We've all seen them while browsing the internet. "Get a free gift card!" "An Ipod is waiting for you!" "Big Screen TV!" "Free game system!" Pretty much anything you want, you can get for free through these sites. But are they real?

Yes! They are, for the most part, legit! No really! Think about it. If they were not legitimate, would they still be around? Thefreebielife has been around for a few years. If they were scamming people, they would have been shut down the first month. If you post on Yahoo asking if anyone has received free items from any of these sites, you will find lots of skeptics, but a few people will confirm their free items. Even Bill Gephardt attempted a free ipod site, and he got his!

*How can they give away all this cool stuff?* Freebie sites are, basically, big advertisements for the affiliates of the sites. When you complete an offer through the freebie site, they get paid, and they, in turn, pass some of that money on to you.

*Different kinds of sites* There are three different types of Freebie sites, Do It Yourself (DYI), Referrals, and Combination.

Do It Yourself Sites require you to do offers in order to earn points, or credits until you have enough to 'buy' the item you are looking at. The advantage? You are in control of your own gift. The disadvantage? You have to do a whole bunch of offers.

Referral sites require you to do a few offers, and then refer other people to do the same thing. Once you get the required amount of people you get your free gift. Advantage? You only have to complete a couple of offers. Disadvantage? You have to find people to do your referrals.

Combination? Well, you can do offers yourself or other people to do them, too. Advantage? You can have control over your prize, and you can have a few friends do you a favor. Disadvantage? ... um ... There aren't many combination sites out there, but if you look hard enough, you can find them.

*All about offers* Well, as much as possible. There are hundreds of different offers. From free trials to joining programs to buying products. Most of them happen to be trials. Not always free, but not a permanent part of your life, and you can get some fun things in the process. For instance, I finally found the perfect lipstick color for me, and it was free. (Hey. I'm a girl. It was exciting.)

You should always research offers before you do them. Try the contact numbers to make sure you can get through to customer service if you need to. Read the Terms of Service. For the most part, the offers are fine. If a freebie site gets many complaints about a certain offer, they will remove it from the list. So affiliates have some incentive to behave themselves when it comes to customer service.

Also, you should at least be slightly interested in the services you are trying. The reason these sites work is that the affiliates get enough people to try their services and like them that paying the exorbitant amounts to these sites is worth it. So put the trials to the test. You never know. You may actually like them.

And... a note about canceling... If you cancel all of your offers right off the bat, it can be considered fraud. This will effectively get you banned from every site on the network, and every site that the offer is featured on. It's not worth it.

Another way you can fraud is by doing offers more than once. This defeats the purpose of sites as well. Some sites have offers from the same company. Don't do it! If you are unsure, send the site owner an email or open a support ticket. They are happy to help, and it's better not to risk being disqualified.

*Making sure that offers credit* Change your internet settings to accept all cookies and allow popups. Turn off your spyware and virus software and disable your firewall. (Don't worry, you can turn it all back on in a minute.) Do your offers. Leave the confirmation pages up for at least a couple of minutes. Clear your cookies when you are done and before you start another freebie site. Turn everything back on.

If you have offers that don't credit, it's not the end of the world. Most offers will send you a confirmation email. All you have to do is open a missing credit request with your freebie site. Usually they will have a form for this. They will want a copy of the confirmation email with full headers (Check your email provider's faq to find out how to do this.) Having to manually request credits isn't fun, and can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, but it's worth it.

It will take a little bit of perseverance, but you can get for free ... whatever you want! Electronics, accessories, cash, kitchen appliances, and even cars! (Those will take a whole bunch of referrals, but it's possible.)

For more information on proven legitimate sites, tips on making certain offers complete, step by step instructions on offer crediting and much more, see freebies 4 real.

About the Author

A Freebie enthusiast, Pam is dedicated to finding the best freebie sites out there. She knows that many people think they are nothing more than scams, and is dedicated to extinguishing that myth.