Sorry for no blog and no communication. You remember how I said, the other day, how I felt like a truck hit me? Well, I think it was a FLU truck, because I am so Very Sick. I was hardly able to get on to make my 3 search wins yesterday (and sorry but I don't think an 8 is very MEGA but that's another story.)
I've got the TapJoy blog screenshotted and ready to write, I just ugh I have to run lol. Hopefully I will be feeling better by tomorrow.
Thanks for checking in, I hope you are feeling far better than me!
Happy SwagSurfing!
13 November 2010
11 November 2010
Special Offers Breakdown part 6 - gWallet!
Good Afternoon Swagfriends!
Yes, it's a very late start for me on SwagMelt, but it's been busy for me today, and I have had a splitting headache. Feel like I've been run over by a truck and had to work on it a little bit at a time.
Today I'm going to show you gWallet. First I'll show you the slider, then the offer wall. Before I get to that though, I wanna share a tip I found on the General Info for Newbies thread at the Swagbucks Facebook page.
This tip was posted by Stacey McBride. It gives an option that answers the question a lot of newcomers have : How do I take a screenshot?
I know there have been a few times that people ask about how to do a screen shot. There are a lot of useful addons (firefox) and extensions (chrome) one being screen shots. I have downloaded quite a few on both FF and Chrome to see which one I like best. These are the ones I have liked best (work easiest). Fireshot Capture for FF and Awesome Screenshot for Chrome. I will put the links below if you are interested. You can of course always do a swagbucks search for the program to try and get some swagbucks instead ;-)
Fireshot Capture for FireFox
Awesome Screenshot for Google Chrome
Thanks for that tip Stacey!
A lot of folks post offers from the slider on the Swagbucks Facebook wall. Well what is the slider? Where do you find it?
The Slider is a nifty little offer tool that can be found a little more than halfway down the Swagbucks homepage. It's a yellow bar as you see, and the offer icon move in a slideshow every few seconds. If you click the yellow bar, it "slides" away, revealing a row of special offer icons.
There's a small yellow arrow pointing right. When you click that, the icons slide over and a new row appears. A lot of the gWallet offers are on here, but not all of them.
When you hover your mouse over the icon that interests you, the rest slide away to the right, and you see a description if the offer and it's requirements. Click on the offer name and it opens into a new tab or window.
For this video you have to let it play all the way to the end, and click the banner to get your swagbucks. The banner click opens the Windows 7 Phone Facebook page in another tab.
Videos can also be found on the gWallet offer wall.
These play right there in the little box on the wall, no pop up. Most of the time if there's more than one video to play, they are listed on the first page. Sometimes videos are buried deeper in the Free section.
If you see a box, but it's just black, you might need to reload the page. If you have FireFox, you can right click in the black area, choose This Frame, then choose Reload. That will refresh only the video frame,a nd usually gets it to display.
With the slider, and the wall videos, you may occasionally be allowed to watch it moe than once for credit. To check if you can, just refresh the page after you've watched the video. If it's still there, you can watch it again for swagbucks. Usually they will have 2-4 different commercials to see if you can get credit more than once.
This video credited four times for me. There was a different, short commercial each time I watched.
My swagbucks total wasn't refreshing for me, so I went to my ledger to check. Yup! There they are. Sweet :)
I don't often do download special offers, but the Bing one seemed like a good idea this morning *chuckle*. The only thing is I had to do it in Internet Explorer. It's been so long since I've used IE that my head was spinning. It seemed so strange and foreign and illogical! That I forgot to screenshot the process.
On the bright side, it credited my 54 swagbucks within an hour, so.. win for me! LOL
So instead I did another facebook application offer. This one was on the FREE tab, it was for the game Earth 2.0. Sounded Intriguing!
The requirements are that you are a new user, you install the Facebook application, and that you complete the S.A.I. training missions. The rewards : 6 swagbucks.
Your by now familiar Request for Permission screen.
There is an optional video to play before you press Play Game. The end is near for planet Earth. Apparently near is relative, because after then send terraforming robots into space its's another 300 years (2312) before we are ready to ship humanity off planet. You are one of the few responsible for securing the way.
Woah.. seven stages.. hope they are quick! Actually it moves along fairly well, until I got to refills. It said I could refill once a day, but when I was on the step to refill my energy and stamina, it was already full. So when I clicked on it, I wasn't sure if I'd completed my requirement. After each stage you get a pop up and a reward, but I never saw it for stage 5. However, after looking around, I noticed the Next button for my training stages was available, and moved on. Then you get to stage 7, Squadron. You are supposed to invite 3 friends to play. Just like in Superhero City though, when you invite your three friends, it tells you your invites are pending, do you want to invite friends from your email? IF you just press Skip This Step, it doesn't complete the training. There's a trick though. Instead of pressing Skip, agree to invite from email. It will take you to a permission screen for Facebook to interact with your email. Decline, and you go back to the "Invite from Email screen", but your pending invites message is gone. When you Skip this time, you get your credit and you are done with training.
It's just another Facebook game, really. Missions, Battles, PvP, blah blah blah lol. I guess you just have to pick a genre you like and go with it since so many are so similar.
Once again my swagtotal wouldn't refresh, so I had to check the ledger. There it is! Nice! 2 for two. (Let me tell you, that's a Lot better than the luck I'm having trying to successfully so a TapJoy offer for tomorrows blog!)
What do you do on gWallet if your swagbucks don't show up?
On the top right of the wall is a link that says "Missing Swagbucks?" Click that and it takes you to the usual offer status screen.
Looks pretty good, all those green check marks huh? Note the Zombie offer/ Waste Of Time. Never credits, any wall, ever ever ever. For me anyway. I try once every month or two, fail every time. Most of these green checks are for videos LOL.
If there's an offer you want to inquiry, click Contact Support.
gWallet simply asks for your email address and proofs. Describe your reason for wanting your swagbucks, link your screenshots, forward any confirmation emails (don't send, just press forward) so you can copy / paste them with the header stating what time the original confirmation mail was sent. Press Send, cross your fingers and wait.
