ODDREE.COM

Free iPods ... No, I mean, really.

Don't you hate it when you are are trying to surf websites, and you get some idiotic ad that tells you to "shoot the ipod and win"? Anyhow, it seems that there are some legitimate people out there giving away free iPods. It's a new method of mass marketing. It makes sense when you think about it. Let's say I sign up for a subscription service, and then get five of my friends to do the same. We have just justified the cost of the iPod.

You can call it what you want, but what it means is that getting iPods for nothing, isn't just some shitty spam method. There is this website with the ultra clever name of freeiPods.com. I went there a few months ago after I read about it somewhere and created an account with them. It REALLY looks like a scam. I didn't want to get spammed, so I created a new email account, and used it to sign up. A few months later, I never got any mail to the account, and I had forgotten why I created it to begin with. Oh yeah! That free iPod thing.

I decided to search around for more info on this free iPod website. Expecting to find a bunch of dismayed, and pissed off people I found a bunch of Blog entries from people who were happily posing with their new free toys and bragging about it. One guy runs a site called freeiPodGuide.com and he took pictures of everything. Not just the iPod he got, but the truck delivering it to his home. It's quite a hoot.

Wired magazine wrote an article on the site and interviewed the marketing folks behind it. They actually ship dozens of iPods daily, and make pretty good money with the whole system.

So here is how it works.

Create an account - This is just your email address, and a simple password (they really wont spam you, I tested it)

Chose your prize! - You can re-chose later, but the prize is one of many model iPods (classic 20GB or 4GB mini), or a $250 gift certificate to iTunes Music Store.

Sign Up for ONE Offer (you have a dozen to chose from) - This is the part where you need to buy something. I will explain in a moment.

Refer 5 Friends - Five of your buddies must do this too. This is how they are able to give you a $250 toy for nothing.

You knew there was a catch, you have to BUY something. But really, the catch is not a catch at all. They are give you some services to chose from, and they are not all bad. I think I will go with the Blockbuster service. It's like "Netflix". You can rent movies online, and they are shipped out to you the same day. You can have up to three at a time, just like Netflix. But, Netflix is $24.99 a month. Blockbuster's service is $19.99, and they let you have 2 free in-store rentals too. If I rent two movies a month, I spend $20 easily because I always accumulate gigantic late fees. Anyhow, it's a pretty good deal.

The other services are things like credit card offers, diet pills, ISP's, etc. None of them really interested me that much. Oh, there was one where you can buy postage online, and print postage labels. While that's neat, PayPal does that for me and I don't pay anything extra for it.

The bottom line is that I gave it a shot, and so should you. If five of you out there follow my link, you will earn me an iPod, and you will be on your way to earning your own iPod as well.

Did I mention you can cancel any of these "services" whenever you want? They say you have to keep your Blockbuster server for at least the two weeks of the free trial period. So basically, you need to stay on with them for at least one month. But if you ask me, $20 for an iPod is a pretty good damned deal. Don't you think? And you could watch a couple of movies using a service that you might just enjoy.

If you sign up, do it with this link!! That way, you are using my referral ID and helping me out. ;-)