[X] My Assistant

In general, I would like to know how do each one of you keep organized. From the pros to the newbies.

1. How do you keep track of how much you are spending and profiting?
2. How do you keep track of the offers you have completed and when the trials end?
3. How do you keep track of all of the sites you have signed up with?
4. Any other tips on staying organized? Any other things you keep track of not listed?


I REALLY, REALLY appreciate everyones feedback, small or large. I just want to be as organized as possible and avoid mishaps. (:

In general, I would like to know how do each one of you keep organized. From the pros to the newbies.

1. How do you keep track of how much you are spending and profiting?
2. How do you keep track of the offers you have completed and when the trials end?
3. How do you keep track of all of the sites you have signed up with?
4. Any other tips on staying organized? Any other things you keep track of not listed?


I REALLY, REALLY appreciate everyones feedback, small or large. I just want to be as organized as possible and avoid mishaps. (:

1. and 2. Use of a simple excel or other spreadsheet and a hard calendar which you check daily. Simply start a column in the spreadsheet for each item you want to keep track of. Mark you hard calendar with trial end date and CS phone number, or anything else you feel is pertinent.

3. Input each site into your Trade Offers as soon as have completed it which keeps a nice list of the sites you have completed in your A4F Trade Manager; bookmark each site in your favorites on your computer in a folder titled something like My Freebie Sites.

4. I use gmail, which has the Label option, but most email programs have folders to use for organizing. When I get the confirmation email from the offer, I label it Offers Completed. If I choose not to keep an offer, I change the label to Offers Not Kept. This keeps all the emails received from doing offers in 2 label categories which I can refer to and search with ease in gmail.

I also bookmark the TOS of each offer in a favorites folder titled Offers Completed and if I choose not to keep an offer, I move the bookmarked page to a favorites folder named Offers Not Kept.

I am anal about being organized and do a few other things, but the above should keep you in good shape.

1. and 2. Use of a simple excel or other spreadsheet and a hard calendar which you check daily. Simply start a column in the spreadsheet for each item you want to keep track of. Mark you hard calendar with trial end date and CS phone number, or anything else you feel is pertinent.

3. Input each site into your Trade Offers as soon as have completed it which keeps a nice list of the sites you have completed in your A4F Trade Manager; bookmark each site in your favorites on your computer in a folder titled something like My Freebie Sites.

4. I use gmail, which has the Label option, but most email programs have folders to use for organizing. When I get the confirmation email from the offer, I label it Offers Completed. If I choose not to keep an offer, I change the label to Offers Not Kept. This keeps all the emails received from doing offers in 2 label categories which I can refer to and search with ease in gmail.

I also bookmark the TOS of each offer in a favorites folder titled Offers Completed and if I choose not to keep an offer, I move the bookmarked page to a favorites folder named Offers Not Kept.

I am anal about being organized and do a few other things, but the above should keep you in good shape.

Nice, I now have an idea. Thanks for sharing butterboy.


-will

ooh! great ideas!

Overkill.......

Yellow stickies on my fridge worked for me....

Overkill.......

Yellow stickies on my fridge worked for me....

Yellow stickies on the fridge make great cat toys and would be a terrible system for someone like me who completes dozens of offers every month. Of course, I know along with congaing and SS, GOG doesn't do offers.

lmao

meeeeooooowwwww!

It will definitely pay off to be a geek and keep spreadsheets, folder systems and calendars. just search the forum for "spreadsheets", I think someone has posted one.

lately, I've been playing around with google calendar for keeping track, and don't know how I did without it! plus, it's another freebie! it's a quick and easy way to note offer name, freebie site, contact phone #s, deadlines and conditions. just add key info--right then, while it's fresh in your mind--under the time slot and day you do the offer. (don't keep the calendar open while doing offers, however. I find it works best to have only the freebie site and offer window open.)