That's about all there is to say about gWallet. They rank OK as far as crediting, but you have to stay on them sometimes too. Unlike other companies that might threaten you with a ban *cough* *gambit* Cough* if you dare chase down too many of your swagbucks, they have never harrassed me. So I like them OK, they just don't have many good free offers anymore. I've done too many *wink*
I'm gonna wrap it up, its bath and dinner time, and I need to just .. end the day. I need to be fresh for tomorrows TapJoy post because, it's going to take a mental toll on me. I will try to find some light in the subject, but TapJoy is SO bad about crediting. Maybe one of the 8 offers I tried today will credit overnight and I can bring you some good news!
Until then...
HAPPY SWAGSURFING!
Yes, it's a very late start for me on SwagMelt, but it's been busy for me today, and I have had a splitting headache. Feel like I've been run over by a truck and had to work on it a little bit at a time.
Today I'm going to show you gWallet. First I'll show you the slider, then the offer wall. Before I get to that though, I wanna share a tip I found on the General Info for Newbies thread at the Swagbucks Facebook page.
This tip was posted by Stacey McBride. It gives an option that answers the question a lot of newcomers have : How do I take a screenshot?
I know there have been a few times that people ask about how to do a screen shot. There are a lot of useful addons (firefox) and extensions (chrome) one being screen shots. I have downloaded quite a few on both FF and Chrome to see which one I like best. These are the ones I have liked best (work easiest). Fireshot Capture for FF and Awesome Screenshot for Chrome. I will put the links below if you are interested. You can of course always do a swagbucks search for the program to try and get some swagbucks instead ;-)
Fireshot Capture for FireFox
Awesome Screenshot for Google Chrome
Thanks for that tip Stacey!
A lot of folks post offers from the slider on the Swagbucks Facebook wall. Well what is the slider? Where do you find it?
The Slider is a nifty little offer tool that can be found a little more than halfway down the Swagbucks homepage. It's a yellow bar as you see, and the offer icon move in a slideshow every few seconds. If you click the yellow bar, it "slides" away, revealing a row of special offer icons.
There's a small yellow arrow pointing right. When you click that, the icons slide over and a new row appears. A lot of the gWallet offers are on here, but not all of them.
When you hover your mouse over the icon that interests you, the rest slide away to the right, and you see a description if the offer and it's requirements. Click on the offer name and it opens into a new tab or window.
For this video you have to let it play all the way to the end, and click the banner to get your swagbucks. The banner click opens the Windows 7 Phone Facebook page in another tab.
Videos can also be found on the gWallet offer wall.
These play right there in the little box on the wall, no pop up. Most of the time if there's more than one video to play, they are listed on the first page. Sometimes videos are buried deeper in the Free section.
If you see a box, but it's just black, you might need to reload the page. If you have FireFox, you can right click in the black area, choose This Frame, then choose Reload. That will refresh only the video frame,a nd usually gets it to display.
With the slider, and the wall videos, you may occasionally be allowed to watch it moe than once for credit. To check if you can, just refresh the page after you've watched the video. If it's still there, you can watch it again for swagbucks. Usually they will have 2-4 different commercials to see if you can get credit more than once.
This video credited four times for me. There was a different, short commercial each time I watched.
My swagbucks total wasn't refreshing for me, so I went to my ledger to check. Yup! There they are. Sweet :)
I don't often do download special offers, but the Bing one seemed like a good idea this morning *chuckle*. The only thing is I had to do it in Internet Explorer. It's been so long since I've used IE that my head was spinning. It seemed so strange and foreign and illogical! That I forgot to screenshot the process.
On the bright side, it credited my 54 swagbucks within an hour, so.. win for me! LOL
So instead I did another facebook application offer. This one was on the FREE tab, it was for the game Earth 2.0. Sounded Intriguing!
The requirements are that you are a new user, you install the Facebook application, and that you complete the S.A.I. training missions. The rewards : 6 swagbucks.
Your by now familiar Request for Permission screen.
There is an optional video to play before you press Play Game. The end is near for planet Earth. Apparently near is relative, because after then send terraforming robots into space its's another 300 years (2312) before we are ready to ship humanity off planet. You are one of the few responsible for securing the way.
Woah.. seven stages.. hope they are quick! Actually it moves along fairly well, until I got to refills. It said I could refill once a day, but when I was on the step to refill my energy and stamina, it was already full. So when I clicked on it, I wasn't sure if I'd completed my requirement. After each stage you get a pop up and a reward, but I never saw it for stage 5. However, after looking around, I noticed the Next button for my training stages was available, and moved on. Then you get to stage 7, Squadron. You are supposed to invite 3 friends to play. Just like in Superhero City though, when you invite your three friends, it tells you your invites are pending, do you want to invite friends from your email? IF you just press Skip This Step, it doesn't complete the training. There's a trick though. Instead of pressing Skip, agree to invite from email. It will take you to a permission screen for Facebook to interact with your email. Decline, and you go back to the "Invite from Email screen", but your pending invites message is gone. When you Skip this time, you get your credit and you are done with training.
It's just another Facebook game, really. Missions, Battles, PvP, blah blah blah lol. I guess you just have to pick a genre you like and go with it since so many are so similar.
Once again my swagtotal wouldn't refresh, so I had to check the ledger. There it is! Nice! 2 for two. (Let me tell you, that's a Lot better than the luck I'm having trying to successfully so a TapJoy offer for tomorrows blog!)
What do you do on gWallet if your swagbucks don't show up?
On the top right of the wall is a link that says "Missing Swagbucks?" Click that and it takes you to the usual offer status screen.
Looks pretty good, all those green check marks huh? Note the Zombie offer/ Waste Of Time. Never credits, any wall, ever ever ever. For me anyway. I try once every month or two, fail every time. Most of these green checks are for videos LOL.
If there's an offer you want to inquiry, click Contact Support.
gWallet simply asks for your email address and proofs. Describe your reason for wanting your swagbucks, link your screenshots, forward any confirmation emails (don't send, just press forward) so you can copy / paste them with the header stating what time the original confirmation mail was sent. Press Send, cross your fingers and wait.
