I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately, so I thought I’d go ahead and address some things to all at once.  Sorry if this seems a bit lengthy, but there’s a lot of useful information I want to pass on to you.
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~~~  Advertisers and Affiliates ~~~

Advertisers and Affiliates are NOT the same thing.

The “Advertiser” is the first part of the offer Name:

*** Examples of  “Advertisers” in the offer Names below are:  RGC, DS, Eversave:

RGC - Fried Chicken - US [Id:2717 - rr1557]
DS - Red Lobster - US [Id:2716 - rr1556]
Eversave - Pasta Recipes - US [Id:2712 - cs4222]

The “Affiliate” only pertains to you as far as which offers are on Auto-Approve vs Manual-Import.

*** Examples of “Affiliate” codes in the above links are:  rr, cs

They are the 2-letter codes followed by a set of 3, 4 or 5 numbers in the offer’s Name.

These are helpful to know when like, say for example, you are trying to win a time-limited race or contest.
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~~~  Manual-Approving Codes ~~~

Currently, the following Affiliate codes are set to manual-approve:
- ac
- az
- cm
- cp
- ir
- ma
- oq
- pc
- pn
- ra
- tn

~~~  Auto-Approving Codes ~~~

Currently, the following Affiliate codes are set to auto-approve:
- cs
- lp
- ex
- iz
- ru
- em
- cv
- ch
- rr
- vc

Note:  This list changes as new Affiliates are added and deleted.
TIP:  You can use the Search by Offer Name box for these by typing in the box (example):
- ex
(that’s typing: space dash space ex)
It will pull up all offers (for example) that have  - ex in their Name.
========================================
~~~  Auto-Approving vs Manual-Import ~~~

So what does auto-approve mean?  Well, first of all, it DOESN’T always mean “instant”.

It just means that upon successful completion of an offer, the Affiliate posts-back (via automated scripts) to this site the approved offer - which then automatically credits your FGMO account.  Again, this all takes place via automated scripts from the Affiliate’s site to this site.

Here’s  an EXAMPLE of the basic way these things work:

1.  “Advertisers” (like say Eversave) hire an “Affiliate” (say like cs) to run their offers and generate leads/sales.

2. “Affiliate” now (like cs), then pays their network of “Publishers” (say, like FGMO) to run their advertiser’s offers.

3.  “Publishers” (like FGMO) then run the offers to their members (YOU).

Confused yet? ;)  Well don’t be!  I will try to explain it as basic and simple as I can:

What “usually” happens is that when you complete an offer with criteria, valid and required info, etc…, a pixel script runs on the Advertiser’s page - which then credits the Affiliate - who then credits the Publisher account - who credits YOUR ACCOUNT.

All of this is done automatically and by scripts and takes place instantly or in batches.  There’s no live person that sits somewhere and does this stuff.

The only difference with manual-import credit is that the Publisher (me) has to manually log in to their Affiliate’s account and pick up the approvals and credit your account.  There’s no automated script that runs between the Affiliate and the Publisher’s website in these cases.

I log in to my Affiliate accounts for these every morning fore sure and usually once more sometime during the day.  When I’m running races and contests, however, I usually do it more often so you get credit for these as soon as possible.

So, there you have it.  Although there are several factors and variables, Auto-Approve offers “usually” approve and credit your account within a minute to a few hours.  Manual-Import credit offers “usually” approve and credit your account within a few hours to the next day.
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~~~ Re-trying Offers ~~~

So, “usually” and “generally”, if you have completed an offer and it hasn’t approved within 24 hours, it’s probably not going to.

And, “YES”, you are allowed to re-try it….. however….

If an offer doesn’t approve and you want to re-try it, my advice would be to wait at least 3 days before trying it again.  You have to Delete the offer from your Pending folder first before it will show up and be in your available offers again.

NOTE: An offer that has not approved isn’t considered a repeat or duplicate unless you’ve done it and it approved more than once - anywhere and/or ever.

This means that once you’ve done an offer, regardless of which website you did it on AND it approved, you cannot do it again anywhere or ever again.  Only then is it considered a dup, duplicate or repeat.
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~~~ Offer Families/Groups ~~~

If you’ve been around GPT sites for awhile, you probably already know that many, many offers - even though their Names are different - are actually coming from the same Advertiser.

