There are many a time when you hear about an idea or a concept that someone came up with that revolutionizes the way we do things, whether it be how we interact, how we do business, how we live.
The one thing that the internet has done is open up tremendous new opportunities and avenues for people to make a decent living doing something other than working a 9 to 5 job. Trust me, I have one and it isn't all it's cut out to be. My hope is that what I have stumbled across recently has a chance to revolutionize the way people make a living and that this message can get out to those who need it. There are a lot of people out there needing some extra monthly income or something that will help get them started towards making money on their own terms instead of being a slave to their employers.
Some of you have seen the proliferation of the free websites, you know, the websites that say you can claim your free prize or free gadget if you complete their offer. There's nothing really novel or new about these sites. They've been around for some time and have earned the lofty status of minor annoyance more than anything else. Most people with common sense have figured out that nothing is for free and that to win a gift card or IPod, you do have to do something or pay something 'out of pocket'.
What I want to focus on is the ecosystem of people that have developed a profitable relationship with these IFWs - Incentivized Free Websites, by leveraging the power of the internet to connect with other likeminded people. This group has figured out how to make a decent living connecting with other people to form symbiotic business relationships that help them take advantage of what these websites are offering.
Here's an example of how it works:
Free Gadgets.com is giving away a free IPod. But to qualify for it, you must complete one of the site's trial offers, things like NetFlix one-month trial, Columbia House CDs, etc. However, this only qualifies you for the free gadget, you still haven't earned it. To earn the gift, you must then refer a designated number of people to the site and they must, in turn, complete one of the site offers. The advertisers and corporations backing these sites love the exposure and traffic, not to mention the money generated from people signing up for the offers.
The offers themselves are not earth-shattering in terms of cost. Most are between $1 to $10 with some being free trial offers. BUT BE CAREFUL! Unless you cancel before the trial period is over, they will charge you a monthly subscription charge which can cost anywhere from $40 to $100 per month. I know many many people have been caught forgetting to cancel and they end up having to pay the monthly subscription fee. I can just see the corporate sponsors laughing all the way to the bank!
I stumbled upon a couple of websites that act as referral based networks where you can find others who are looking for 'referrals', another words, people who are willing to sign up under another person's ID on one of these websites, effectively earning them a referral! Now, this wouldn't be such a big deal if there were only a couple of IFWs or just a couple of folks involved with this. Turns out, there are literally thousands of IFWs and a whole community of people involved in this business of swapping and trading referrals. I'll sign up under you for XYZ site if you sign up under me on ABC site, sound good? Or, I will pay you $20 to go to DEF site and complete one of their offers so I can earn your referral, deal?
Cash for referrals is a real interesting niche. Someone pays me $20 to complete an offer on a certain website. Sounds crazy at first, but when you peel it back, you find out that website ABC is paying $300 in cash (yes they have cash prizes as well) if you successfully refer 6 people. So, you pay out $120 to get a $300 check...hmmm sounds like 100%+ profit to me!
Something to note: The pursuit of this niche will not make you a millionaire. But with a little effort, it can help make you some extra income. For some people, it makes them a decent living! I hear that the sweet spot is between $500 & $2,000 per month but I don't think anyone really knows how much you can make because more and more IFWs are popping up all the time.
So without further ado, here are the steps you should take to get started:
- Get a PayPal account. It's easy to do, just go to http://www.paypal.com/. Without a PayPal account, people are less likely to trade with you.
- You will need a credit or debit card. Some sites have free offers with no credit card required but it severely restricts your options for trading. You don't need a lot of money to start because many of these free trials cost $1 to $5. Some are even free!
- Join one of the IFW forums like http://www.anything4free.com/ or http://www.freeipodguide.com/. Read their tutorials or beginners guides. This is a great starting place to get an understanding of how to start a trade or swap. Believe me, the best feeling I've had in awhile is when I looked into my PayPal account after finishing a trade and seeing an extra $40 in there for very little work!
- Go to some of the IFWs to look at the offers. Like this:
http://paypal.allfreebieworld.com?referral=616
- Click into their free offers and take a look around. Don't worry, if you don't put in a credit card number, you won't purchase anything. Make sure to read the offers carefully. Some offers require that they put an authorization hold for a much higher dollar amount than the free offer amount. So the offer may cost $3.95 but they may authorize the $3.95 + first month's subscription fee of $30 for a total of $33.95. Again, don't worry about this. So long as you cancel before the freel trial period is over, the authorization hold will just drop off and you'll be charged just the free trial fee. Make sure to wait 2 or 3 days before cancelling, DON'T CANCEL right away. If you do this, you may not receive credit for completing the offer and your trading partner may not receive credit for the referral!
- Go back to the Referral sites. There will be plenty of people looking to do trades with you. I started with the referrals for cash trade. People will be posting which sites they need referrals on, you just reply to their email, they'll give you their referral link, and off you go to the freewebsite. Once you've completed the offer, you go back to the referral site and post to them that you've completed the offer. They call it going 'green'. If you give them your PayPal email ID, they will then send you your money.
That's all there is to it!
-A couple of logistics rules. Make sure you read the referral site tutorials. It makes it easier to understand what people are asking you to do and how the process works, in general.
-Try to stick with trading with people with high TR ratings. These are the people who have been doing this awhile and are experienced with it. But there are a lot of newbies out there joining every single day, so if you feel comfortable reaching out and doing a trade with a newbie, that's fine too.
-You will hear them say 'delete your cookies'. This step is very important. If you don't do it, you may not get credit for an offer you sign up for AND your trading partner may not get the referral credit. Each browser has a specific set of instructions on how to accept all cookies and you will also need to know how to delete cookies. Do yourself a favor, take some time to make sure you know how to do this before jumping in.
-If your computer gets hung up while you are doing a credit card transaction for one of the offers, DON'T CLICK THE REFRESH BUTTON. If you do this, you will be double charged. Again, take it from someone who knows. If your computer freezes in the middle of a transaction, let it sit for as long as you so that it has a chance to complete the transaction and give you your confirmation number. If it just freezes and you don't have any other choice, then go ahead and close out of it or shut down. Normally, as a backup, the advertiser will send an email to your email address confirming the transaction along with your security ID and password.
-FOLLOW THE RULES - you'll hear a lot of people saying this, whether it's on the referral forums, on the website forums, on blogs regarding IFWs. There's a good reason for it. You don't have to cheat to make money on this! The referral forums are a place where there are literally thousands of people who want the same thing as you do! Talk about a marketer's dream. Pretending to sign up as 3 or 4 different people just to earn your own referral credits is just plain stupid. The advertisers have very deep pockets and expert web security staff that know how to detect someone trying to pull a fast one. Again, JUST DON'T DO IT.
-Have fun! The funny thing about this is that it's a very simple way to make money. It's not rocket science and you're not saving the world. It's just a simple way to make some extra money. So when you get your first deposit into your PayPal account, SMILE! There's much more where that came from.
If you have questions or comments about the IFW Referral Program, feel free to email me at goodson_joel@yahoo.com. Good luck!
