Online marketers coax you to their sites by an e-mail offer, a banner ad, or, most likely, with one of the ubiquitous, blue-headlined “margin ads” shown at the top, bottom, or right side of search results pages.

But, however you come across the FO site, the first thing you notice is the brand name item that attracted your attention in the first place. The next thing you notice is a box where you enter your e-mail address, after which you click “Continue.”

On the next page there are fields into which you enter your demographic information, name, address, phone number, age, etc. After this page, you are presented with the optional survey pages. These are ads from companies who want to send you offers by e-mail, even if you select “no” as an answer in all of the surveys. But, you can tell these are optional surveys by scrolling to the bottom of the page and finding a “Skip” button.

Main Ad/Offer Pages

Following the last optional survey page, you will come to the Main Offer pages. The first of these pages (usually identified with the name of a precious metal, such as silver) will show how many of the ads you’ll need to respond to in order to remain qualified for receiving the free incentive item. Silver pages usually require you to make two selections.

There are two more of these ad banner pages (you can likely guess what they are labeled: gold and platinum). Just as before, you are told how many ads you need to respond to on each page in order to remain qualified for the free item. Although the required responses vary by FO site, usually you must make 2 choices on the silver and gold pages, then up to 9 on the platinum page.

Beware the FO sites that only require a few (8-10 or less) responses on the entire site, since that normally means the last ones are for high ticket items.

This is why it is a good idea, when you reach the required response ad pages, to click forward to the Platinum page and look over the ads there. Although it is not common with most marketers, some have final pages of required ads that are real doozies! (Unless, of course, you’re going to spend the summer in France and you really are in the market for two $900 Eurail Passes. Then, pourquoi non?)

Final Requirements

And, finally, when you have finished selecting the requisite number of offers, you will be provided with some way of checking the "prize progress" as the completed offers are being verified. This may be by email or you may be given an account number and a web page with which to check your gift status. Then, you will be shown a method for linking to a final piece of paperwork--a redemption form that must be submitted. All of this must take place within an allotted amount of time, usually between four and six months.

And then, what do you think happens if the value of your free gift exceeds $600? You guessed it, you must send your Uncle’s IRS department a W-9 declaring you received such a gift, because they’ll likely count it as regular income. (But, of course, you'll certainly check with your local tax professional.) We hope you have fun.

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from our latest reviews of a number of FO sites. Or, go to the first review in the series, the $1,000 Wal-Mart Gift Card offer, by clicking here.