For EXAMPLE, see how the following list of offers have different Advertiser names:

ORC - PSP go System - US [Id:2662 - ir983]
CIR - Apple MacBook Air - US [Id:2685 - pn1102]
EPAG - Two Apple iPhone 3GS - US [Id:2672 - em923]
UGZ - iPhone, Voyager, or RAZR2 - US [Id:206 - cs1702]
PPO - Samsung DVD Player - US [Id:106 - cs2113]

Well, all of these offers are actually coming from the same “Advertiser”.  Therefore, these offers are in the same Offer Family/Group.

This is helpful information to know when it comes to completing offers in the same Offer Family/Group.

Most members have found that by waiting and allowing an offer to approve before trying another offer in the same Offer Family/Group increases chances of approving.

* A handy list of OFFER FAMILY/GROUPS can be found at the end of this post.
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~~~ More on Offer Families/Groups ~~~

Many Advertisers who run several offers usually only have a limited number of backend pages.

What does this mean?  It means that even though all the first pages of the offer are different, they all go to the same backend pages.  Same database.

For example, say there are 12 different Brandarama offers.

You do 3 of them and they approve, but for the life of you - you can’t get anymore to approve!

Why?  It is because although there are 12 different Brandarama offers, the advertiser only has 3 different backend pages.  Meaning, only 3 of them are going to approve - regardless.

A few Affiliates do tell us site owners to only run 2 or 3 or whatever amount of certain offers because of this.  However, for the most part, they don’t and so we do not know how many different backend pages there are for most Family/Group offers.

So, this is another reason why you’ll be “on-a-roll” doing (for example) 2 or 3 Brandarama offers and they approve, no problem and then you get stuck.

Again, it’s because although the name, title and front of the offer are different, the backend of the offer is the same and shares the same database.  A lot of times you can get more of these to approve by waiting a couple days, as they may only allow 1, 2 or 3 to approve every 24 hours, per IP Address or some other criteria.
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~~~ Database Scrubbing ~~~

The process “Database Scrubbing” is another useful term to be aware of.

Typically, a database scrubbing tool includes programs that are capable of correcting a number of specific type of mistakes, such as adding missing zip codes or finding DUPLICATE, INVALID and FRAUDULENT RECORDS.

Many Advertisers and Affiliates use “Scrubbing” to look for (scrub) DUPLICATES, INVALIDS and FRAUDULENT leads.

Again, these are automated programs, so there is no live person that sits there and manually “scrubs” a database before approving or denying a completed offer.

So, when you complete an offer and duplicate, invalid and/or fraudulent info is detected, it is scrubbed and the offer will either sit pending forever or deny.