That's about all there is to say about gWallet. They rank OK as far as crediting, but you have to stay on them sometimes too. Unlike other companies that might threaten you with a ban *cough* *gambit* Cough* if you dare chase down too many of your swagbucks, they have never harrassed me. So I like them OK, they just don't have many good free offers anymore. I've done too many *wink*
I'm gonna wrap it up, its bath and dinner time, and I need to just .. end the day. I need to be fresh for tomorrows TapJoy post because, it's going to take a mental toll on me. I will try to find some light in the subject, but TapJoy is SO bad about crediting. Maybe one of the 8 offers I tried today will credit overnight and I can bring you some good news!
Until then...
HAPPY SWAGSURFING!
10 November 2010
Special Offers Breakdown part 5 - SuperRewards! & SBTV Day 2
Good Morning Swaggernauts!
It looks like today's post will be early, but don't expect that every day :P I'm putting them out in the afternoon most days so I can get stuff done around the house, play with my son, take care of family first. Wasn't much to clean today, and the little booger is happily watching Barney's Rhyme Time Rhythm
ordered with Amazon gift cards thanks to Swag Bucks! YAY!
Before I get to talking about SuperRewards, I'd like to take a second to discuss the new autoplay feature on Swagbucks TV. First let's look at the blog post about it from yesterday, November 9th.
According to The Swag Guy, this autoplay feature could potentially mean winning several times in one sitting. That Sounds Great!
I'd assumed from my experiences with SBTV that once you had a win, it was like searching, and better to wait a while to watch more. I noticed what appears to be a pattern for me; whatever category I start with, if I watch a few using Related Videos, and am not winning, once I switch to another category I get a win within 1 or two. Most of the time. I can't say any of this is valid or true but these are what seem to work for me from trial and error.
So I was wondering, before the blog was posted and I was test driving Autoplay, how the wins would go. Once I hit a win, could I let it play 100 more and win nothing? Would I get a win every 5-10? Would I win at all if I just let autoplay run without switching categories?
My morning trial wasn't great.. I had already won once before I noticed the Autoplay feature, so the fact that I didn't win after watching 10 videos in a row didn't phase me too much. I figured I would come back later- maybe it is indeed like searching and it's best to spread it out.
Then I read the blog. I got pretty excited at the thought of winning multiple times from one session! So I went back to test it out. While ads were playing between videos I would hop over to the Swagbucks Facebook page and see what everyone else thought of it.
I let the videos play, and play, and play, and PLAY! Not a single win. I was asking myself, "Is it because I tab over to FBSB during ads, I'm being punished? Do I have to stay on that screen the whole time?" So after about 15 videos with no wins, I left it alone for a bit, kind of a reset even if such a thing is untrue- it's half about your mental constructs you know?
I went back later and let 20+ videos play in a row. Not a single win. Really? I was not alone. All over the the Facebook wall were people complaining about not winning ever since autoplay started. Well, TSG asked for feedback, he sure got it! :P
One more thing I noticed about Autoplay is that my laptop got Really, Really hot. It gets hot watching Netflix too, if I don't lift it to vent better, but not nearly as hot as quickly as with Autoplay. I wonder why that is? Is it because Netflix loads a ton of the data then just plays, so it's just my video card heating up, whereas SBTV Autoplay keeps loading over and over and over, using my processor more as well as the video card? Sounds logical.. but what do I know :P My laptop is WEAK in the graphics department, but it was free so I can't complain!
I'm not downing Autoplay at all. It's a great idea! I think it's just got some bugs to work out, as does everything on first launch. We are beta testers, but we should be HAPPY to be so, instead of getting disgruntled and up in arms. At least for the first few days :P You and I both want Swagbucks to get better and better. There's no way to do that without adding and altering features, and no way to do that without inevitable bugs. It's our job, if we want it to get better, to provide feedback, to let them know what's not working. Just as it's important to let them know what we love about new features, what does work and should stay!
So I would ask you, with SBTV, with any new feature, to let The Swag Guy know what your experiences are, but to take a second with your frustrations, your anger, and remember - it will get better, if you give CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK. I enjoy reading the comments people post, when they give information, even if they express a little frustration, because that's natural. But when folks start griping and saying nasty things, getting so mad you can almost see their faces turning red, I cringe a little inside. It's embarrassing to me for some reason. It's not helpful, and just makes the poster look bad :P Complain, it's part of feedback for sure, but is there any reason to name call, swear, threaten, use verbal dynamite?
Anyway, the gist is, Thumbs Up on the concept of Autoplay. Thumbs Down on how it works right now. Thumbs Up for the idea it will improve if we give them the right kind of feedback (including writing to the Contact Us link on the homepage and letting them know our technical experiences with SBTV). Thumbs Down to people who get so mad they blow their tops. If it's that frustrating, just walk away and try again the next day.
OKEEDOKEE! On to SuperRewards wall!
SuperRewards is a virtual currency company I have mixed feelings about. They credit more often than TapJoy or Gambit, but some of the things I've been denied swagbucks for make no sense. I guess I like them, since I have more than a 50% success rate :P
Here you see their wall, with Video highlighted yellow, and two tabs the others do not have - Mobile, and Magazines. One would think since Video is highlighted, maybe that would indicate there's a video available. Nope! Today it was just a blank page :P After I clicked it, and refreshed the page, the Video tab was gone. What a tease! Mobile also was blank, has been whenever I've looked at it, so I have no idea what that is all about. When I see something there, I'll let you know with screenshots :)
Let's take a look at the Magazines tab, then I'll show you a nice offer that credited for me.
There's a fairly good selection of magazines to choose from, 96 in all. But are the swagbucks payouts worth the costs? I decided to check a few, compare prices from SuperRewards versus prices I could find by swagsearching.
Sports Illustrated - $39.95 through SR, $39 on the web. Not bad, not far off.
Cosmopolitan - $18 from SR, $15 from the web. A little more there.
