For free or low spending players, gran is hard to come by, but we've been given the option of using Peanut Labs or Game Coins to spend a little bit of time, rather than a little bit of money to get the gran we need. As well as that, we've got Prize Rebel that you can get Ultimate Game cards from, which are the equivalent of $10 to spend on gran.
I'll try to keep the different sections clear and easy to understand, because I know blocks of text are a trial to get through.
just a few things I think will be important to note before we get started:
1. Using PrizeRebel and Peanutlabs/GameCoins for gran will not make you a Meta player. The Gran helps, but don't instantly assume you'll be brilliant because you've bought some shiny new cards.
2. Honestly, this is not an efficient way of getting gran. It is good in small bits, in a lull or if you have nothing better to do, but if you end up spending hours a day doing surveys and quizzes, GET A JOB INSTEAD! You'll get a lot more money with a regular job and you can spend on stuff other than Gran.
3. These offers are rife with scams and attempts at your personal information, if anything is asking for personal details, leave the offer or give false details. Phone No's are a big no no as they will swamp you with spam.
4. Use your common sense! (and if you don't have any yourself, borrow someone else’s (You think I'm joking, but this is actually pretty serious))
5. Some regions will be more successful or have more/different offers to complete.
6. Clearing Cookies can sometimes help if you want to redo some offers, but not for everything.
7. Many offers will send you spam (and a lot of it) if they ask for your Email address. Have a secondary or temporary email account for anything you think is risky and NEVER use an email address you actually use.
I'm going to start with PrizeRebel first, as I am more familiar with it
Some of you may have noticed this image in a few people's signatures, myself included. It's a link to PrizeRebel signup, and if you sign up using the link, the person who started the link will get a bonus on the points they gain.
For example:
Let's say Frank clicks on my link and joins PrizeRebel. He creates an account and starts doing offers. A fraction of what he earns is given to me in points. It's not taken away from Frank at all, it's just a bonus given to me for referring him to PrizeRebel.
And yes, this is the point when I ask you to click on my link to get me more points. I think it's only fair, after all I put the effort into putting together the guide
Anyway, when you've joined Prize Rebel, you should see a screen like this:
This is roughly what my login page looks like, minus the personal details that I've covered. Naturally you want to start earning points quickly, but a word to the wary, "Thar be monsters out there." It might be an idea to check out the forums in the "Community" tab or the links on the front page first to get some safety advice before getting started, as there's much more in depth and experienced advice, as well as some warnings of safe/unsafe offers on list. I'll be giving a brief introduction here, for those impatient individuals.
You can click on the "Get Points" button to go straight to doing surveys and quizzes, or you can click on the "Get points" tab up the top for a slightly larger list of other options and your history of point gathering. I suggest you start with the "Daily Offers" to get started, as they're usually Survey sites that let you get points for a survey once a day, and it's a good place to start to get used to it.
One thing to note about PrizeRebel, is that in general 1 point is equal to $1, so you might quickly notice how long it’ll take before you get anything, but don’t be discouraged, it all adds up. Another thing to note is when looking at the prizes you can claim, the Ultimate Game Card you want, only actually costs 9 points for a $10 card, so you come out a little ahead.
Note that you can get a $5 card, but that costs 5 points and you have to spend a minimum of $10 on Potcash, so anything less is unusable, and UGC’s do expire if they aren’t used in time. I don’t know how long that is because I’ve never tested it, but you don’t want to have unspent UGC’s lying around. Also note that the best bonus rate for Potcash is to buy $50 worth at one time. It’s unlikely you’ll get that much at one time with the need to spend your points, but it’s worth noting. Just know that as long as you have enough you can select the $20 or $50 choices and you put your cards in one at a time till you’ve filled up the $20 or $50 necessary.
It’s not uncommon that you won’t get your UGC right away, you may have to wait up to a couple of days or maybe even a week before you get your card, so don’t get a card last day of an event and expect to be able to use it. You can sometimes get it right away, but be aware that you might have to wait.
When you use an UGC to charge potcash, you will be redirected to a site called PaybyCash. Here you select to pay using UGC, and input the PIN you recieved when you bought the card.
NOTE: if you're trying to cash in UGC's when you're not from United States (like myself) you have an extra step before you can proceed. Next to your country there is a link to change your current location. Select United States, and return. If you don't do this, then there will be an extra few cents for exchange rate or something, I'm not sure what they're charging. But if you change your location to United States, you get the exact amount for your UGC, and there is no cost or extra work for changing your location (makes me wonder why they bother in the first place).
Peanut Labs/Game Coins
Now these guys are actually pretty good in little bits and pieces, because the potcash is given directly to you, and it's pretty much a PotCash for Gran trade, except that with enough Potcash you get bonus as shown below
Notice that the best bonus rate you can get is 20% by spending a minimum of 3,000 points. That's the equivilent of around $30 worth of points, so if you're working with UGC's that's approximately 27 points you'll need from PrizeRebel alone. Note however that while UGC's will eventually expire, your potcash accumulates and never decreases. So if you're using Peanut Labs or Game Coins for your free gran, then you don't really have to worry about that, and if you're patient you can get some pretty decent conversion rates.
Now if you don't know how to get there, let's show you. First you want to log in to Altiel normally (if you don't know how to do this yet, you're in a bit of trouble) and then you go to the "Cashier" tab on the top selection between "Shop" and "Mail." From there you can click either on the Gran Exchanger button or the Buy Potcash, both will take you the potcash page on Gamepot, just different sections.
Welcome to the Potcash side of Gamepot. On the left had side of the page, you'll find the navigation tab, but where you want to go to start with is "Earn Free Potcash" and from there you can choose either Penut Labs or Game Coins. Penut labs is useful because while you're doing the survey or quiz, you'll have a little reminder up the top which are the conditions for getting the potcash from this offer, as some offers aren't exactly clear sometimes. Game Coins seems to have a larger selection of offers, but while Penut labs often give you the potcash within a few seconds, Gamecoins can sometimes take up to an hour before your points are given to you.
Anyway, after you've gone through some offers you'll want to click on the shiny button underneath the Potcash navigator labeled "Gran Exchanger." at any time, you can see your current potcash under your login name, so when you think you've got enough head over to the Gran Exchanger and trade your hard earned potcash for the gran you came here for. Just remember to check out the bonus rates shown earlier to get the most out of it.
Sandboxie
Okay, Sandboxie, an interesting program that’s practically designed for this type of thing. In short, Sandboxie opens your browser in a Sandbox, where nothing can go wrong. You can install new programs (as requested by some offers) but as long as it’s in the sandbox, nothing will alter or make any permanent changes to your computer, and you can erase any changes you’ve made within the sandbox at the click of a button. It’s incredibly useful for any offers you think might have some risky or dangerous content. It has it’s own little tutorial to use it, which I recommend you try out if you’re going to use any of the “Download and install” offers.
You can download it here:
http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?DownloadSandboxie
There’s another program that does a similar thing called Virtual Box, for those of you who don’t want to use Sandboxie for whatever reason.
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
It does much the same thing, except it creates a virtual system instead of just putting everything in the sandbox and sweeping it away later. I’m not too familiar with it myself, but I thought I’d give you guys the option of choice.
Final Words
Well that's it from me for now, and if anyone wants to use this area for a place to mention good offers or place any extra warnings be my guest. Let's keep this active, because we get the free gran, Altiel still gets paid, and everyone's happy
