FreeiPods.com

Ok, so I keep coming across this freeipods.com stuff. Up until now I’ve written it off as some bogus pyramid scheme thing, but after reading this article on Wired, I figured what the hell, I’ll give it a try.

You have to sign up for some sponsor company’s trial offer and convince 9 more people to do the same. This is, of course, harder than it sounds. People are understandably reluctant to follow through, thinking, just as I did, that it’s a scam.

About the company

The company behind this, Gratis Internet Inc. seems to be completely legit; one of the few companies that actually fulfills it’s promises. In addition to the wired article above, there’s another good review of Gratis at Boston.com that compares one customer’s experience with Gratis (positive) with another free-iPod promotion company (bad). There is a less-than-glowing but seemingly fair Gratis Internet Wikipedia entry. Last, there is a discouraging Better Business Bureau report, though I’ve managed to receive rebates from companies who’ve had worse reports.

Gratis Internet offers a bunch of other free stuff under similar arrangements: a 30gig iPod, an iPod nano, a Mini Mac, an Xbox 360, etc… These require a varying number of people to help you.

Once you sign up, you get a referral link that people are supposed to use to credit you for your powers of persuasion. This one’s mine: http://ipods.freepay.com/?r=33978767.