MAD Magazine - $14.99 from SR, $14.99 from the web. The same! Ok, worth the swagbucks.
Time - $18 for 28 issues (6 months) from SR, $20 from the web for 56 issues (1 year). NOT a good deal.
I guess the verdict is - Shop Around. The prices seem to be the same, or higher. The swagbucks payouts in most cases do not seem to be worth going through SuperRewards, but there are gems that are worth it, if you really want a magazine subscription.
Now let me show you an offer I did a couple of days ago that made me pretty happy. I have never done a "purchase required" offer before. I can't afford them generally. Mostly I started this offer out of curiosity, not expecting to complete it.
I've seen a lot of swaggers talk about VistaPrint offers, how good they are, so I was curious. There's an offer to design a free t-shirt & just pay shipping on TrialPay, but the payout was less than this- 493 swagbucks to make a purchase, no limitations listed in the requirements. I wondered what kind of things VistaPrint sold, and if I could score that free t-shirt (with shipping) and get these swagbucks.
When I got to the site, the first thing I looked for was the word FREE *chuckle*. On the left sidebar the first listing was Free Products.
Ooh yah, Business cards! Ok, so I don't technically have a business, but I've been watching for those nifty Swagbucks business cards to go on sale again- a pretty good idea! Printed with your referral link, they look pretty cool. Maybe I could just get some through VistaPrint.. Will a free item with shipping get me swagbucks? How much would the shipping be? What kind of cards do they have, are they cheesy and cheap looking?
I was pleasantly surprised to see that on the four pages of designs to choose from, there were several I liked. I looked through the pages over and over but kept coming back to the same design on page 1.
As you fill out the boxes on the left, the text on the preview window changes to show what it will look like. After some creative rearranging of the information I wanted on it, this is what I had, and I Wanted it!
You can't change the font or font size or layout unless you want to pay for the cards, but this was good enough for me, for now. The back is blank except for VistaPrints web site (so That's how they give it away "free'!) and I couldn't put anything on it unless I wanted to pay like, oh, 4 bucks I think? So blank was good! I still wasn't sure if I would be getting them though- my prepaid visa gift card is getting low on balance because we needed stuff for the house this week. How much would the shipping be?
Along the way through checkout I was offered many other deals that would have been great to get- a stamp with my blog address for example, would have been nice, to stamp on the back of the card. There were some FREE offers worth taking a look at, one of which I pounced on. $50 Google Adwords credit, to get my blog listed with Google AdSense. YES! Free? Sure! Send me the code, baby! (It will be coming in the email hopefully when the order ships.)
So, 250 nice looking business cards and $50 Google Adwords credit for $5.67 shipping. I .. want... Now!
I went all the way through the checkout process to the Payment screen, and YAY YAY YAY YAY ! They take PayPal payments! That means I can buy these, cause I have like $40 in PayPal from Swagbucks! Plenty for this order and 3 months more of Netflix!
I was hooked, good and hooked, and even more excited about getting 493 swagbucks for it. If it credits *laugh*. That's a $5 Amazon card! Doesn't quite cover the swagbucks to paypal ratio, but I want more Amazon cards so, Good, to me it's close enough to an even trade to consider the order Free, to me! (Man I love shifting things around for maximum gain LOL)
I placed the order, received my confirmation in email, saw the charge come up on PayPal pretty quickly. After about 30 minutes I checked the "View Offer Status" button (top right, green button, main SuperRewards wall.) and saw that it was marked as Viewed. UGH! If an offer is still waiting to report, it says, "Waiting". This said viewed, and my heart sank. I was going to have to inquiry it.
So I clicked the "Missing These Swagbucks?" link and submitted a ticket.
Their form asks for the email you did the offer with, gives you a box to enter your proofs, and a CAPTCHA. I submitted a link to a screenshot of my PayPal statement with all non-pertinent information blurred out. Also went into my email, pressed "Forward" on the confirmation letter, and copied everything, header included, pasted it into the proofs box. Typed the CAPTCHA and away I went to wait.
I was concerned that maybe because the offer said "purchase of product" versus "order free business cards" *laugh* I wouldn't get my swagbucks. Crossed my fingers though!
The next morning I opened my email and found a response from SuperRewards.
Woah! They credited me sometime in the middle of the night, before looking at my inquiry. *Face Red!* I suppose I should have been more patient. I jumped the gun! But when that status said "Viewed", what was I to think? I'm finding out more and more that I should really wait at least 24 hours before I try for my credit- at least on 4 out of the 6 walls. Gambit and TapJoy can suck an egg outta my ear, I already know to inquiry those as soon as the status changes.
Lookie Lookie.. Isn't that a nice site! 493 swagbucks deposited while I slept.. GOTTA love it. It's SO nice when things go well, especially when there's money spent involved!
I can't Wait to get my cards. I don't get out in the world often, but I find myself talking about swagbucks a lot the few times I do. The 7-11 by my house has some pretty cool ladies that work there, I've talked with them about it some. I will give them my cards. I will post the cards around the USF and New College campuses, and drive to the next town over to put it up at State College (a community college despite the name lol). It may take a while to go through 250 cards, but I think it's a pretty cool tool to have handy when talking to folks about my passion, FREE SWAG!
I have really horrible handwriting though, so writing the SwagMelt blog address on the back might not be a great idea.. I think my next VistaPrint purchase will be a stamp with a tiny blurb and the web URL.
There you have it folks, another Positive special offers experience. I'm glowing just thinking about it, that after-shopping glow you get when your order basically works out to Free... You know what I mean, I know you do, or you wouldn't be addicted to Swag Bucks too!
If anyone reading this is not yet a member of Swagbucks, but wants to get on the swagtrain and start earning the free loot, there's no time like the present! Just go to the swidget , up top on the right there, press the Sign Up button on the bottom right. Fill out a short form, confirm your email, and get 30 swagbucks to get you rolling! Then come back here and start with October's second blog post, "Beginner Tips for Swagsurfing!", for tips on how to get started!
