It all seems too good to be true but once explained, it will become more apparent that free gift referral marketing is in fact a real and genuine scheme that has provided thousands of people with gifts for free. Websites that offer free gadgets and other free gifts are known as "referral websites". There are many of these on the web, mostly US referral websites, but it is now catching on here in the UK. Referral marketing allows consumers to receive free gifts through what are essentially, advertising websites

Referral Marketing is a proven method of advertising. It is a structured and systematic process that maximises word of mouth potential. Referral marketing does this by encouraging, informing, promoting and rewarding customers and contacts.

Users of a get-paid or free gift website, are encouraged to refer their friends (or indeed anyone) through a personal referral link, which would look something like: www.referralwebsite.com/?referrer=ID, where ID is the personal ID of the referring user. The user then earns an equivalent percentage of what the referral earns or this will go towards their free chosen gift.

Referral webites offer free gifts which can be obtained by people signing up to the site and then referring other people to the site through their link. Once the people have signed up they need to complete an offer. The offers are run by firms wanting to attract people to the site, and so pay the referral site a fixed amount per referral they generate. So if, say, the 'offer' firm offers £40 per referral completed then the referral site can spend up to £20 per referral to try to get people to sign up to the offers.

The offers normally consist of free trials or a small fee such as £5 needing to be paid so as to get the people using the site and product. After this the people would be free to cancel the offer or continue depending on their wishes. The sites offer a variety of different gifts depending on the amount of referrals you get for them, e.g., 8 referrals will get you a free Wii, or 2 referrals will get you a free Ipod Shuffle.

For more details and examples please visit the main gain free gifts website.