These are getting kinda frequent. It's not "just one dollar", you also have to get 5 friends to sign up.

Would you mind prefacing these posts with "ADVERTISEMENT" or some such so they are more distinct from your normal post?

Just to be clear; I have no problem with you profiting or benefiting from your blog. And I have no problem with Gratis (I get my free iPod any day now).

I post it every day because it's a great deal and I want my readers to know about it. I already got a free iPod - the item and the ad link to a friend's free iPod login page. I'm just spreading the wealth.

I'll tag it as an ad. By the way, it's not a frequent post - it the same post just re-dated each day.

Too bad it is a scam. When I have to agree to buy something else to get my "free" gift, the gift isn't free.

It's not a scam. A scam would be if they didn't send you the iPod after you did what they said you needed to do to get one.

To get one free iPod I: paid $1 for a one month trial membership to a Lowe's website (and they sent me a $20 gift card so I came out $19 ahead). And then I posted the link and a few other people did the same.

To get a second free iPod, for my wife, I paid $60 to MyInks.com for five color and five b/w ink cartridges for my printer that I really needed - and which would have cost me $300 at Office Depot. So I came out $240 ahead. And a few more people participated, probably doing the $1 Lowe's website deal so they come out $19 ahead even if they never get another person to participate.

Nobody gets hurt, everyone comes out ahead.

A scam? No. A legitimate viral-marketing offer. I spent $61 and got a $20 Lowe's gift card, $300 worth of printer ink and two iPods that currently retail for $199 apiece. Oh, and the Free iPods people also sent me a t-shirt that says "I Love FreeIpods.com" on it. By my math, not including the t-shirt, I'm ahead $657 in merchandise ($300 worth of printer ink plus $398 worth of iPods plus the $20 Lowe's gift card, minus the $1 and minus the $60 I spent at MyInks.com).

If that's a scam, somebody please scam me again and again and again...

P.S. Why would MyInks and Lowes participate? Simple - MyInks stands to gain a loyal repeat customer. The ink cartridges they sent work fine and are a lot less expensive than those at Staples or Office Depot. MyInks will get a lot of my business in the months and years ahead. And the Lowe's website (TotalHome or something like that) is a membership program that guarantees discounts at Lowe's. I'm a homeowner and I shop at Lowe's and Home Depot. If I keep the TotalHome membership, I'll do most or all of that shopping at Lowes - meaning Lowes gains business.

And while I'm ahead $657 in merchandise at retail cost, the iPods certainly didn't cost the Free iPods people $199 apiece, and MyInks no doubt made a profit even at their low, low prices, and Lowe's stands to make a profit of my increased purchases in the future. They paid the FreeIpods people for customer acquisition. I'm guessing the FreeIpods people did their math well and are making a profit after paying for the Ipods and shipping and all their overhead.

A scam? No. It's one of the most brilliant online marketing methods I've ever seen.

As I understand, the Free Ipods site actually loses money when they give away an Ipod. They're just counting on plenty of people to sign up, get in on one of the deals, and then not get five more people to do the same. I researched it a little and found a lot of articles on Gratis and they're definitely legit. I'd jump on the deal, I'm just not too confident I could talk five people into signing up as well.

Well, true enough. Having a blog with 30,000-plus unique visitors per month and regular Instalanches of new visitors does give me an advantage. The freeIpods link on my blog linked to a fellow bloggers' freeIpods signin page and he got 22 referrals and 5 completions (the latter being enough to win an ipod) in about two weeks.