That's All For Now! Go get your swagbucks, that's what I'm heading out to do! Until tomorrow...
HAPPY SWAGSURFING!!
It looks like today's post will be early, but don't expect that every day :P I'm putting them out in the afternoon most days so I can get stuff done around the house, play with my son, take care of family first. Wasn't much to clean today, and the little booger is happily watching Barney's Rhyme Time Rhythm
ordered with Amazon gift cards thanks to Swag Bucks! YAY!Before I get to talking about SuperRewards, I'd like to take a second to discuss the new autoplay feature on Swagbucks TV. First let's look at the blog post about it from yesterday, November 9th.
According to The Swag Guy, this autoplay feature could potentially mean winning several times in one sitting. That Sounds Great!
I'd assumed from my experiences with SBTV that once you had a win, it was like searching, and better to wait a while to watch more. I noticed what appears to be a pattern for me; whatever category I start with, if I watch a few using Related Videos, and am not winning, once I switch to another category I get a win within 1 or two. Most of the time. I can't say any of this is valid or true but these are what seem to work for me from trial and error.
So I was wondering, before the blog was posted and I was test driving Autoplay, how the wins would go. Once I hit a win, could I let it play 100 more and win nothing? Would I get a win every 5-10? Would I win at all if I just let autoplay run without switching categories?
My morning trial wasn't great.. I had already won once before I noticed the Autoplay feature, so the fact that I didn't win after watching 10 videos in a row didn't phase me too much. I figured I would come back later- maybe it is indeed like searching and it's best to spread it out.
Then I read the blog. I got pretty excited at the thought of winning multiple times from one session! So I went back to test it out. While ads were playing between videos I would hop over to the Swagbucks Facebook page and see what everyone else thought of it.
I let the videos play, and play, and play, and PLAY! Not a single win. I was asking myself, "Is it because I tab over to FBSB during ads, I'm being punished? Do I have to stay on that screen the whole time?" So after about 15 videos with no wins, I left it alone for a bit, kind of a reset even if such a thing is untrue- it's half about your mental constructs you know?
I went back later and let 20+ videos play in a row. Not a single win. Really? I was not alone. All over the the Facebook wall were people complaining about not winning ever since autoplay started. Well, TSG asked for feedback, he sure got it! :P
One more thing I noticed about Autoplay is that my laptop got Really, Really hot. It gets hot watching Netflix too, if I don't lift it to vent better, but not nearly as hot as quickly as with Autoplay. I wonder why that is? Is it because Netflix loads a ton of the data then just plays, so it's just my video card heating up, whereas SBTV Autoplay keeps loading over and over and over, using my processor more as well as the video card? Sounds logical.. but what do I know :P My laptop is WEAK in the graphics department, but it was free so I can't complain!
I'm not downing Autoplay at all. It's a great idea! I think it's just got some bugs to work out, as does everything on first launch. We are beta testers, but we should be HAPPY to be so, instead of getting disgruntled and up in arms. At least for the first few days :P You and I both want Swagbucks to get better and better. There's no way to do that without adding and altering features, and no way to do that without inevitable bugs. It's our job, if we want it to get better, to provide feedback, to let them know what's not working. Just as it's important to let them know what we love about new features, what does work and should stay!
So I would ask you, with SBTV, with any new feature, to let The Swag Guy know what your experiences are, but to take a second with your frustrations, your anger, and remember - it will get better, if you give CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK. I enjoy reading the comments people post, when they give information, even if they express a little frustration, because that's natural. But when folks start griping and saying nasty things, getting so mad you can almost see their faces turning red, I cringe a little inside. It's embarrassing to me for some reason. It's not helpful, and just makes the poster look bad :P Complain, it's part of feedback for sure, but is there any reason to name call, swear, threaten, use verbal dynamite?
Anyway, the gist is, Thumbs Up on the concept of Autoplay. Thumbs Down on how it works right now. Thumbs Up for the idea it will improve if we give them the right kind of feedback (including writing to the Contact Us link on the homepage and letting them know our technical experiences with SBTV). Thumbs Down to people who get so mad they blow their tops. If it's that frustrating, just walk away and try again the next day.
OKEEDOKEE! On to SuperRewards wall!
SuperRewards is a virtual currency company I have mixed feelings about. They credit more often than TapJoy or Gambit, but some of the things I've been denied swagbucks for make no sense. I guess I like them, since I have more than a 50% success rate :P
Here you see their wall, with Video highlighted yellow, and two tabs the others do not have - Mobile, and Magazines. One would think since Video is highlighted, maybe that would indicate there's a video available. Nope! Today it was just a blank page :P After I clicked it, and refreshed the page, the Video tab was gone. What a tease! Mobile also was blank, has been whenever I've looked at it, so I have no idea what that is all about. When I see something there, I'll let you know with screenshots :)
Let's take a look at the Magazines tab, then I'll show you a nice offer that credited for me.
There's a fairly good selection of magazines to choose from, 96 in all. But are the swagbucks payouts worth the costs? I decided to check a few, compare prices from SuperRewards versus prices I could find by swagsearching.
Sports Illustrated - $39.95 through SR, $39 on the web. Not bad, not far off.
Cosmopolitan - $18 from SR, $15 from the web. A little more there.
MAD Magazine - $14.99 from SR, $14.99 from the web. The same! Ok, worth the swagbucks.
Time - $18 for 28 issues (6 months) from SR, $20 from the web for 56 issues (1 year). NOT a good deal.
I guess the verdict is - Shop Around. The prices seem to be the same, or higher. The swagbucks payouts in most cases do not seem to be worth going through SuperRewards, but there are gems that are worth it, if you really want a magazine subscription.
Now let me show you an offer I did a couple of days ago that made me pretty happy. I have never done a "purchase required" offer before. I can't afford them generally. Mostly I started this offer out of curiosity, not expecting to complete it.
I've seen a lot of swaggers talk about VistaPrint offers, how good they are, so I was curious. There's an offer to design a free t-shirt & just pay shipping on TrialPay, but the payout was less than this- 493 swagbucks to make a purchase, no limitations listed in the requirements. I wondered what kind of things VistaPrint sold, and if I could score that free t-shirt (with shipping) and get these swagbucks.
