The Not So Free Ipod

by Martin Bawden
The Not So Free Ipod
We have all seen the outrageous banners, congratulations you are 999,999 th visitor you have won a free ipod or should paris Hilton still be in jail, answer for a free ipod.
There are two natural thoughts, that you come up with when you see these ads:
1. This is a scam 2. I'll have to sign up for a bunch of products that I don't want or need.
Those are mostly true, for the ads that you see. Freeipods.com, grabbitrabbit.com, and others who are the pioneers of the freebie industry, are not exactly user-friendly, but they are not a scam.
First, you will receive an enormous amount of spam, regarding free gifts to your sign up email.
Second, you will have to complete a bunch of advertiser's offers like blockbuster, Pitney Bowes, Vonage, or get a hosting package. This can add up to be pretty expensive.
Thirdly, they will try to disqualify you from receiving your free gift, if you do anything wrong. Like using a wrong mailing address when you signed up, or using a different email or mailing address for the offer that you signed up for.
They may also require you to get referrals. But if you follow all the instructions to the T you will receive your 'free' ipod. As you can see, it is not really a free ipod.
But, recently there are many legitimate 'freebie sites' that are more user-friendly.
These sites work on a little different model, but also they are not exactly free. Some like transcendent innovations, zeropricetags, and free4me are completely legitimate. These sites require you to complete one sponsored offer. These offers include blockbuster.com, video professor, and stamps.com. These are very cheap offers, but again not exactly free. After you have completed the offer, you will need to get referrals. Most people try to convince their friends, to do it and receive their free gift. These sites have shipped millions of dollars of gifts each year.
In fact people pay for referrals, in other words User A pays User B to sign up under User A's link and complete an offer. User A then gets a referral, while User B makes some cash. Many people have started to make money solely by completing referrals for cash.
The main site that allows users to do this is http://offers4dough.com, many users can get paid up to $25 or more for completing one referral.
Everyone makes money in this process:1. The Site gets paid from the advertiser for sending them a potential lead.2. User A makes money because he is getting paid about $40/referral towards an Ipod.3. User B makes money because he's getting paid $25 for signing up for a $3 trial4. The Advertiser makes money because he is getting a potential lead.
It may not be a free ipod, but it is by far the cheapest Ipod you can get