Jumping thru hoops - part 1

I'm going to document my endeavor to obtain a free iPhone. I figure it will help some of you who are weary of this sort of thing and take some of the mystery and doubt out of the process.

I signed up for the promotion and things are under way. I've completed my required offer and am currently working on getting enough referrals. I've got about 3 out of the 8 that I need. In an effort to help anyone that's curious and potentially willing to help, I'm going to give a quick breakdown of the process to help ease any fears and suspicions.

(Click the images below for a larger view and more info)

First, you have the YourFreeiStuff website where it all starts. Go there with this link --> CLICK ME <-- since that will let them know I sent you there. If you sign up it will credit me with the referral. Their site layout is clean and organized. All you do is choose the "free gift" you'd like to shoot for and then enter your email address to make an account with them. The ONLY info you give them is email address, mailing address and phone number. That's it.


After that you choose one of two options as to how you want to complete the gift requirements. I'm using the "referral" method, which means I complete one "offer" and refer a certain amount of people to do the same.

The other method doesn't require any referrals. It just requires you to sign up for a lot more offers. That seems to be pushing it to me. I want minimal involvement as I go thru this thing.

So once you sign up for their site you'll be able to log in at any time and check the progress of your efforts.


You can see how many referrals you currently have and if they've completed their offers. You can edit your account info and eventually order your free gift and track it. I was impressed with the clean and clear cut nature of the site. It didn't feel slimy to me at all.


This is also where you can browse the different offers that they have.


There are about 35 - 40 different offers. Yes...a lot of them are crap. Diet pills and book club sort of things that harken back to late night infomercial type products or the Columbia House music club sort of thing. BUT, there are a handful of recognizable and established companies on there. Most notably:

Netflix, Gamefly, Blockbuster, eMusic and the U.S. Post Office.

The most common one that people seem to use is the Stamps.com one which is run thru the U.S. Post Office. It's a free 4 week trial. Actually, you get an instant $5.00 credit when you sign up. So you're actually making money on the offer.

In the simplest of terms:

• You sign up with Stamps.com.
• Install their program.
• Get $5 free.
• Print yourself some stamps using the $5 credit.
• Then cancel your account during the last week of the 4 week trial.
• That's it.

When you sign up you give them some credit card info, but this is the U.S. Post Office. Who hasn't used a credit card there before? And they don't actually charge your card during the trial.


You have to keep signed up with their service for at least 21 days to fulfill the offer. Just make a note on your calendar to cancel it in the last week of the 4 week trial and your good to go. If you do decide to keep the service, then it's about $15 a month to have access to it. (That's when they'd start charging your card.) If you do a lot of eBay or have some sort of home business, it might really be worth it and useful.


Here's a screen shot of their program that will enable you to print pretty much any kind of postage. I was actually very impressed with it.


And that's about it. It's not nearly as daunting and back alley creepy as it may seem. I'll be curious to see how it all plays out. I guess the most challenging part is getting the referrals, because the nature of the deal just seems to good to be true. The fact of the matter is that YourFreeiStuff is making plenty of money from it's advertisers. I liken it to the major television networks. We get free TV programs like Lost and 24 and all we have to do is deal with some commercials. ABC and Fox get their cash from all the ads and that's how they can offer their content for free. Pretty straight forward stuff if you ask me.

So think about it and if you want to help me out then CLICK HERE.

And when I finally get my iPhone, I'll call you personally and thank you.