I'm doing a little social experiment. I'm trying to see what is the minimum amount of work I have to do to get free stuff.
I'm unwilling to assault my friends & family with the recommended referral text.
Hey-
Check out this great site that is giving away totally FREE iPods!
I've joined and I think you should as well.
It's a completely legitimate offer, and this company has already given away $4 million in FREE stuff!
All you have to do is join, complete an online offer, and refer friends to do the same. That's it!
Here is my referral link. To help me get my iPod, click this exact link to join, or copy and paste it into a browser:
http://www.freeiPods.com/?r=15739893
I'm trying to get 5 people to click the link above, and bullheadedly thrash their way through the marketing onslaught that follows, find the cheapest offer that can be quickly abandoned, then sit back and hope friends and/or strangers are similarly greedy and want "free" stuff.
Because I didn't use a referral link from one of the existing Free iPod conga lines (Google it, must I link everything?), I can't take the absolutely laziest route to potential free tech goodness.
My "free" offer was for credit card purchase protection services that normally come with any regular credit card. I pay $1 for the first month, get a $20 gift card for Circuit City, and can cancel after 7 days.
I view this marketing experiment as practice for living in the year 2025 (am I being optomistic?) If only one of the offers were for a Chip-in-the-Head(tm). I would be on that in a New York Minute!
I suppose I might win one at TechEd. I'll keep you updated. I'm sure you're dying to know how this all turns out.
Personal friends, acquaintances & family:
- Thank you for not inviting me to join in this nasty bit of viral marketing
- You're more than welcome to thank me for not giving your personal information to these folks.
- Whatever you do, don't show everyone how willing you are to sell out your friend's personal contact information to placate your own greed.
Update: [3/6/2005] One would click the following referral link (http://www.freeiPods.com/default.aspx?referer=freeipod@robrohr.org) and register and fulfill one offer in order to generate the five referrals I'd need.