Creating and verifying your account

0:00 Creating your account

Here's a small story. A creator in Lahore misses a campaign deadline by five hours. She was sure she had time. What went wrong? Her account's time zone was still set to London. Every deadline she saw was quietly shifted. It's such a small setting, and it cost her a reward. In this lecture, you'll create your Optimize All account the right way, choose between email and Google sign-up, get through email verification without getting stuck, and learn how to get back in if you ever forget your password.

0:39 Why it matters

Why does sign-up deserve five careful minutes? Because your account is the foundation for everything else. Your country decides which campaigns target you. Your time zone decides how deadlines and payout dates are shown. Your display name is what reviewers see, and it's what appears on your profile. And your email is where verification links, password resets and payout notices go. Get these right once, and you'll never think about them again. Get them wrong, and they cause confusing problems weeks later.

1:15 Two ways in

Here's the concept, with an analogy. Think of sign-up like setting up a new phone. You can do it in two minutes, skipping everything, and spend the next month fixing the clock and the language. Or you can spend five minutes choosing the right settings up front. Optimize All gives you two ways in. Email and password, where you fill in the form yourself. Or Continue with Google, where Google confirms who you are and you then finish a short step with your display name, country, language and time zone. Either way, you must accept the participant rules. Those rules are short: share only from established accounts you own, always disclose paid posts, and accept that every submission is reviewed.

2:07 Example 1: Ali signs up by email

Let's walk through a simple example. Ali in Islamabad signs up with email. He enters his everyday Gmail address, a long unique password, and watches the strength meter climb. Display name, Ali Raza. Country, Pakistan. Language, Urdu. Time zone, Karachi, which covers all of Pakistan. He reads the rules, ticks the box, and leaves the marketing emails option off for now. He clicks Create account and sees the Check your email page, which names the address the link went to. He opens his inbox, clicks the link, and sees Your email is verified. Done in under five minutes.

2:50 Example 2: Maryam enrols from a course

Now a more realistic scenario, with illustrative details. Maryam is a marketing freelancer in Riyadh. She finds the free SEO course in the Academy, clicks Enrol for free, and chooses Create a free account. She sets her display name to her full name, because she wants it on her certificate. Here's the clever part. The platform remembers that she was trying to enrol. The Check your email page even tells her so: after she verifies and signs in, she'll be taken straight back to her course, enrolled, with the first lesson open. Her verification email lands in the promotions tab. She finds it, clicks it, signs in, and she's reading lesson one. That return trip is remembered in her browser for about a week, so it works best if she verifies on the same device.

3:49 Watch me: Google sign-up

Watch me do it. I open the Register page. At the top there's the white Continue with Google button, then a divider, then the form. I'll use Google this time. Google asks me to confirm my account, and I land on a page called Finish creating your account. It still asks for my display name, my country, language and time zone, and the participant rules tick box. I fill those in and finish. Notice something: an account created with Google has no password yet. So I open Profile, then Security. There's a Set a password card explaining exactly that. I click Email me a link to set a password. The link goes to my verified address and expires in one hour, so I use it straight away. Now I can sign in either way. On the same page, the Sign in with Google card shows which Google address is connected.

4:54 When the email doesn't arrive

What if the verification email never arrives? First, check spam and promotions. Second, on the Check your email page there's a resend form. Use it. Third, if you already signed in, a banner at the top of your portal has a Resend email button. And remember, verification links work once and expire after a while. If you click an old one, the page tells you it has expired and lets you request a fresh link. What you should never do is register a second account with another email. That creates a duplicate, and duplicates break the creator program's rules.

5:37 Getting back in

Now, getting back in. On the sign-in page, use your email and password or Google. If you fail too many times, you'll see a Too many sign-in attempts message. Wait, then try carefully. If you forgot your password, choose Forgot your password and enter your email. The page shows the same message whether or not the address has an account. That's a privacy feature, not a bug. And when you change your password in Security, you're signed out everywhere and asked to sign in again. That's deliberate. It locks out any old device you no longer control.

6:19 How to know it worked

How do you know your sign-up went well? Here's a simple test with four checks. One, you can sign in, and there's no verification banner at the top of your portal. Two, your profile shows the right country, language and time zone. Three, a campaign deadline you open shows a time that makes sense on your own clock. And four, you have a recovery path: you know which email the reset link would go to, and if you used Google, you've also set a password. If all four are true, your foundation is solid, and everything you do from here, campaigns, payouts and courses, will behave the way you expect.

7:07 Invitations and referrals

One more realistic situation. Chris manages a small agency in Austin and invites a new team member to join the creator program with a referral link. When she opens the link and registers, the form shows a You were invited notice with the code already applied. She doesn't need to type anything. But here's the key: the account is hers. Chris doesn't create it for her, and doesn't keep her password. Every participant owns their own account, their own social profiles and their own payouts. Referral and invitation codes help you get credit, but they never mean sharing a login.

7:50 Common mistakes

Common mistakes, quickly. One, leaving the time zone on whatever the form guessed. Always check it. Two, a joke display name you'd hate to see on a certificate. Three, registering twice because the first email seemed lost. Resend instead. Four, sharing your login with someone who offers to manage your account. Staff will never ask for your password, and your profiles, earnings and certificates are yours alone.

8:19 Recap and try this now

Let's recap. You can sign up with email and password or with Google. Either way, choose your display name, country, language and time zone carefully, and accept the participant rules. Verify your email from the link, which works once and expires. If you started from a course, you'll land back in lesson one after signing in. And if you used Google, add a password in Security so you always have a second way in. Try this now: sign in, open your Profile, and confirm your time zone matches the clock on your wall. Next, we'll tour the rest of your settings, including exactly which emails you receive.