When I got to the site, the first thing I looked for was the word FREE *chuckle*. On the left sidebar the first listing was Free Products.
Ooh yah, Business cards! Ok, so I don't technically have a business, but I've been watching for those nifty Swagbucks business cards to go on sale again- a pretty good idea! Printed with your referral link, they look pretty cool. Maybe I could just get some through VistaPrint.. Will a free item with shipping get me swagbucks? How much would the shipping be? What kind of cards do they have, are they cheesy and cheap looking?
I was pleasantly surprised to see that on the four pages of designs to choose from, there were several I liked. I looked through the pages over and over but kept coming back to the same design on page 1.
As you fill out the boxes on the left, the text on the preview window changes to show what it will look like. After some creative rearranging of the information I wanted on it, this is what I had, and I Wanted it!
You can't change the font or font size or layout unless you want to pay for the cards, but this was good enough for me, for now. The back is blank except for VistaPrints web site (so That's how they give it away "free'!) and I couldn't put anything on it unless I wanted to pay like, oh, 4 bucks I think? So blank was good! I still wasn't sure if I would be getting them though- my prepaid visa gift card is getting low on balance because we needed stuff for the house this week. How much would the shipping be?
Along the way through checkout I was offered many other deals that would have been great to get- a stamp with my blog address for example, would have been nice, to stamp on the back of the card. There were some FREE offers worth taking a look at, one of which I pounced on. $50 Google Adwords credit, to get my blog listed with Google AdSense. YES! Free? Sure! Send me the code, baby! (It will be coming in the email hopefully when the order ships.)
So, 250 nice looking business cards and $50 Google Adwords credit for $5.67 shipping. I .. want... Now!
I went all the way through the checkout process to the Payment screen, and YAY YAY YAY YAY ! They take PayPal payments! That means I can buy these, cause I have like $40 in PayPal from Swagbucks! Plenty for this order and 3 months more of Netflix!
I was hooked, good and hooked, and even more excited about getting 493 swagbucks for it. If it credits *laugh*. That's a $5 Amazon card! Doesn't quite cover the swagbucks to paypal ratio, but I want more Amazon cards so, Good, to me it's close enough to an even trade to consider the order Free, to me! (Man I love shifting things around for maximum gain LOL)
I placed the order, received my confirmation in email, saw the charge come up on PayPal pretty quickly. After about 30 minutes I checked the "View Offer Status" button (top right, green button, main SuperRewards wall.) and saw that it was marked as Viewed. UGH! If an offer is still waiting to report, it says, "Waiting". This said viewed, and my heart sank. I was going to have to inquiry it.
So I clicked the "Missing These Swagbucks?" link and submitted a ticket.
Their form asks for the email you did the offer with, gives you a box to enter your proofs, and a CAPTCHA. I submitted a link to a screenshot of my PayPal statement with all non-pertinent information blurred out. Also went into my email, pressed "Forward" on the confirmation letter, and copied everything, header included, pasted it into the proofs box. Typed the CAPTCHA and away I went to wait.
I was concerned that maybe because the offer said "purchase of product" versus "order free business cards" *laugh* I wouldn't get my swagbucks. Crossed my fingers though!
The next morning I opened my email and found a response from SuperRewards.
Lookie Lookie.. Isn't that a nice site! 493 swagbucks deposited while I slept.. GOTTA love it. It's SO nice when things go well, especially when there's money spent involved!
I can't Wait to get my cards. I don't get out in the world often, but I find myself talking about swagbucks a lot the few times I do. The 7-11 by my house has some pretty cool ladies that work there, I've talked with them about it some. I will give them my cards. I will post the cards around the USF and New College campuses, and drive to the next town over to put it up at State College (a community college despite the name lol). It may take a while to go through 250 cards, but I think it's a pretty cool tool to have handy when talking to folks about my passion, FREE SWAG!
I have really horrible handwriting though, so writing the SwagMelt blog address on the back might not be a great idea.. I think my next VistaPrint purchase will be a stamp with a tiny blurb and the web URL.
There you have it folks, another Positive special offers experience. I'm glowing just thinking about it, that after-shopping glow you get when your order basically works out to Free... You know what I mean, I know you do, or you wouldn't be addicted to Swag Bucks too!
If anyone reading this is not yet a member of Swagbucks, but wants to get on the swagtrain and start earning the free loot, there's no time like the present! Just go to the swidget , up top on the right there, press the Sign Up button on the bottom right. Fill out a short form, confirm your email, and get 30 swagbucks to get you rolling! Then come back here and start with October's second blog post, "Beginner Tips for Swagsurfing!", for tips on how to get started!
That's All For Now! Go get your swagbucks, that's what I'm heading out to do! Until tomorrow...
HAPPY SWAGSURFING!!
09 November 2010
Special Offers Breakdown part 4 - TrialPay!
Good Afternoon Swagfriends! :D
How are you today? Make it through Monday unscathed?
Hey folks, did you happen to see the new tweak to Swagbucks TV? They have added an Autoplay feature.
The area I highlighted says "Coming Up Next:" and lists the title of the next video to play in the queue. I suppose this could be a pretty cool thing, just let them play! Of course, you can still pick and choose, but *I* personlly love this, because I like to watch SBTV while doing dishes, or cooking, things that require my hands but not my brain *chuckle*. This way I can pick a video I'm interested in, and instead of having to dry my hands every few minutes to pick another video, I can just let them stream. Seems like they play videos from the same category back to back. You still have ads between each video. This is new enough that I don't know how it will effect wins, but I'm guessing they thought of that, and we should still win about the same.
Speaking of Winning- do ya remember last month when I posted about the Fancy Fortune Cookie company's free sample giveaway? Well, I was one of the lucky winners! Check it out! End of the night, my brain was Fried, my mood was icky, until I checked my email and saw this!
