| As you may or may not have heard, Gratis Networks, an established marketing company, has been giving out literally millions of dollars worth of 'free' merchandise. I was a bit skeptical at first, but I went through the whole process, and amazingly enough, I managed to get one about a month later. At this point, I am working to get one for my girlfriend, and some friends as well. The following is a very simple guide to receiving your own free i-Pod. | | | | WHAT TO DO | 1. | Click below on the picture of the item you would like to receive. You must use Internet Explorer to log in. | | 2. | Enter an email address. | | 3. | Complete the short survey, which is actually just a bunch of marketing questions. Say NO to all of them. | | 4. | Pick one of the of the offers they have on their list in the 'Complete Offer' section (see below for info on the best offers). | | 5. | Find between 5 and 10 friends to do the same thing you just did, after signing up through your unique referral link, located in the 'Refer Friends' section. The number of friends you need to have sign up varies from offer to offer. The iPods offer requires only 5, while the flatscreen TV offer requires 8, and the Desktop PC offer requires 10. It varies based on the price of the item. | | 6. | When you have enough referrals, you have to manually order your item, and then, between 2-5 weeks later, you will receive your item! |
| | For proof that these offers are legit go here and see for yourself: Proof 1, Proof 2, Proof 3 | | | | | | THE OFFERS As the offers vary from day to day, I cannot guarantee that the following will be available at all times. | Video Professor: | This offer costs nothing, but is a bit risky if you are on the absent-minded side. All you have to do is order one of their educational CD's, and return it within a certain number of days. If you do not bother to return it in time, you will be charged $70! I did this offer for my iPod, and they never charged me for anything, not even shipping. It also gives you credit immediately for signing up. If you do open the software, you will be charged $6.95 for s/h. | | America Online: | This offer takes several days to take effect. However, it is free, so it may be worth trying. Simply sign up, install the software, and then cancel (calling them to cancel can be quite a pain, though, as they will put you on hold for quite a while). Luckily, you have 50 days to cancel before being charged. | | Miracle Burn: | This offer requires you to pay $5.95 for shipping and handling. All you have to do is order their diet pill and cancel via email or phone after you have received credit for doing it. It takes a few days to credit you for doing the offer. | | Netscape Internet Service: | This offer is similar to the AOL offer, but only costs $9.95/month, should you forget to cancel before a month is up. If you do cancel before the 30 days are up, it's free! Definitely a better choice than AOL. | | Ancestry.com | This is a good offer to do because it requires no payment if you cancel your account prior to the end of the trial period. All you have to do is call an 800 number to cancel (they don't allow e-mail cancellations). Warning: if you don't cancel before the end of the trial period, you will be charged quite a lot of money, as the service is fairly expensive after the free trial! | The other offers require a bit more commitment, and I wouldn't suggest them, unless you would have signed up for them anyway. | | | | HINTS • I would highly suggest making a fake e-mail address on Hotmail, Yahoo, or other free e-mail company. The address you use to login with will be spammed constantly. • They only ship to the US, so don't bother attempting this if you live in Europe or Mexico. • If you are nervous about using your credit card online, you can get a disposable one from a company like Coinstar. They don't cost much, and may help you sleep better at night. However, the Gratis websites are secure and legit. I wouldn't worry about them too much, if you are using Internet Explorer 6. • Be patient. The free stuff will most likely take a while to arrive (my iPod took just under 3 weeks to get here). • Don't expect a fast response to email questions to them. They usually take about 4-5 days to respond. • An easy way to get you referrals is to post spam auctions on eBay for 'free iPods', etc. I got many completed referrals that way, but they will bust you eventually, and can revoke your eBay username. Be very cautious when doing this, and be prepared to get in some trouble. • Do not attempt to fraud them with multiple referrals from the same person (i.e. you). If they catch you, you might get banned, and whoever you refer may lose you as a referral as well. | | | | THE VERDICT As of today, I have personally completed the free iPod and free flatscreen offer, although so far, I have only received the iPod -- I got the 20GB one, and amazingly enough, it was the new 4th generation one that had only come out a week and a half earlier! Unfortunately, I had to re-order my monitor as the first one ran out of stock, so I have yet to receive that. Still, ain't too bad considering it's free! Go for it... | | | | HOW IT WORKS It's a very simple principle -- they are selling your e-mail address to spammers, and receiving a tidy sum of money from every company you sign up with. While the actual amount is kept secret from the public, they are most likely receiving from $25 to $50 for each sign-up. Take into account the fact that the majority of people never seem to get all of their referrals, and you understand how they make money. The vast majority of people never even complete their own referral, but still give Gratis an email address to sell to spammers. Considering that only 1 in 15 people probably fulfills all their requirements, Gratis makes quite a hefty sum of money, even after giving out so much free stuff. |
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