Hai!
What's this thread about? These.

If you know what free offers are and have experience with them, you're probably cringing right now. However, this isn't just a guide on how to do them, it's a guide on how to do them and not get viruses, spam, or charges while providing you with tips on how to actually get paid the AP from the offers you're suppose to.
I've earned thousands of AP. I'm living proof.

This may look like a lot to read, but it'll take 5 minutes tops. I promise if you take the time to read this and follow my methods and guidelines, your AP Offer experience will be much more positive and you WILL get AP. I PROMISE!


Getting Started
First, there are some basic tools you'll need:

1. An Alternative E-mail

Never use your primary e-mail address to do any kind of offer. You'll just end up with boatloads of spam. Register an e-mail with a free provider like Hotmail or Gmail, which you'll use just for doing offers. The e-mail you use and the e-mail attached to your Aeria account do not have to be the same.

2. A Visa Gift Card (If you want to do offers that require a credit card.)

There's no reason to be slabbing your credit/debit card information all over the interwebs, or maybe you simply don't have one. You can get a Visa gift card from almost anywhere; Walmart, Walgreens, Publix, ect. Just make sure it's Visa. Once you obtain one (I'd recommend a $15 or $25 one), go to the gift card provider's website and register it. The link is generally printed on the back of the gift card. Once you do, it can then be used online just like a credit/debit card.

3. Sandboxie Program

This is an awesome, free program that is going to keep all that evil stuff away from your computer while doing offers. It will allow you to do both survey and download/install offers safely. It does this by running your programs in an isolated space which prevents them from making permanent changes to other programs and data on your computer. Then, with just a couple clicks, you can delete all the data in that isolated space. It's kind of like having a second computer that's good for multiple things, not just Aeria AP Offers.

Here's an illustration of how it works:




* The Download and Guide for Sandboxie is here, but be sure to read my tips below before getting started on offers.

Tips
General Tips:

• Use valid information... sometimes.

You can quite often get away with using an old address and made-up last name, but this isn't always the case, especially when they require your phone number. Companies are getting smarter, and it's not uncommon for them to check your phone number and make sure it matches the address given. So, I recommend using valid information in most cases. I personally rarely get any phone calls or mail. Please note that if you do credit card offers with your Visa gift card, you'll need to use the same information you registered the gift card with.

• Disable your Anti-virus. Yes, disable it. (If you use Sandboxie.)

You probably think I'm crazy right now, but it's just a step towards making sure you get your AP. Don't worry, with Sandboxie, you could download viruses all day and it won't hurt you. I have had 0 problems using Sandboxie with my Anti-virus disabled. It's not uncommon for your anti-virus program to block ads while doing surveys, or reg-edits while installing programs. Sometimes the things that get blocked are the things you need to get your AP. Just remember to re-enable it when you're done doing offers.

• Be patient but demanding.

Sometimes offers can take up to 24 hours even though they only say 30 minutes. As a rule of thumb, I generally wait 24 hours on all offers I do. If after 24 hours you still don't have your AP, report it to the Sponsor. 80% of the time they will give you your AP if you do. There is a guide on how to do that here.

• Watch yous some TV!

Video offers are probably the easiest and most AP promising. They award almost no AP, but they can add up, especially if you have them playing while doing surveys or download/install offers. It's best to do these in a separate browser tab if you're doing other offers at the same time.

Survey Tips:

• Use your browser through Sandboxie.

Doing so will allow you to easily clear your registries, deleting all cookies (like CCleaner). You should delete them after every few surveys, maybe even after each one. Why? The problem with not doing so is that each survey can have hundreds of advertisers and while you may run into the same advertiser twice it wont be the same exact survey. If you were to still have these cookies on your computer you could be denied your AP. Not to mention using Sandboxie will protect you from anything bad on those survey sites.
How to use your browser through Sandboxie is explained in the guide below.

• Pay attention to the URLs.

As soon as you're at a new site (even if it looks similar), you're done. For example; if you're doing a survey at ssisurveys.com and eventually end up at saysoforgood.com, stop. There's no need to do anymore surveys. It's a trick the survey companies try to pull in order to get you to do more surveys. The Sponsors are ONLY responsible for the site they initially link you to, not for any sites you get redirected to.

• Say No to.. Everything! And always Skip.

Most Surveys consist of a lot of Yes or No questions and screens with Skip buttons. They will often move this Skip button around to try to confuse you or make you think that you have to fill in your information. As a general rule you should only be filling out your information one time, every time after that you should be skipping. When you get asked Yes or No questions, or are given a None of Above option, always say No! This will shorten your survey.

Download/Install Tips:

• Use Sandboxie!

Always always always use Sandboxie as explained in the guide below to ensure you dont get stuck with any viruses or extra programs you don't want.

• Install it all.

99% of the time when you download a program from an offer, the installer will include other things like a browser toolbar and additional programs. Leave all the checked boxes to their default selection. You may install 3 programs instead of 1, but the companies can be sneaky, and sometimes if you deselect a program to install (even though it's not the one you were instructed to install) you won't get your AP. Don't worry, it takes 3 seconds to take all those programs off with Sandboxie.