SWEEEEET! Literally! Boy I hope they have some of the Cappuccino flavored, Chocolate covered ones in there! Even if not, I'm sure it will be a Delicious Delivery!
Between that and getting 493 Swagbucks for ordering my 250 FREE Business Cards from VistaPrint (via the SuperRewards wall, just cost shipping, payable through PayPal with Swagbucks money!) I was able to go to bed in a pretty good mood, despite my brain still feeling fried. :D
Plus I was a good girl and did most of my screenshots for the TrialPay post today! Good thing to, I haven't been able to start blogging til now- after 1pm!
Let's get this going!
TrialPay is yet another virtual currency company that works with Swag Bucks, found on the tabs list on the special offers page.
I like TrialPay, as far as their record for giving me the swagbucks I've earned is concerned. Look at this- this is the ONLY offer wall I haven't had to do ANY inquiries on, that has credited Every offer I've tried.
The only thing is.. they don't have very many free, or free trial, offers that I want to do. They have videos fairly regularly though, which is a bonus!
When you click on the Videos tab, it shows you this cute little chickadee, gives you a brief on what to do, and a Continue button.
The video opens on the same page, ready to play.
Like all the other offer companies, you have to watch the video all the way through to the end to get your credit. Usually TrialPay videos are worth 1 swagbuck, but they are also usually fairly short. This one was 16 seconds.
There's another way to find videos on TrialPay as well. They are the same videos that are on the video tab, but they work differently.
If you click on the MORE tab, a list drops down showing New & Free offers, then offers by category. Videos can be found under the Free option.
The difference between the Free list, and the videos tab, is that these videos will open in a new tab in your browser. First you get a pop up box with the offer details and requirements.
I took this screenshot after I'd already watched the video, so it doesn't show the Continue button. Once you click that, the new tab opens up with a splash screen telling you where you are being directed to.
Once you either Click to Continue or wait the 5 seconds, the video loads in the same screen. If there is a video. If not, you get the "We're sorry, we are all out of videos" message.
I went searching through TrialPay for an offer to show you, but as I sad before, there aren't very many free or free trials. Few left that I haven't already done :P I came across something perfect for you though- an example of a Facebook Application offer.
This one is for the Kindgdoms of Camelot game on Facebook. It requires you to "install the game" (give permissions) and complete the tutorial. Sometimes you don't even have to do a tutorial to get your credit, this time I do. Notice the payout is only 1 swagbuck? I guess that's another reason I don't do offers on TrialPay too often- the payout tends to be lower than other walls. But at least they pay! Usually a Facebook app install offer pays from 3 - 11 swagbucks, averaging 6.
When you click the button that says 1 Swagbuck, a new tab will open and you will be loaded into the game. Usually you have to give permissions first, this one brings up the Lord or Lady? screen first.
A VERY IMPORTANT THING TO NOTE!
You MUST make sure you are logged into Facebook BEFORE you click to do the offer. If you aren't logged in, sometimes getting to the login screen through the app will cause Facebook to flag you as a potential hacker. It will tell you that you are logging in from an unknown location, and for security purposes, you must prove your identity. I have one account I can no longer use because this happened. I was given the option to identify friends by their photos. The only problem is, a lot of my Facebook friends are from games, or swagbucks. Some of the photos are NOT them, they are random stuff, or swag brag, etc. How am I supposed to know who has a picture of a beer can in their "My Photos" ? Could be Half of them! So I wasn't able to identify enough to get into my account. Every time I try to log in, I have to do the same thing. While it gives me a good laugh, seeing such randomness, it's annoying that I can no longer access my favorite alt account.
ANOTHER IMPORTANT NOTE!
Be sure you are logged into an account that doesn't already have the application installed. Otherwise you won't get your swagbucks. You can't have installed it, then blocked it either.
After I picked "Lady", I got the Permissions screen. You must click Allow, obviously :P
The tutorial on this one was short & sweet. Some of them (like Backyard Monsters) take a bit longer. You have to make it All the way through and get to regular gameplay to get your swagbucks.
I wasn't paying close enough attention while doing the tutorial, I was just clicking through. I've done it a few times on other accounts :P So I hit a point where I was on my own, but wasn't sure if I'd completed the tutorial, or if I would get my swagbuck. So I checked the ledger.
Sho' nuff, there it was! Sweet!
Simple, Easy, just the way we swaggernauts like it!
The last thing I'm gonna show you is the Contact Support form. I have never used it myself, so it was new to me as well.
From the main wall, look to the top right. There's a link that says Contact Support. When you click that, the summary of your activity list opens.
To open an inquiry, click on the Contact Support link to the right of the offer in question. This will open the inquiry form.
Unlike the other companies, there is no place to fill out any information about your problem on their form. Simply your first & last name, your email address used to complete the offer, and a CAPTCHA. I'm assuming they write you back asking for specific details. I kind of like this. It's downright silly to have a spot for details and a spot for proofs when the offer company is likely to reply asking for the same details and proofs you already submitted.
Since I've never had to do an inquiry through TrialPay, I have no idea how good their customer service staff is. How long it takes, how frequently they credit disputed offers. Given their rate of payout in the first place, I would hope its pretty good!
That's pretty much there is to say about TrialPay. They have a good layout, a good rate of crediting, but not too many offers that don't cost money.
I'll be back tomorrow with part 5 of the Special Offers Breakdown. I'm going to skip over TapJoy for one more day, because I want to highlight SuperRewards after successfully completing last nights VistaPrint offer. I think 2 days of positive posting is needed after the negative Gambit post.
So, See you here tomorrow! Same(ish) Swag Time, Same Swag Channel!
Until then.....
HAPPY SWAGSURFING!
How are you today? Make it through Monday unscathed?
Hey folks, did you happen to see the new tweak to Swagbucks TV? They have added an Autoplay feature.