at the same ttime, you can also schedule any future actions you will need to take: date you can submit MCR, trial expiration, billing dates and amounts. then, note subsequent events as they happen under date and time you do them, such as customer service/support contact, product received, card charged, and schedule any additional tasks. here's the cool thing "you can set up email alerts for events.* that way a reminder is there in your inbox the day before or the day of, etc. I also like being able to see a month at a glance, when I'm wondering "when the heck did I do that one?" "did they ever charge me?"

tip: print a paper copy with phone numbers showing. a hard copy, like butterboy keeps a hard calendar. if your internet/computer is flaky like mine, or you won't be home all day and you don't have a smartphone, you still will be prepared to act on any deadlines.

hope this helps. I recommend archiving the info into your spreadsheet at some point--using both. but, if your style is more laid back, just the calendar may be your easy solution.

anybody have a similar calendar tool they like?

What a great idea! I've already got a pretty detailed spreadsheet in action and I use the gmail labeling system like butterboy, but I'd entirely forgotten about gmail's calendar app. I'm going to have this moving like a well-oiled machine! Major overkill, but well-oiled just the same.

It will definitely pay off to be a geek and keep spreadsheets, folder systems and calendars. just search the forum for "spreadsheets", I think someone has posted one.

lately, I've been playing around with google calendar for keeping track, and don't know how I did without it! plus, it's another freebie! it's a quick and easy way to note offer name, freebie site, contact phone #s, deadlines and conditions. just add key info--right then, while it's fresh in your mind--under the time slot and day you do the offer. (don't keep the calendar open while doing offers, however. I find it works best to have only the freebie site and offer window open.)

at the same ttime, you can also schedule any future actions you will need to take: date you can submit MCR, trial expiration, billing dates and amounts. then, note subsequent events as they happen under date and time you do them, such as customer service/support contact, product received, card charged, and schedule any additional tasks. here's the cool thing "you can set up email alerts for events.* that way a reminder is there in your inbox the day before or the day of, etc. I also like being able to see a month at a glance, when I'm wondering "when the heck did I do that one?" "did they ever charge me?"

tip: print a paper copy with phone numbers showing. a hard copy, like butterboy keeps a hard calendar. if your internet/computer is flaky like mine, or you won't be home all day and you don't have a smartphone, you still will be prepared to act on any deadlines.

hope this helps. I recommend archiving the info into your spreadsheet at some point--using both. but, if your style is more laid back, just the calendar may be your easy solution.

anybody have a similar calendar tool they like?

It will definitely pay off to be a geek and keep spreadsheets, folder systems and calendars. just search the forum for "spreadsheets", I think someone has posted one.

lately, I've been playing around with google calendar for keeping track, and don't know how I did without it! plus, it's another freebie! it's a quick and easy way to note offer name, freebie site, contact phone #s, deadlines and conditions. just add key info--right then, while it's fresh in your mind--under the time slot and day you do the offer. (don't keep the calendar open while doing offers, however. I find it works best to have only the freebie site and offer window open.)

at the same ttime, you can also schedule any future actions you will need to take: date you can submit MCR, trial expiration, billing dates and amounts. then, note subsequent events as they happen under date and time you do them, such as customer service/support contact, product received, card charged, and schedule any additional tasks. here's the cool thing "you can set up email alerts for events.* that way a reminder is there in your inbox the day before or the day of, etc. I also like being able to see a month at a glance, when I'm wondering "when the heck did I do that one?" "did they ever charge me?"

tip: print a paper copy with phone numbers showing. a hard copy, like butterboy keeps a hard calendar. if your internet/computer is flaky like mine, or you won't be home all day and you don't have a smartphone, you still will be prepared to act on any deadlines.

hope this helps. I recommend archiving the info into your spreadsheet at some point--using both. but, if your style is more laid back, just the calendar may be your easy solution.

anybody have a similar calendar tool they like?

Love thisss!

Butterboy & islaygirl, you both provided some excellent suggestions! I've never used an online calendar or daily alert function, but I really think those are great ideas. I have a gmail account but have never really taken time to explore all the available Google functions; I don't use it often and I haven't been using that email account for trading at all. (I have days when I regret that!) lol

I agree about inputting each site you green into your Trade Manager right away. It's nice to be able to search by name and find an offer quickly when you have several pages of them, too.

