Freebies or Spam Machines? The Truth About Incentive Sites

Incentive or freebie sites have taken the internet by storm. Thousands of sites promise gifts to users in exchange for their participation, but what are the real workings behind these offers.

Montreal, Quebec (PRWEB) June 24, 2006 -- “Freebie Sites”, the websites that promise all manner of free stuff in exchange for participation, have taken the internet by storm. Millions of internet users are confused as to what these sites are really about. Can you really get the gifts announced or do these sites just capture email addresses to fuel their spam engines? The answer to that question is not clear cut as both models exist.

Theoretically, freebie sites function on a mutually beneficial interaction between three parties. These three parties are: online advertiser, freebie site and the users that are solicited. Freebies are offered to users in exchange for participation in the online advertisers’ offers. This generates commission for the operator of the site, which is then shared with the user who completed the offer. The advertiser sees his share of the benefits by receiving a lead; a new customer that can be marketed to.

These "freebie" offers are the type that appear in your inbox everyday in growing number: get a free $500 dollar gas certificate, with the small mention: participation required. Other common formats are: “Claim your free Xbox 360, click here now”. When the user clicks on one of these ads, they are taken to a simple webpage that asks for their email and zip code, allegedly for verification purposes. The user is then asked to complete a number of sponsored offers before they can claim their gift.

Users then proceed to close their browser window or complete one or more of these sponsored offers. Again in theory, the system works, but in practice, many users will drop out short of having completed the process.

For those that do complete the process, and they number in the millions, rewards have been received ranging from gift certificates to plasma TVs and just about anything in between. For those that drop out, the only winners are the advertisers and the owner of the site.

Generally speaking, the biggest winner is always the site owner as they gain from the moment a user submits their email address. They also benefit from the commissions generated by users who complete sponsored offers but do not complete the process. Since about only 2% of them do, its easy to see who has the most to gain from this business model.

Corporations have collected literally millions of email addresses this way, using them to more or less legally spam their way to huge sums of money. Ethical questions aside,the business model continues to grow in popularity as the word “free” has yet to lose its appeal and accessibility is high. “Just a basic script can go a long way” says Jad Bitar, founder of www.myeasyscripts.com, one of the main service providers for these sites.

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