The area I highlighted says "Coming Up Next:" and lists the title of the next video to play in the queue. I suppose this could be a pretty cool thing, just let them play! Of course, you can still pick and choose, but *I* personlly love this, because I like to watch SBTV while doing dishes, or cooking, things that require my hands but not my brain *chuckle*. This way I can pick a video I'm interested in, and instead of having to dry my hands every few minutes to pick another video, I can just let them stream. Seems like they play videos from the same category back to back. You still have ads between each video. This is new enough that I don't know how it will effect wins, but I'm guessing they thought of that, and we should still win about the same.
Speaking of Winning- do ya remember last month when I posted about the Fancy Fortune Cookie company's free sample giveaway? Well, I was one of the lucky winners! Check it out! End of the night, my brain was Fried, my mood was icky, until I checked my email and saw this!
SWEEEEET! Literally! Boy I hope they have some of the Cappuccino flavored, Chocolate covered ones in there! Even if not, I'm sure it will be a Delicious Delivery!
Between that and getting 493 Swagbucks for ordering my 250 FREE Business Cards from VistaPrint (via the SuperRewards wall, just cost shipping, payable through PayPal with Swagbucks money!) I was able to go to bed in a pretty good mood, despite my brain still feeling fried. :D
Plus I was a good girl and did most of my screenshots for the TrialPay post today! Good thing to, I haven't been able to start blogging til now- after 1pm!
Let's get this going!
TrialPay is yet another virtual currency company that works with Swag Bucks, found on the tabs list on the special offers page.
I like TrialPay, as far as their record for giving me the swagbucks I've earned is concerned. Look at this- this is the ONLY offer wall I haven't had to do ANY inquiries on, that has credited Every offer I've tried.
The only thing is.. they don't have very many free, or free trial, offers that I want to do. They have videos fairly regularly though, which is a bonus!
When you click on the Videos tab, it shows you this cute little chickadee, gives you a brief on what to do, and a Continue button.
 | ||
| Balance Before Video |
 | |
| Refresh! Balance After Video |
There's another way to find videos on TrialPay as well. They are the same videos that are on the video tab, but they work differently.
If you click on the MORE tab, a list drops down showing New & Free offers, then offers by category. Videos can be found under the Free option.
The difference between the Free list, and the videos tab, is that these videos will open in a new tab in your browser. First you get a pop up box with the offer details and requirements.
I took this screenshot after I'd already watched the video, so it doesn't show the Continue button. Once you click that, the new tab opens up with a splash screen telling you where you are being directed to.
Once you either Click to Continue or wait the 5 seconds, the video loads in the same screen. If there is a video. If not, you get the "We're sorry, we are all out of videos" message.
I went searching through TrialPay for an offer to show you, but as I sad before, there aren't very many free or free trials. Few left that I haven't already done :P I came across something perfect for you though- an example of a Facebook Application offer.
This one is for the Kindgdoms of Camelot game on Facebook. It requires you to "install the game" (give permissions) and complete the tutorial. Sometimes you don't even have to do a tutorial to get your credit, this time I do. Notice the payout is only 1 swagbuck? I guess that's another reason I don't do offers on TrialPay too often- the payout tends to be lower than other walls. But at least they pay! Usually a Facebook app install offer pays from 3 - 11 swagbucks, averaging 6.
When you click the button that says 1 Swagbuck, a new tab will open and you will be loaded into the game. Usually you have to give permissions first, this one brings up the Lord or Lady? screen first.
A VERY IMPORTANT THING TO NOTE!
You MUST make sure you are logged into Facebook BEFORE you click to do the offer. If you aren't logged in, sometimes getting to the login screen through the app will cause Facebook to flag you as a potential hacker. It will tell you that you are logging in from an unknown location, and for security purposes, you must prove your identity. I have one account I can no longer use because this happened. I was given the option to identify friends by their photos. The only problem is, a lot of my Facebook friends are from games, or swagbucks. Some of the photos are NOT them, they are random stuff, or swag brag, etc. How am I supposed to know who has a picture of a beer can in their "My Photos" ? Could be Half of them! So I wasn't able to identify enough to get into my account. Every time I try to log in, I have to do the same thing. While it gives me a good laugh, seeing such randomness, it's annoying that I can no longer access my favorite alt account.
ANOTHER IMPORTANT NOTE!
Be sure you are logged into an account that doesn't already have the application installed. Otherwise you won't get your swagbucks. You can't have installed it, then blocked it either.
The tutorial on this one was short & sweet. Some of them (like Backyard Monsters) take a bit longer. You have to make it All the way through and get to regular gameplay to get your swagbucks.
I wasn't paying close enough attention while doing the tutorial, I was just clicking through. I've done it a few times on other accounts :P So I hit a point where I was on my own, but wasn't sure if I'd completed the tutorial, or if I would get my swagbuck. So I checked the ledger.
Sho' nuff, there it was! Sweet!
Simple, Easy, just the way we swaggernauts like it!
The last thing I'm gonna show you is the Contact Support form. I have never used it myself, so it was new to me as well.
From the main wall, look to the top right. There's a link that says Contact Support. When you click that, the summary of your activity list opens.
To open an inquiry, click on the Contact Support link to the right of the offer in question. This will open the inquiry form.
Unlike the other companies, there is no place to fill out any information about your problem on their form. Simply your first & last name, your email address used to complete the offer, and a CAPTCHA. I'm assuming they write you back asking for specific details. I kind of like this. It's downright silly to have a spot for details and a spot for proofs when the offer company is likely to reply asking for the same details and proofs you already submitted.
Since I've never had to do an inquiry through TrialPay, I have no idea how good their customer service staff is. How long it takes, how frequently they credit disputed offers. Given their rate of payout in the first place, I would hope its pretty good!
That's pretty much there is to say about TrialPay. They have a good layout, a good rate of crediting, but not too many offers that don't cost money.
I'll be back tomorrow with part 5 of the Special Offers Breakdown. I'm going to skip over TapJoy for one more day, because I want to highlight SuperRewards after successfully completing last nights VistaPrint offer. I think 2 days of positive posting is needed after the negative Gambit post.
So, See you here tomorrow! Same(ish) Swag Time, Same Swag Channel!
Until then.....
HAPPY SWAGSURFING!
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