Other
Sponsors:

There are 3 Sponsors I prefer because I seem to have the highest success rate of getting my AP with them:

1. SponsorPay
2. Matomy
3. SupersonicAds

My opinion of the others:

SuperRewards - I try to stick to their offers that require a download as they usually pay out without issues.
Peanut Labs - Crashes often and sometimes takes ages to load.
Sometrics - Horrible support page setup and rarely pays out.
Radium - No opinion, haven't really done any offers with this one.


End:

This information is based solely on my personal experience. I've made this to hopefully encourage some of those who have been skeptical or had terrifying experiences (yes, terrifying) with offers to try or try again. Also so you have the best possible chance of getting your AP from offers.

As a reminder, Aeria can not help with you anything related to the offers. If you don't get your AP, if a Sponsor refuses to give you your AP after reporting it, or if your computer grows legs and flies out the window on a dinosaur while doing an offer, Aeria can not help you. All you can do is report it to the Sponsor. Also, congrats on getting this far into my mini-novel of a guide, only one more post to read through below. :3

Sandboxie Guide

Downloading/Installing Sandboxie

1. This step is very important and complicated so please read carefully. You need to:
   * Download Sandboxie
   
   - Just install regularly (click Next a bunch).
   - Once it's finished it should launch the program.
   - If a Software Compatibility screen pops up just click Ok.
   - Next, the Tutorial should pop up, just Close it.

Running Browser in Sandboxie

If you go to your Desktop, you should see this shortcut icon:


All you have to do is open that. It will load up your default browser through Sandboxie.
Sometimes your browser may take a few seconds longer than normal to load when it's first opened in Sandboxie.
Now you're protected from anything you browse to and download.


Messages From Sandboxie:

The first time you run your browser through Sandboxie, a screen like this might pop up:



Do exactly what the highlighted message says and double click it.
Click Ok for the new window that pops up.
Then click Close on the now blank Messages window.


Knowing Your Protected:

You can now verify that your browser is running protected with Sandboxie by hovering your mouse near the top of your window (in the following image my mouse is hovering over the Google tab).



See that yellow outline around the window? That means it is currently being ran through Sandboxie.


Downloading/Installing Programs in Sandboxie

As an example, I will be downloading and installing this program, so feel free to download it as well for testing.

1. In your browser which you opened through Sandboxie (as explained above), download the program (do not open it from the browser).
   If while downloading you get the Immediate Recovery screen, just click Close.
   
   
2. Go to the Sandboxie Control window and change the View to Files and Folders.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Navigate to: All Files and Folders > User Files > Personal > Downloads
   
   
   
   
   
4. Right click the setup.exe file and click Run Sandboxed.
   
   
   
   
   
5. You might get another Message from Sandboxie. Do as the highlighted message says and double click it. Then click Ok, then Close the window.
   
   
6. If you got the above Message from Sandboxie, right click the setup.exe file again and click Run Sandboxed.
   
   Tip: If you hover your mouse near the top of the setup window, you'll see that same yellow outline that you did around your browser window, showing you you're Sandboxie protected.
   
   
7. Go through the installation normally, installing it to the default directory it lists (generally C:\Program Files\). Just click Next a bunch until you finish the Setup.

That's it! Your program is now installed and isolated from your computer in Sandboxie!


Running Programs in Sandboxie

You can now open your program by going back to the Sandboxie Control window and Navigating to: All Files and Folders > User Files > Public > Desktop
Then right clicking the .lnk file and Run Sandboxed.




If you get another Message from Sandboxie, just Close it.


Deleting the Sandboxie Contents

Ok so you're all done with your offers for today or maybe you've done a few surveys and want to clean your cookies up.

1. Down on your Notification Tray you should see your Sandboxie Icon.
   Right click it, select Default Box then Delete Contents.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Click the big Delete Contents button.
   
   Any programs you had opened through Sandboxie are now closed, and any programs you had installed to Sandboxie are now poof as well as anything related.

That's it!
If you have any questions or anything to add, please post! ^-^

Nice guide, I never used sandboxie, I think I'll try that out. Thanks

Well done guide. Thanks a lot. I kind of hoped that Offers-contest that was going on a while ago, would end up whit some advice like this. Seems it did:-)

nice to know

Sand boxing is similar to the honeypot where you direct the hackers, spams and viruses to a virtual location.

Very usefull ^^

I never got into sandboxie, i've always been more of a VMWare guy, but for the record, any virtual machine emulation will work well for the programs.

I enjoy installing everything and anything into the VM and then running a random virus scan and malware scan to giggle at the results..

But back on topic of your guide, nicely done

Ye i have noticed that 2 of the "advertisers" SuperRewards and SuperSonic ads are a pain to actually get your AP from it's like trying to draw blood from a stone.

SponsorPay no problems within the time blam your AP is there. these other 2 i have only had 1 payout and that was only after dealing with there help team.

It's pretty odd to me that i can do 18 Superpay offers with 23 working fine and yet

5 super rewards only 1 paid and that was after contacting CS

4 Supersonic Ads and none have paid 3 so far flat out rejected even with proof 1 i'm still trying to fight because it actually cost me cash.

guess you live and learn eh ><