I have a "hard" calendar hanging on the wall right over my monitor, that I use for for both personal and trading reminders, delivery dates, billing dates, etc. A calendar like that is great, but only if you remember to look at it every day. I've been known to occasionally forget to look, but I'm getting better about that now. Still, I do like the idea of a visual alert, but just being in an inbox isn't going to work if I don't actually check my email until later in the day. I handle over 100 emails each and every day of the week, just in one of my 4 email inboxes. An inbox reminder could easily get buried. I have ADHD and I tend to get distracted by other stuff. An alert that shows up smack in the middle of my screen when I turn it on, before I have the chance to do anything else, is about the only thing that is guaranteed to get my attention. Is there such a thing? If anyone knows about one like that, I would like to hear about it!

I have two different spreadsheets but have only been consistently using the one that is set up for keeping track of the sites I sign up on and the offers I do on each of those sites. It has columns labeled and formatted for sign-up dates, offer credit value, costs, any additional fees, payment method, and misc. details, among other things. I use row highlighting and text color to make current offers and specific details easier to find. I offer that same spreadsheet to anybody who asks for it. Send me a PM & tell me what email address you want me to send it to & I'll get it out to you right away.

The other spreadsheet I have is more for accounting purposes, so you can keep track of expenses, payouts and profits from your of freebie trading business. I found it right here on A4F somewhere and downloaded it. I'm seriously thinking about compiling those two into a single spreadsheet, with two worksheets, so the offer costs can easily be imported into the expenses section of the accounting worksheet. That would be a lot easier and more accurate than having to type in costs on two separate spreadsheets! Maybe when I get around to doing that, I will upload it to a web server & post a download link either here or on my threads just to make things easier.

@webladylisa

you can set a popup alert in google calendar, so it will "jump out at you". you have to have google calendar open and look at it, e.g., whenever you start your computer session. you're right, it's easy to lose email message alerts in all the spam!
http://support.google.com/calendar/bin/ans...mp;answer=37242

here's a free reminder tool that does popups and/or sound alerts. it can start up when you start your computer. here is a con that one reviewer noted. "Cons - Sensitive to data cleaning programs and updates. have lost info and had to manually re-enter from a printout. be sure to make a hard copy of your basic data in case this happens."
http://download.cnet.com/Efficient-Reminde...tml?tag=mncol;9

hope this helps! I've been curious about other free software, so thx for reminding me to check some out.

I am for Yellow stickies!

Google Calendar has another option I just discovered that beats everything I've seen or heard about so far: Event notifications sent via text message (SMS) right to your cell phone!
Whenever I'm at my computer, my cell phone is always right there on my desk in front of me. I can be surfing the web, watching a movie or working on a trade, and that text reminder is going to show up on my cell phone at the assigned time, regardless of where I am or what I'm doing - just like any other text message.

If anyone else wants to give this a try:
1. Open Google Calendar, on the the left sidebar find "My Calendars" & click on the little down arrow just to the right, then select "Settings".
2. Click the "Notifications" link, center of the page.
Click on "Set up your mobile phone to receive notifications" (bottom of page by little cell image).
3. Fill in the info for your phone and click on the "Send Verification Code" button. If set up correctly, you will receive a text on your cell phone, containing a verification code.
4. Type the code into the appropriate box on the page, then click on "Finish Setup". Done!
Now when you go to set your reminder/notification for an event on your calendar, you should have 3 different options: email, pop-up and SMS. (If SMS doesn't appear the first time you open the edit page for an event, just click on the Add a reminder link & it will be added.)

You don't need a smart phone! A regular phone that accepts text messages is fine. The list of supported carriers is quite extensive, so it should work for almost anyone, as long as you are in your coverage area and have a signal. You don't need to have a browser window open to the calendar, check emails or be at home or on your computer to receive text alerts. The options for email and "pop-up" reminders can also be activated, giving you three different ways of receiving them and each method can be set up independently for whatever time frame you want.

