THE SECOND TIP (tip #2):

It may seem obvious to you, but it's one that is vital to FarmVille, and one that is often overlooked.  You need to get the maximum number of neighbors allowed in FarmVille - 300!  Of course, the easiest way to do this is to invite your own friends.  But I would guess that most of us don't have 300 friends on Facebook!  So here's all that you have to do:

Go to the FarmVille Forums, and find an 'Add-Me Neighbor' section.  Here, you will find thousands of people who post that they are looking for neighbors.  They post a link with their request, and all you have to do is click it to request to be their friend.  They usually ask you to type 'farmville' in the message you send them, and that's it!  You can nail out 300 of these within a few days, and then you'll be getting a ton of free gifts from them daily.  Doing this also will help you greatly in getting a few of your ribbons.