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Salon Site Pass

Now you can access Salon by watching a commercial!

With your Site Pass you'll get complete access to Salon's exclusive subscription-only content. As part of a unique marriage of premium advertising with premium content, our advertisers essentially pick up the tab. This means that more readers like you can enjoy more of our content.

Simply click on a sponsor logo on any Salon story page -- or on the logo on this page in the upper right corner -- to begin. (Important note: Your browser must be set to accept cookies. Please see our FAQ for other limitations.) For more information about the Salon Site Pass please visit our FAQ.

FAQ

How long is my Site Pass valid?

Site Pass access lasts for a variable period from 1-8 hours.

Will I be charged for access to Salon?

No, we don't charge you for your Site Pass.

How does the site pass work?

If you watch and click through a site pass advertisement, we'll place a "cookie" on your browser that will identify you as a Site Pass user and give you access to all of Salon's articles for 1-8 hours.

Do I need to have cookies enabled to get my Site Pass?

Yes, your browser must be set to accept cookies in order for you to receive your Site Pass. Please note that we only use your cookie to give you access to Salon articles without logging in and for aggregate tracking. The only time we look at a record of the pages that individuals have visited is if we receive a Premium support request. In those cases a record of pages visited helps us resolve problems quickly and efficiently.

As a Site Pass user do I get access to other Salon Premium features like magazine subscriptions, audio book downloads, etc?

No, only annual Premium subscribers receive access to additional benefits. Site Pass users only receive access to Premium articles. If you would like to subscribe and receive access to all Premium benefits please go to this page. For a list of all Premium benefits please go to this page. If you're already a Salon Premium subscriber you can log-in here.

Other limitations

You must have "cookies" enabled to take advantage of this offer. Unless you have deliberately set your browser to not accept cookies, you are not required to do anything special.

You may access this Salon Site Pass only from the computer and browser with which you completed the Site Pass advertisement.

Because of browser/plug-in/locale/infrastructure limitations, not all Salon readers will receive this offer.

I'm having problems getting my Site Pass.

If you are having difficulties, here are a few things that you might try:

If you don't see the advertiser's logo in our top navigation bar or article pages please check if you have Ad Blocking Software or Anti-Spam Software installed on your computer. Some of these software have ad blocking functionality in their default settings. You can exclude Salon from this feature. There are instruction how you can remove or modify ad blocking functionality in Norton AntiSpam:

  • In the Ad Blocking window, click Advanced.
  • In the left side of the Advanced window, do one of the following:
    To modify or remove a string from the (Defaults) list, click (Defaults).
    To modify or remove a site-specific string, click the site's name.
  • In the HTML string list, select the string that you want to change.
    To modify a string, click Modify, then type your changes.
    To remove a string, click Remove.
  • When you are done, click OK to close the Advanced window.
  • Click OK to close the Ad Blocking window

Make sure that your computer's clock is set to the correct time and date, since we set cookies based on those settings they must be accurate for your local time zone.

Check if your browser accepts animation. In IE go to Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > Multimedia > check box "Play animations in web pages".

Click on the correct link to "Enter Salon Premium". The link to enter Premium usually appears at the end of the advertiser's ad. Ad can sometimes last 10-20 seconds and sometimes have multiple pages. Please watch the ad and wait for the "Enter Salon Premium" link.

Sometimes pressing the "refresh" or "reload" button on your Web browser right after landing on the non-premium page will grant your browser the correct permissions. Look for the "Salon Premium" banner on the Salon navigation bar to determine if this was successful. See below.

Sometimes our advertisers use 3rd parties to serve their ads (DART, Atlas, MediaPlex). If you don't see the Day Pass ad, it may happen that you have these domains blocked on your internet privacy list. Usually these are the domains you have to take off the list: http://ad.doubleclick.net, http://view.atdmt.com, http://altfarm.mediaplex.com

Salon uses cookies to grant access to Salon Premium. In addition to allowing cookies from Ultramercial, you must also allow your browser to accept cookies from Salon.com in order to receive this offer. Enable cookies and set you browser to accept third party cookies.

Here are instructions for enabling cookies in the most common combinations of browsers and operating systems:

In most versions of Netscape:

  1. Go to the "Edit" menu
  2. Choose "Preferences"
  3. Choose "Advanced"
  4. Select "Accept all Cookies"

For Internet Explorer 5 on a Macintosh

  1. Go to the "Explorer" menu
  2. Choose "Preferences"
  3. Select "Receiving Files" and then "Cookies"
  4. Where it says, "When receiving cookies," select the choice "Never ask" from the menu
  5. Select "OK"

For Internet Explorer 5.x on a PC

  1. Go to the "Tools" menu
  2. Choose "Internet Options"
  3. Choose "Security"
  4. Choose "Custom Level" and click the "Enable" buttons under
    the Cookies section.

For Internet Explorer 6.0 on a PC:

  1. Go to the "Tools" menu
  2. Choose "Internet Options"
  3. Choose "Privacy"
  4. Choose "Advanced"
  5. Click the "Override automatic cookie handling" box
  6. Ensure that you have the "Accept" box checked for both First-Party cookies and Third-Party cookies.

For Safari on a Macintosh:

  1. Go to the "Safari" menu
  2. Choose "Preferences"
  3. Choose "Security"
  4. In the "Cookies" section, choose "Always"
  5. Click the "close window" button.

For Firefox:

  1. Go to the "Tools" menu
  2. Choose "Options"
  3. Choose "Cookies" from the Privacy menu
  4. Select the check box that says "Allow Sites to Set Cookies"
  5. Click "OK".

Opera look under Edit | Preferences | Privacy.

Sometimes a firewall or Internet security product will block some of the information that is passed invisibly between Ultramercial and Salon. Try temporarily disabling these products if you can.

Sometimes your local Internet browser or a proxy server will store a bad copy of the pages that are necessary to access Salon. If you have been denied a pass in the past, you may need to clear your browser's disk cache in order to receive the offer. IMPORTANT NOTE: Clearing your cache eliminates ALL the files stored there. This includes many of the web pages that you visit most often. You may experience slower than normal performance after clearing your cache, because a browser first tries to show you its stored files before it goes out to find it online. This is particularly true for those on dial-up modems.

If you are still having problems, please send us an email and let us know the specific difficulties you've encountered. Please include URL of the page your are on as well as your browser version and operating system. We'll do our best to provide you with a solution.