The Freebie Industry’s History
The freebie industry has been around since 2001 when the first ever freebie site, FreeCondom.com was launched by Gratis Internet. Shortly after that site was launched, FreeIpods.com came to be. At that time, these two little sites made up the freebie industry. However, over a relatively short period of time, these two sites were grabbing the attentions of thousands.
People were attracted by the idea of getting Ipods or condoms, and getting them for free or at a very low price. In those days, the freebie industry was made up of one very simple concept, which was to complete one of the sites’ sponsor offers and get free stuff. Of course, in the beginning people were very skeptical, but over time as people started to participate and eventually received their freebie gifts, more and more people started to join. The two sites, particularly FreeIpods.com gained so much attention that major TV stations started to take note. NBC was the first.
As time went on, Gratis Internet launched more sites. As this was happening, other Internet Marketers saw the earning potential in creating freebie sites of their own and in January of 2004, FreeIpodGuide.com came to existence. It was now the second freebie network next to Gratis Internet to have it’s own list of freebie sites.
By this time, the general concept of the freebie industry expanded. Now, people had to complete offers and refer a certain amount of people to do the same using their affiliate (referral) links that was provided to them by each of the freebie sites they happened to register to. Even though, people now had to go an extra step to gain their free gift, they were still very much motivated to continue because now the rewards they would receive were of more value. Early on, when people were just asked to complete an offer to gain their free gift, there was no incentive for them to go out and spread the word about these sites. As a direct result, the freebie sites were only gaining their traffic through simple marketing techniques and thus, could only get paid by their sponsors for the relatively small amount of people that were coming through and signing to their sponsor’s sites and services. Because of this, the freebie sites could only afford to give a limited variety of gifts, like condoms and Ipods.
The freebie sites’ owners knew that if they wanted to be successful, they had to use the very well-known and number one method of getting traffic, word of mouth. They knew that the key to being successful lied within their current members. They had to motivate them to spread the word and bring in more consistent traffic. They promised their members that if they were to bring more people to their sites and spread the word, they would reward them better with higher valued products, anything from a flatscreen TV to the next generation video gaming consoles, like an Xbox 360 Elite.
This proved to be both very attractive to the members and a great traffic booster that the sites’ finally started to gain momentum and the owners were getting enough funds from their sponsors to not only give it’s members a better variety of gifts, but to expand.
When FreeIpodGuide..com finally came out, the owners of this freebie network not only wanted to launch new sites of their own, but wanted to teach it’s members on how to use freebie sites. The slogan they often used was “I came, I saw, I got Free Stuff. “
In April of 2005 , they added “The Trading Post” subforum, where members could trade referrals in exchange for signups, money and other things and this is where the concept of freebie trading really got started. People started looking at the Freebie Industry as a place where you could make some money for trying out different services. However, it was still mostly about getting Free Stuff.
Now, at this time, people who had family members, friends, websites/blogs of their own, were really the only ones who could get referrals. This is why referral forums and freebie trading were created to help those who didn’t have the resources to bring in those referrals.
At the end of 2005, another referral forum (Trading Post) was launched, AnyThing4Free.com. It was a hit. This forum grew to be a strong force in the freebie industry. As more and more people found out about freebie sites, the more people found the forums and the more free stuff were being sent out.
Overtime, freebie trading progressed and now the experienced members/traders of the forum started teaching others (new members) on how to get started and establish themselves within the industry. Eventually, these experienced traders came to be known as “the freebie mentors of the forums.” Also to note, by this time, freebie sites were now offering cash to it’s members for each referral that they brought in. This cash option rapidly became the preferred reward for many of the freebie sites’ members. Because of this, people, especially the freebie mentors, began to see the freebie industry as a money making opportunity.
Mentors started to see that the only way to accurately show their students how to sign up to a freebie site, complete an offer, refer others, etc, was to show them first hand. They saw this as an opportunity to have their students (new members of the forums) become their referrals and make a profit from them signing up through their referral link and completing an offer on a freebie site that they’re working on.
Of course, having their students become their referrals wouldn’t be free. Just like mentors would make a profit from their students, the students themselves would in turn make a profit from their mentors This is because freebie trading was designed in a way so that both the mentor and the student can make money together.
The student would makes money from their mentor because it was both required by the forums and the mentors themselves wanted to give their students an extra incentive to become their referral and to give the freebie industry a fair shot. Since different freebie sites paid different amounts per referral, it became the general consensus for mentors to pay their students 50% of a site’s referral value.
In other words, if a freebie site was paying $50 per referral, then it was required for a mentor to pay their students $25 for becoming their referral on that site. To this day, that is still the general consensus
The Present
Since then, other referral forums have launched. The rapidly growing Calistyle101.com and the largest forum of them all, FreeLunchRoom.com. Through the help of these forums and from the hundreds of thousands of satisfied traders spreading the word, this is now a multi-million dollar industry.
This industry has grown so rapidly, especially in the last year, that new freebie networks are appearing and launching 5 -10 new sites of their own every few months. There are now hundreds of these freebie sites.
New forums are also being launched every 6 to 12 months. The more forums there are, the more people you have access to and any new trader that registers to the forum can net you $100 to $200 in profit. However, to get to this point, you’ll need to gain experience and you need to know how freebie sites, forums, and freebie trading operates. Once you have gained this knowledge, you’ll eventually become a freebie mentor yourself and you’ll be consistently cashing out on each of your students’ greens.
I will provide you with this knowledge. I’m a freebie mentor and have worked long and hard on these forums, but now I wish to work outside of these forums and provide my services to you. I’ll go more in detail in the later pages of this blog. However, if you just want to get started right away, we can certainly do that, but I do recommend looking at the other pages because all your basic questions that you’ll undoubtedly have, will all be answered in this blog. If you read this blog thoroughly, you’ll be prepared when you contact me and I can get you started immediately. 
My Contact Information
AIM: Efrainsag
YIM: pete.sagastume@yahoo.com
MSN: efrain.sagastume@live.com
Phone: 551-655-9607