I used to download all kinds of freeware and trial software from Cnet and other sites. After totally screwing up my registry and having to reformat my hard drive and reinstall my operating system several times, I decided the downtime risks weren't worth the benefits. For people who use their computer to earn a living, experimenting with freeware can end up costing more than it would to buy licensed software.

@webladylisa

you can set a popup alert in google calendar, so it will "jump out at you". you have to have google calendar open and look at it, e.g., whenever you start your computer session. you're right, it's easy to lose email message alerts in all the spam!
http://support.google.com/calendar/bin/ans...mp;answer=37242

here's a free reminder tool that does popups and/or sound alerts. it can start up when you start your computer. here is a con that one reviewer noted. "Cons - Sensitive to data cleaning programs and updates. have lost info and had to manually re-enter from a printout. be sure to make a hard copy of your basic data in case this happens."
http://download.cnet.com/Efficient-Reminde...tml?tag=mncol;9

hope this helps! I've been curious about other free software, so thx for reminding me to check some out.

@webladylisa

you can set a popup alert in google calendar, so it will "jump out at you". you have to have google calendar open and look at it, e.g., whenever you start your computer session. you're right, it's easy to lose email message alerts in all the spam!
http://support.google.com/calendar/bin/ans...mp;answer=37242

here's a free reminder tool that does popups and/or sound alerts. it can start up when you start your computer. here is a con that one reviewer noted. "Cons - Sensitive to data cleaning programs and updates. have lost info and had to manually re-enter from a printout. be sure to make a hard copy of your basic data in case this happens."
http://download.cnet.com/Efficient-Reminde...tml?tag=mncol;9

hope this helps! I've been curious about other free software, so thx for reminding me to check some out.

1. and 2. Use of a simple excel or other spreadsheet and a hard calendar which you check daily. Simply start a column in the spreadsheet for each item you want to keep track of. Mark you hard calendar with trial end date and CS phone number, or anything else you feel is pertinent.

3. Input each site into your Trade Offers as soon as have completed it which keeps a nice list of the sites you have completed in your A4F Trade Manager; bookmark each site in your favorites on your computer in a folder titled something like My Freebie Sites.

4. I use gmail, which has the Label option, but most email programs have folders to use for organizing. When I get the confirmation email from the offer, I label it Offers Completed. If I choose not to keep an offer, I change the label to Offers Not Kept. This keeps all the emails received from doing offers in 2 label categories which I can refer to and search with ease in gmail.

I also bookmark the TOS of each offer in a favorites folder titled Offers Completed and if I choose not to keep an offer, I move the bookmarked page to a favorites folder named Offers Not Kept.

I am anal about being organized and do a few other things, but the above should keep you in good shape.

Thank you so much for sharing this to us, maybe ill upgrade this a little bit to make it more organize and convenient...Thanks again, Helps a lot..!

I am glad I found this. I used index cards when I first started out. Index cards and a calculator. But later I found spread sheets and although I never did get to use them I want to be able to offer them to my "New Friends" SO I thank you for posting this

Good question! :-)

great suggestions - I will give the Google notifications thing a try!

1. and 2. Use of a simple excel or other spreadsheet and a hard calendar which you check daily. Simply start a column in the spreadsheet for each item you want to keep track of. Mark you hard calendar with trial end date and CS phone number, or anything else you feel is pertinent.

3. Input each site into your Trade Offers as soon as have completed it which keeps a nice list of the sites you have completed in your A4F Trade Manager; bookmark each site in your favorites on your computer in a folder titled something like My Freebie Sites.

4. I use gmail, which has the Label option, but most email programs have folders to use for organizing. When I get the confirmation email from the offer, I label it Offers Completed. If I choose not to keep an offer, I change the label to Offers Not Kept. This keeps all the emails received from doing offers in 2 label categories which I can refer to and search with ease in gmail.

I also bookmark the TOS of each offer in a favorites folder titled Offers Completed and if I choose not to keep an offer, I move the bookmarked page to a favorites folder named Offers Not Kept.

I am anal about being organized and do a few other things, but the above should keep you in good shape.

Thank you for this. This has indeed been helpful!