:25

I really like this guide! I'm not super new to trading, I've done a couple on anything4free.com

Anyway, this was a really useful guide! Thanks

acidinmyeyes

15-10-2007 23:32:46

Hello. Thanks for all the great info. It covered alot of my newbie questions.

Big War Bird

17-11-2007 21:47:48

minor revisions

Durnfool

06-12-2007 20:45:08

I suppose that if I'm claiming in PMs to have read this, I should probably attempt to prove that I've read this. D

This is great, Big War Bird. I tried to send you Karma and got a weird error message. I hope it went through anyway!

michelle-kcmo

10-12-2007 09:04:46

Good Stuff!

Wish there was more though...

I'm a stay at home mom, currently in the beginning stages of starting what looks to be a VERY lucrative online business. In the process of rounding up venture capitalists and legal jargon, etc. so it is several months off. But, in the meantime, I'd like to make money doing this, more than I have been. I've had really great experiences (except diamond22) with doing greens for others. I got in with some great people!!

I'm finding it hard for my refs to actually green. Out of about 6, I've only had 1 who seems to know what they're doing. That's frustrating. But, I guess that's what happens, just seems like my ratio is awfully high, for some reason.

Thanks to all the people who take this seriously and help others!!

jean30

03-01-2008 18:17:41

Wow... this was ultra-uber informative and helpful! Thanks for taking the time to help all the Newbies.

Bonusworker

10-01-2008 04:53:10

[quote86044ca886][ You should seek out someone with a very high trading record. I recommend a trader with a TR of 100+ (or me!).

At $30 a trade that would $900. After expenses for offer taken out you will have a profit of about $600 to $700. No bad!

However at the end you will have completed site and received cash and prize worth $1200 or so. atfter expense will have a profit of $900 to $1000. However it will have take you a lot more time and work to get that money than the person that just did the offers for cash.

Frankly your best bet is to just walk away from freebies and get a real job, you will make more money that way! [/quote86044ca886]
Couple Grand then (implied 'go')"Walk Away"? I am still laughing..... patience, time, involvement, RISK - all part of the program. I am going to stop my comments here so as not to offend. It is a great post -but fight, fight, fight for respect and a steady freebie income I WILL!!! 8)

michelle-kcmo

24-01-2008 21:18:43

This deserves to be bumped up!! Thanks BWB!

This is what I have started sending to people that ask for help. Notice that this thread is ALWAYS included, as is Margot's Crediting Thread!!

This may be overkill, but I'll tell you, it sure would have helped me in the beginning! This is the way that I do it and I receive credit for just about every offer (except on TheFreebieLife sites~proceed with caution on those), that's MY opinion and I'm sure is not the opinion of everyone else. I know that, so please don't tell me. This is not the place.


Some directions and helpful info for you too!

Now, take a breath and read everything below. It will probably seem overwhelming to you, but it is best to know these things and get credit than to learn the hard way. Trust me, after you have done just a few sites, you will feel like an old pro!

It is ok to use a different email address for your PayPal account. When you sign up on the site it will ask you for info, whichever email address you put in as your email address will be the same one that you need to use when you complete offers. If it is different then you will not receive the credit. However, it will also ask for your PayPal address on the cashrewards site and you can enter a different email address there for them to send your money when you cash out (like I'm doing).

Once you sign up on the site using MY referral link, you will see that it will show you what YOUR referral link is. Be sure to copy and paste that and save them all so that when you start paying for referrals you will have all of the sites that you have done and their referral links. You cannot green on the same site more than once. For instance, if you green for me on CashRewards.Git-R-Free then you cannot go green for anyone else on CashRewards.Git-R-Free.

Be sure to keep track of all of the offers that you complete because you do not want to repeat an offer on another site, that is considered offer fraud. Also, be sure to read carefully all the Terms & Conditions of any offer that you do. Be sure to write down how long the trial offer lasts (if it is a trial offer), the phone number and/or email address to cancel if you decide to cancel before the trial ends. If you do cancel, do not do it until the trial offer is about to expire or you may not receive credit for the offer or it could be taken away.

Be sure to save all of your confirmation emails for the offers that you complete. If you do not receive credit, you can file a Manual Credit Request (MCR) on most sites if the offer has not credited in 7 days (unless it says that it takes longer than that to credit) and you will need the confirmation email.

You confirm the trade in the Trades section which is at the top right of your screen. Once you have completed the offer and it shows that you have received credit then go to the Trades section and click on Offer Completed. Once you have received credit for the site, then change it to Gone Green. PM me and let me know that you have gone green (I'll be checking too) and I will send your payment via PayPal.


Here is some helpful info

Confirm the trade.

Close out of all windows except this forum.

Go to Tools, Internet Options, Delete All Cookies And Delete Files. Be sure to put a check in the box to delete all offline content too.

You can make sure all cookies are deleted by selecting view files, the box should be empty.

Turn off any pop-up blockers, anti-virus or anti-spyware, firewall. (These can prevent the offer from crediting).

Click on the link I provided. (Make sure that it shows you are being referred).

Sign up on the site.

Find which offer you are going to do, be sure to read any terms & conditions that the offer may have. If you have clicked on more than 1 offer, then log out and delete your files and cookies. Log back in to the site using my link, click on the offer and complete it.

Do the offer and wait on that page for 15-20 minutes before closing out.

Then close out of the site.

Delete your files and cookies again before doing another offer or another site.

liliI can send you a link to get CC Cleaner to make sure all of your cookies are deleted. If you want that (which is optional) let me know. I also found a great spreadsheet from someone else that you can use to keep all of your info.lili


Crediting Tips
http//forum.freeipodguide.com/viewtopic.php?t=59132

Greening Guide
http//forum.freeipodguide.com/viewtopic.php?t=57402

PM me with any questions that you may have and I will get back to you just as soon as I can!!