Forums
The freebie trading community communicates primarily through the use of threaded discussion forums. If you are already familiar with this kind of forum, you'll have no trouble finding your way around and making good use of them. These forums serve several important functions including providing a way to connect buyers (people looking to pay for referrals) with sellers (people looking to get paid to be a referral). They also provide some protection to their members from scammers, and are a place to exchange experiences and knowledge about the business. Many people find them to be quite addictive and a great place to hang out and make new friends too.
In order to be successful with freebie trading, you'll want to become well established on one or more of the popular forums, so I highly encourage everyone I work with to join one. They are totally free. More information and instructions for joining and getting started are further down on this page. Many forums exist, but the few listed below are by far the most active. When I started, FLR had the most traffic, but now I would say A4F is getting more, though that could change soon as well.
How business is done
The main features of the forums that you should be aware of at this point are the Trade Manager, Trader Record (TR) points, and feedback systems. The Trade Manager is where traders officially enter the terms of the trade they are setting up. For instance I may propose a trade of "$20 paid on green" in exchange for "green on paypal.zipnadazilch.com". This would mean that I agree to pay $20 after the person signs up and completes the offer requirements on the site indicated. After I create the trade in the Trade Manager, my partner reviews the terms and if agreeable she confirms the trade and completes the requirements. After she receives my payment, we both complete the trade by marking that we have received what was agreed upon, and then leave feedback for that trade. Feedback is publicly viewable, and every time positive feedback is left for a trader, that trader's TR goes up by one point.
TR points and feedback are very important because they establish a trader's trustworthiness and reputation as a safe and honest trader. There are scammers in this business who will entice you to go green on their site, promising payment, and then you'll never hear from them again after you complete your end of the bargain. The system just described is very effective at thwarting this type of scam, and provides a way for people getting started to be assured that their trade partner is going to pay them as promised. I encourage everyone I work with to set up our trades through this system so that they can be sure that I am an honest trader. You can see my personal Trade Record in the Proof menu, just click on Feedback.
Get started on a Forum
Which forum should you join. That's a good question. At this point from what I can see, Anything4free is the most active, followed by calistyle101. FreeLunchRoom use to have a ton of traffic and newbies, but activity died down there some months back (around March 2009). Simply click on the following links to be taken to the registration pages:
Calistyle101 Registration Page
Anything4free Registration Page
Free Lunch Room Registration Page
As soon as you join, send me, "gamegreen", a Private Message (PM) letting me know you are interested in going green, or send me an email with your username and your forum of choice. If you use the instructions I provide under How To Start to start work, let me know the site you are working on, the email address you used to sign up on that site, and your PayPal address so I can pay you after you go green. As soon as I hear from you, I will enter our trade in the trade manager and send you instructions to confirm it.
After you join a forum, you'll also want to spend some time familiarizing yourself with its features. Read all the rules (they are pretty strict about rules), and go through the tutorials/videos section for all the information you could want about how to use the forum and make money by trading there. The forums are the best and easiest way to start getting referrals when you are ready to start making money that way, and is one of its primary purposes.
When that time comes, you'll want to start your own trade thread to attract referrals to the sites you have already completed the offers on, and eventually have that thread stickied or pinned... there may also be other form of premium advertising depending on the forum. If any of this sounds confusing, read the posts in the Tutorials and the News and Announcements sections and it will all be clear. As always feel free to ask me if you have any questions. My email address is: thefreebietrader@thefreebietrader.com.