Gift Points Info

What are Gift Points?

Writing.Com Gift Points are "virtual tokens" used within the site to advertise items and links, purchase products and memberships or show another member your sincere appreciation.

Basically, Gift Points are like the tokens you buy in an arcade. You put a dollar in the change machine; you receive 4 tokens. At most arcades, each token is worth 25 cents. Here at Writing.Com, if you give us a dollar, we give you 10,000 Gift Points.

10,000 Gift Points = $1.00 US

Using Gift Points Within Writing.Com

Shopping for Yourself: Gift Points may be spent on Writing.Com products such as T-shirts, Mousepads, Paid Memberships and other on-site services. Visit your "My Gift Points" area to purchase paid memberships and more for your account.

Shopping for Others: Gift Points may also be used to purchase products and memberships for other members. To purchase Writing.Com paid memberships for another member, visit your "My Gift Points" area and choose the membership you would like to gift, then insert the member's username. The system will automatically deduct the required Gift Points from your account and gift the member with the subscription that you purchased. To purchase Writing.Com products for another member, simply visit a member's Wish List, choose an item that he or she wants. The system will automatically deduct the required Gift Points from your account and we will mail that member his or her gift!

Advertising Items: All advertising of items and links within Writing.Com is done using Gift Points. Advertisers choose the amount of Gift Points that they would like to pay for a click to their item or link. Visit your Advertising Management System for more information: http://www.Writing.Com/main/my_bids.php

Rewarding Authors: Let's say you read a poem that brings you to tears and touches your heart in such a way that you would like to reward that Author for their time and effort. You can award Gift Points to that Author when you submit your Review with rateable items or send your email with unrateable items. At the bottom of the item, simply input the amount of Gift Points that you would like to send, check the box to confirm your number and click submit. The system will automatically deduct the required Gift Points from your account and will email the member a notification of your GP reward.

Rewarding Reviewers: Want to thank someone for a helpful review that they gave you? Send Gift Points right along with your thank you email! At the bottom of the review, simply input the amount of Gift Points that you would like to send and click submit. The system will automatically deduct the required Gift Points from your account and will email the member a notification of your GP reward.


Acquiring Gift Points

Purchasing Gift Points: Members may purchase Gift Points from within "Our Store" (available from the main navigation button bar at the top of any page) in various quantities. These Gift Points are then stored in your "My Gift Points" area where you will see logs of how many Points you have purchased from the store, received from other members and given out to other members.

Orders paid by Paypal are automatically processed and the Gift Points will show up as soon as the payment goes through. Payments sent by snail mail (checks and money orders) are processed by hand and taken care of as soon as the payment arrives.

Earning Gift Points by Reviews: One of the most popular ways to earn Gift Points on Writing.Com is through our review system.

         * Review Mixer: Earn Gift Points for each quality review that you send to a member whom you have never before reviewed. Besides being a great way to earn Gift Points, this is also a wonderful way to meet new members within the Writing.Com community. Cheating the system will not be tolerated and may result in exclusion from our Reward Systems or account termination. For complete information, please read: "The Review Mixer" .

         * Daily Rewards: Earn Gift Points through our Daily Rewards system. The purpose of this feature is to encourage members to provide each other with meaningful feedback for more items each day and to reward those members that provide such feedback. Cheating the system will not be tolerated and may result in exclusion from our Reward Systems or account termination. For complete information, please read: "Daily Review Rewards" .

         * Auto-Rewards: Many Authors automatically reward Gift Points to Reviewers of an item which he or she has set to automatically reward Gift Points for quality reviews of 250 characters or more. Cheating the system will not be tolerated and may result in exclusion from our Reward Systems or account termination. For complete information, please read: "Auto-Reward Documentation" .

         * Public Review Rewards: Members within the community can reward good reviews that have been publicly posted on our "Reviewing" page with varying amounts of Gift Points. To participate in this feature, simply set your review for any item to be listed publicly. This can be done within the same area where you are typing your review. Cheating the system will not be tolerated and may result in exclusion from our Reward Systems or account termination. For complete information, please read: "Reviewing @ Writing.Com" .

Earning Gift Points Other Ways: There are many other ways to earn Gift Points:

         * Member Hosted Contests: There are always a plethora of contests run by Writing.Com Members. A good place to find some of them is from our "Contest Listings" page, which is available from your Item Jumps pulldown menu or visit here: "Writing Contests @ Writing.Com!" .

         * Scrolling Games: On Scrolling Messages, members have the ability to create various types of games, which reward Gift Points to the winner. To access Scrolling Messages, choose "IM Console" from the Member Tools pulldown menu. Scrolling Messages is available to Upgraded Members and above.

         * Being Helpful: Members frequently reward other members for just being helpful and friendly within the community. Answering questions, supporting each other, giving quality reviews, and many other random acts might just earn you some Gift Points!

Gift Points may NOT be redeemed for cash.


Gift Points from Writing.Com

There are certain times when an Author will automatically be awarded Gift Points from Writing.Com. When any Registered Member within the site publishes their very first item and becomes an author, we will award that person 100 Gift Points.

Members also earn Gift Points for each day he or she logs in to Writing.Com. The following break down will be used to determine the number of points earned:

         Registered Members earn 5 GPs
         Registered Authors earn 10 GPs
         Preferred Authors earn 100 GPs
         Moderators earn 250 GPs
         Senior Moderators earn 1,000 GPs

You will only earn Gift Points for logging in once per day. Logging in more than once per day will NOT earn you additional GPs. GPs will be awarded within 24 hours of the end of each day. Emails will not be sent for login points; they will, however, be logged to your Gift Point log. Reports are run daily which log all Author earnings.

Writing.Com reserves the right to discontinue the Login for Points program at any time, without prior notice.

Sounds exciting, huh? We think so!
Visit your "My Gift Points" area to get started or click to the store:
http://www.Writing.Com/main/store.php!