The Free Stuff wave

S

SimpleMinded

Vault Fossil
hey guys,
I don't know if any of you have seen it, though if you haven't yet I'm surprised, but free stuff ads have taken over the internet. Whenever you go to web sites, ads pop up... "shoot the monkey and get a free million dollars!" or "Congratulations! You won a life-time supply of viagra!" The most popular one now is the whole free I-pod bs that I think I've seen on every forum on the internet (except conveniently this one though I guess I just ended that).

My brother, having discovered these ads and what not, decided to try them out and see if he could actually get anything. Feeling like I was the sibling of an absolute moron, I constantly gave him chiding remarks about his ability to throw away his time. Boy did he make me eat my words when we receive an ipod and a nintendo ds in the mail yesterday.

Now I honestly know nothing about this stuff and was curious if any of you guys have tried these things too? What do you guys think about this movement and how soon before it falls out? If you're interested in trying it yourself, my brother's website is http://www.biggupssentertainment.com/ He's going to upload photos of his stuff later on to help end the doubters.
 
This smells a bit of backstabbing.

Are you sure he didn't accidentally sign any binding contracts to get that swag?

EDIT: Pyramid scheme senses tingling, this smells of illegal winning scheme.
 
Actually, I've read a bit about this. It works.

It's totally legit, but its still a pyramid scheme. If you are the first person in your neighborhood to start up, you are guarenteed to get your free ipod, pc, whatever... but as more and more people sign up, there is less chance they will find someone else. The man on the bottom gets nothing, but the men on top reap the rewards.

Not to mention, the company that sponsors this is raking it in. Once the #s start rolling, it takes 512 people in the 3rd tier to supply 64 people with a product. That's a lot of dough from advertisers.
 
MadDog -[TO said:
-]Actually, I've read a bit about this. It works.

It's totally legit, but its still a pyramid scheme. If you are the first person in your neighborhood to start up, you are guarenteed to get your free ipod, pc, whatever... but as more and more people sign up, there is less chance they will find someone else. The man on the bottom gets nothing, but the men on top reap the rewards.

Not to mention, the company that sponsors this is raking it in. Once the #s start rolling, it takes 512 people in the 3rd tier to supply 64 people with a product. That's a lot of dough from advertisers.
Click to expand...

That's what had me confused here, how do these companies giving the stuff away actually come out profiting? I guess as you said, sponsors pay them for it, but then, I'm curious to see if the sponsors actually benefit any from this.
 
Well, some people who sign up end up either
1. liking the free trial and keep it
2. get the word out to other people.

Possibly, there might be people who buy your address from the free____.com website. No one is really sure yet. So there might also be a hidden profit from it.

I'm sure the website is getting paid a bit of money for each person that signs up with a free offer, so they themselves are making a large profit.
 
The freeipods.com, freeminimacs.com, freeflatscreens.com etc. websites are run by a company called Gratis.

The way it works is, Gratis gets a commission from third party companies for directing consumers to them. Gratis entices people to try out products and services from those third party companies by offering an incentive -- a free iPod, for example -- for signing up and getting others to also sign up.

The commission is how Gratis makes money, and how they are able to give free merchandise to those who get enough folks to sign up.

It is a pyramid scheme in the sense that only people who get enough referrals get the free merchandise, but what makes it legal and legitimate is that everyone who signs up through a referral link actually gets a product or service. Contrast this to an illegal pyramid scheme, where everyone who enters contributes money, but ONLY people who get to the top of the pyramid actually get any of it.

As to the products and services offered, some of them are things people would want anyway. For example, one of them you have to buy $45 worth of printer ink. If you have a color printer, you know how easy it is to spend $45 on ink for it, so it's something you'd need anyway. Another useful one is a Stamps.com membership (lets you pay for postage online and print stamps on your printer).

Anyway the deals (at least the Gratis) deals are legitimate and work -- it's just difficult to get all the referrals you need, so bear in mind that the chances of getting the free merchandise will depend entirely on you getting your link out there -- and with most message boards, posting links to these deals is frowned upon :)
 
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