The FreebieTrader’s Blog

They’re existing since decades but these days, with the help of the internet, affiliate marketing programs are almost everywhere. From the smallest company who whish the find new clients to the largest corporation that wishes to strengthen her trademark, a lot of business are willing to pay to spread the word about their product and services.

Since it cost nothing to join these programs and because there is no need for any office and schedule, a growing number of individuals are taking an active part in this home based kind of online business. Some people will spread the news by starting a blog about the subject while others will target more on social medias like; Facebook, Yuwie, Twitter, Linkedin, MySpace and much more…

Will these individuals get paid? Most of the time, yes! In fact the portion of the amount that the affiliate company is paying is usually part of they’re advertisment budget, so if they find new customers they are in fact using these funds wisely. In reality thought what tend to happen is that most of the people who are trying to make some money with these programs don’t have enough knowledge or skills about making money online and don’t know how to market these programs. They end up making very little money, or no money at all because they are not able to reach the minimum payout required to receive they’re check. They end up giving up on the affiliate programs they’re promoting and leave the money on the plate… in which cases the affiliate company wins. But can we call this a scam for real?

Other type of internet businesses are also using affiliate marketing strategies to encourage people to spread the word about their activities. It’s in fact the case of a forum about making an income online with freebies. This website is Calistyle101 this forum is the first of is kind to offer affiliate earnings to it’s members in the freebie industry.

The freebie industry, also called IFW (Incentive Freebie Website) have been one of the greatest way to earn money online in the last years. All related to the affiliate marketing industry, there is no need to advertise the businesses who are partaking into these programs in order to make money. The only thing you need to achieve is to complete some easy requirements and find other people to do the same, then you will receive a commission paid by the freebie network. If you wish to find more about the process you can read more about it at: Calistyle101

Before you decide to dive headfirst into making money with Freebies, there are some terms you need know and learn the meaning.  There are several new words and acronyms relative to the freebie industry that you may not have heard of before.  The freebie trading industry has a language of its own, and knowing and understanding these terms will lead to your success. Here is a list of the most popular terms.

IFW Network: Stand for the networks that produces a series of IFW (Incentive Freebie Website). 

Affiliate: The middleman between the Offer Company and the IFW site. When you click on an offer it is redirected through the affiliate company and they are who gives us credit for completing the offers and pay the IFW for each credited lead.

Avatar: A user’s representation of himself or herself on a forum and other communities in the form of an icon/picture.

Thread: A page post on a forum. 

BUMP: BUMP stands for Bring Up My Post. Anytime someone posts in a thread, that thread goes to the top of the list and is more visible. You are allowed to BUMP your trade thread twice per day, so people take advantage of doing that.

CC: Credit Card. Most offers require the use of a credit card. There are some sites that are no-cc sites. However, these do not count towards your iTrader Rating at the Free Lunch Room Forum

Cookies: Parcels of text sent by a server to a web browser and then sent back unchanged by the browser each time it accesses that server. It is the means of communication between the offer sites and IFWs. They need to be transferred in order for you to get credited. Read more about optimizing your cookies here.

DIY: A “Do it yourself” site. These sites do not require you to refer anyone. You get incentives for just signing up and completing offers on your own. It isn’t as lucrative as referral based sites, but it is a way of making some extra cash.

FLR: Free Lunch Room – A trading forum that used to be sponsored by Project Payday. It is very “newbie friendly”.

CalyStyle 101: A Freebie Trading forum that offers great ressources and video tutorials on how to make money with freebies as well as affiliate earnings.

Forever Green/Repeatable: When a Freebie/IFW site is forever green/repeatable, it means that once you have met the offer requirements (gone green), you no longer have to complete any offers. You can continue to refer individuals and cashout as many times as you like. It’s a beautiful Thing. For a list of Forever Green/Repeatable sites, click here

Gone Red/On Hold: When a referral has gone red, that individual has violated one or more of the IFW’s Terms of Service, and his/her account has been put on hold until the issue is resolved. When this happens, the referrer reserves the right to a refund.

Green: When your referal has gone green, this means that they have signed up at a freebie site and completed the offer requirements of that particular site.

IM: Instant Messaging (IM) is a form of real-time communication between two or more people based on typed text. The text is conveyed via computers connected over a network such as the Internet.

ISP: An Internet service provider (abbr. ISP, also called Internet access provider or IAP) is a company or business that provides access to the Internet and related services.

MCR: Manual Credit Request. If you complete an offer and didn’t receive credit, you can sometimes fill out a Manual Credit Request to the IFW and they will investigate it further. However, many sites do not allow this any more.

PM: Private message. When communicating with users via a forum (e.g. FLR), you usually use a built-in messaging system. This is referred to as sending a PM.

Prize: An incentive that freebie sites offer you in exchange for meeting the offer requirements and referring individuals to complete offers. Examples are iPods, computers, laptops, TVs and cash in your PayPal.

Referral Link: A link that is assigned to a particular individual that has their unique user ID so that they can send others as there referral.

TOS: Terms of Service.

TR: iTrader Rating (TR) shows the number of trades an individual has completed with other individuals at a certain forum (i.e. the Free Lunch Room, Anything4Free, Referral Swapper).

I will be upating this post with addition terms over time. If you have some terms you would like to add, or  you need additional explanation please leave a comment.

Like in any legitime industry  rules are  important to preserve the security of the traders (you and me). In order to minimize the risks of being scammed or frauded by malicious people the Networks who offers these freebies have sets a few simple but obligated rules to be absolutly observed by the people who wants to start freebie trading.  Since these Networks (IFW sites) are making their money by getting the greatest amount of people to complete the offers available from their affiliates companies, they want to make sure their sites are as secured as possible.  So if you are interested in starting freebie trading here are the rules you will any to observe:

1. You must be at least 18 years old
2. You MUST have a PayPal Account (becoming verifed is better). If you don’t have one, you can sign up for one by clicking here: PAYPAL
3. You MUST have a valid home phone
4. You can NEVER do the same offer twice
5. You MUST use real contact information
6. You can NOT use a prepaid card, or a Paypal Debit Card.
7. Only 1 account allowed per household. DO NOT let anyone else register from your home, or you will be put on hold and won’t be allowed to get your free gift.
8. AOL and other proxies are NOT allowed. You can find out if your internet service uses a proxy by clicking here. If it says that you are using a proxy, you may NOT use the services.

These rules are installed in order to protect the traders, the freebies sites and the affiliates companies represented by the IFW sites.  They seams very strict but they are important for the securtiy and the well being of the freebie industry. Happy Trading!