These are sophisticated systems folks, so everything including, but not limited to:  Name, Address, Phone Number, Email Address, IP Address, ISP, etc… are “scrubbed” for duplicate, invalid and/or fraudulent information.
========================
~~~ IMPORTANT - COOKIES ~~~

First, your computer MUST be set up to ACCEPT COOKIES, otherwise you are wasting a lot time on offers that aren’t going to approve.  How to make sure you are set up to Accept Cookies:
http://freegas.freegasmoneyonline.com/help/index.php?qid=33

EVERY TIME YOU CLICK ON AN OFFER, A “COOKIE” IS PLACED ON YOUR COMPUTER!!!

That’s right - I said “click”.

IT DOESN’T MATTER IF YOU ACTUALLY COMPLETE THE OFFER OR NOT.

JUST CLICKING ON THE OFFER’S LINK AND VISITING THE ADVERTISER WEBSITE puts a “Cookie” on your computer.

JUST CLICKING ON THE OFFER’S LINK AND VISITING THE ADVERTISER WEBSITE puts a “Cookie” on your computer.

Did I mention yet that ….
JUST CLICKING ON THE OFFER’S LINK AND VISITING THE ADVERTISER WEBSITE puts a “Cookie” on your computer.

A “Cookie” or “Session” ( are different but basically serve same purpose)…

A Cookie script: Writes a temporary file (code) on the user’s computer that tells the Advertiser if you are a new, unique user/visitor or not.

If you have a stored cookie or session already on your computer as a result of having been there before, most likely, your offer will not approve.

I know you’ve been told, read and/or have seen this lots of times before from other site owners and forums, BUT seriously, if you remember nothing else here, REMEMBER THIS:

CLEAR YOUR COOKIES before you CLICK on and/or start an offer AND after you’ve completed and/or closed one out.

And, FYI:  A lot of people have reported that especially Internet Explorer 6 doesn’t do this properly.  Even though it is showing you that your Cookies are cleared - they are not.

Members are having to actually close out their browser and re-open it again for Cookies to fully and properly clear.

I totally recommend using the Firefox browser.

You know fore sure your Cookies have not properly cleared if you go to complete an offer and your contact information is already pre-filled in the form.  I’m not talking about if your information is pre-filled in the forms a couple pages into the offer.  It is suppose to do that so DON’T CLEAR YOUR COOKIES IN MIDDLE OF AN OFFER.  I’m talking about if you click on an offer to start it and your zip code or email address or like that is already filled in.

If you don’t know how to Clear Your Cookies, go here:
http://freegas.freegasmoneyonline.com/help/index.php?qid=32
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~~~ GPT Industry Conversion Rates ~~~

FYI….

Just so you know - the GPT (get-paid-to) INDUSTRY’s standard conversion rate is NO WHERE near 100%.

Believe it or not but it’s more like 10% - 20%.

What does this mean?  It simply means that even if you do everything correct and perfect and so on - not all the offers you complete are going to approve.

That’s just the way it is in this industry.  There’s many known and unknown reasons for this.  One of the biggest known reasons (besides all that is listed above) is that not everyone meets certain “criteria” that the advertiser is looking for.  And, because they keep some of their “criteria” some big mystery - not all offers are going to approve.

So, technically if more than 10%-20% of your completed offers are approving then you’re doing better than the “industry standard”.  Which, by-the-way, if offers on FGMO aren’t approving at least a 40%-60% rate I remove them.
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~~~ About This Info ~~~

Most of all this info comes directly from conversations with advertisers, affiliates, site owners, industry-related folks and my own first-hand experience.  So, I’m not just pulling this stuff out of a hat or something LOL.  I hope you will find this info helpful and useful.  Please gimme a holler if you have any questions!

Alot of this information is helpful to know on a FYI basis.

So, as you can see, site owners have very little to do with whether or not your completed offers approve.

Our part is pretty much limited to making sure that we are linking the offers properly.
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~~~ LIST - Offer Family/Groups ~~~

This isn’t an exact science, but can be a useful list as far as knowing which offers belong to an Offer Family/Group.  If you see any mistakes or know of more, please let me know!

Same Advertiser Family/Group:
LIS -
PharmDaily -
Responsive Health -

Same Advertiser Family/Group:
ORC -
CIR -
EPAG -
PPO -
NOP -
UGZ -
TCG -
TAG -
FFG -
CRZ -

Same Advertiser Family/Group:
GIA -
Brandarama -

Same Advertiser Family/Group:
FPG -
RRG -
TAO -
FCB -
IBS -
SSR -
OEW -
FBA -
FFG -

Same Advertiser Family/Group:
HFTM -
MID -
A#7 -
RA - (rewards aisle)

Same Advertiser Family/Group:
SAS -
GC -
GCS -
RSC -
GD -
GCB -
CGC -

Same Advertiser Family/Group:
HGZ -
YGZ -
FPW -

Same Advertiser Family/Group:
PSP -
HTS -

Same Advertiser Family/Group:
ERC -
MRC -
COB -

Same Advertiser Family/Group:
CNG -
WS -
CB -
WSHTS -
CE -

Same Advertiser Family/Group:
RA - (rewards advantage)
ED -
ES -
LGS -
NSP -
RB -

Same Advertiser Family/Group:
TKS -
Eversave -

Same Advertiser Family/Group:

NSPI

CSSI
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Since Jimmy Rig ain’t the handiest tool in the box, he needs your help in order to solve his mechanical problems and automotive questions!

Get Jimmy Rig Trivia questions right to win free Cash and Miles Bonuses.

