The last year and a half should be known as the ‘ipod for a signup’ generation due to the large number of sites that offered free ipods for signing up to offers. These offers were usually credit card offers, music sharng websites, internet and broadband connection websites and other similar sites. Since most of these were trial offers and required credit cards to pay for the trial period, the companies allowed incentives to be given for marketing. So you had offers where you sign up to an ‘offer’ and then refer a few of your friends to the same offers and viola, you win a iPOD!

Let us look at the economics of such offers. The average payout of each offer on such sites works out to about $40. You need to sign up for about 5 of them. That is worth $200. Usually you need to refer at least 6 people to the site. So if all six people sign up, you make another $240. That is a total of $440. And in return you get a ipod (and a load of SPAM!)  The smart thing here is not all people complete the entire process. They may sign up to just one offer or refer only a couple of friends. In such cases, the entire affiliate commissions are a profit since you dont pay out anything.

Read the article here to know what really happens when you opt for a free ipod. This is an eye opening story that speaks volumes!

Similar schemes will be tried out in ther future too. Next it is the turn of free gift cards, free Zunes and next it could be free Apple iPhone and free accessory for Apple iPhone.