.Latest Jimmy Rig Trivia Question for 02/26/09:

Jimmy is trying to impress his poker buddies with his vast knowledge of knowing everything there is to know about popular vehicles on TV and in the movies, but is having a little trouble in figuring out which make, model and color Starsky and Hutch drove.  Can you help? Was it the:

1. 1978 Ford Bronco - red & blue
2. 1977 Ford Thunderbird - red
3. 1975 Ford Gran Torino - red & white
4. 1975 Ford Ranger - red & white
5. 1976 Ford Mustang - blue & white

Post your answer by using the Comment form. Use your FGMO Username in the “Name (required)” box so I can credit your account if you win!

—– This Trivia has ended and is closed —-

.

Now, although various member forums can offer a place to vent and discuss, most have zero legal power, which is almost always necessary in order to take action and get results.

I wrote an article on this topic quite a while back that included a bunch of resources but can’t seem to find it.

None-the-less, after doing a quick search related to victims of Internet fraud and scams, you may find the following list of sites and resources useful:

• Fraud.org
• Internet Crime Complaint Center
• Better Business Bureau (Look Up Site)
• FBI - Internet Schemes
• Consumer Fraud Reporting

If you feel you have been ripped-off and/or a victim of Internet crime, fraud or scams - you can take action.  Now, that’s just a quick list of resources - but a good place to start.

If you have or know of other resources, I encourage you to post them!

Bex

Since Jimmy Rig ain’t the handiest tool in the box, he needs your help in order to solve his mechanical problems and automotive questions!

Get Jimmy Rig Trivia questions right to win free Cash and Miles Bonuses.

.Latest Jimmy Rig Trivia Question for 12/01/08:

Jimmy is trying to impress his Japanese friends with his extensive knowledge of foreign cars but it having a little trouble in figuring out what the first Japanese car to be produced in the United States was.  Can you help?  Was it the:

1. Honda Accord
2. Mazda Miata
3. Toyota Camry
4. Nissan Maxima
5. Dodge Neon

Post your answer by using the Comment form.  Use your FGMO Username in the “Name (required)” box so I can credit your account if you win!

Drivers to post the Correct Answer before trivia closes WIN a Free $0.25 Bonus!

.

Since Jimmy Rig ain’t the handiest tool in the box, he needs your help in order to solve his mechanical problems!

Get Jimmy Rig Trivia questions right to win free Cash and Miles Bonuses.

.Latest Jimmy Rig Trivia Question for 10/14/08:

Jimmy can’t see where he going and is having a hard time getting home from work tonight!  His windows keep getting foggier with every breath he takes.  What should Jimmy do?

1. Stop breathing till he gets home.
2. Turn on the radio.
3. Open the trunk.
4. Pop the hood.
5. Turn on the defrost.

Post your answer by using the Comment form.  Use your FGMO Username in the “Name (required)” box so I can credit your account if you win!

The first 20 drivers with the Correct Answer win a Free $0.25 Bonus!

.

Post your useful tips and suggestions to help your fellow drivers succeed!

$0.25 for all useful tips and suggestions that I approve and post.

To get credit for posting a tip, make sure to use your FGMO Username in the Comment form - Name (required) box or I won’t be able to credit you.

Since Jimmy Rig ain’t the handiest tool in the box, he needs your help in order to solve his mechanical problems!

Get Jimmy Rig Trivia questions right to win free Cash and Miles Bonuses.

.Latest Jimmy Rig Trivia Question:

Jimmy is having a hard time figuring out what kind of fuel to put in the semi-truck he’s fixing.  Help him out.  What type of fuel should he use?

1. Unleaded
2. Corn
3. Diesel
4. Propane

Post your answer by using the Comment form.  Use your FGMO Username in the “Name (required)” box so I can credit your account if you win!

The first 10 drivers with the Correct Answer wins a Free $0.25 Bonus!

.

Successfully complete any 10 High Octane Paid Offers within a 24 hour period and earn a Free $5 Bonus! Limit 1 bonus per day - per driver.

I realize some offers will not approve within 24 hours - that’s fine.  We will go by the time and date you complete them and Mark As Pending.

After you have completed your 10 High Octane Paid Offers, submit a Ticket to me referencing the Road Trip Bonus. Upon successful verification, I’ll credit your account with the $5 Road Trip Bonus.

Promotion Effective as of: 10-07-08. Promotion ended: 10-19-08.

I sure hate having to post this, but there always seems to be those few who insist on fraud and cheating… so - If you complete the 10 High Octane Paid Offers and receive the Road Trip Bonus BUT your offers are later Denied or Reversed by the advertiser - your Bonus will also be Denied and Reversed.

Suggest them here!  If I can get them - I will.

Now, in addition to earning ca$h - you can now also earn Miles.

Actually, this works out great since I’ll now be able to add offers that affiliates won’t allow for cash-based incentive.  Instead, you’ll be able to earn Miles for completing these offers and then redeem your Miles for Prepaid Gas Cards, Prepaid Visa Cards and other items that aren’t considered “cash”.

Okay, so what are Miles going to be worth?
1 Mile = $0.01

Examples:
100 Miles = $1.00
500 Miles = $5.00
1,000 Miles = $10.00
5,000 Miles = $50.00
10,000 Miles = $100.00

I’ll start adding a bunch of Miles based offers over the next few days for ya.

If you have any ideas or suggestions as to what types rewards I should add for withdrawing Miles - please let me know!