Get Referrals For Your Free Gift.

This, of course, is the most important part of the process, as the whole system is based upon referring people to the site. When you register with a referrals site, you are given a unique URL link, called a 'referral link', which links to your referrals site and tracks back to your account every time it is used. This is the link you will use to gain referrals/credits to put towards your free item, and it will look something like:

In order to refer people, you must provide them with your unique referral link; they must then click on this link to sign up with the referrals site. Each person who clicks on your link and signs up with the site through your referral link is termed a 'referral'.

There are a number of ways to get referrals; typically, you could include your link in a signature in your emails; on a blog; in your website; on adverts, etc. You can also advertise your referral link and trade credits here on Gimme4free. For a full round up of the best way to get referrals, please visit our Getting Referrals section.

Each referral who goes on to complete one of the offers on the referrals site earns you one credit to put towards your free gift. So, for example, if your free gift required 5 credits, you would need to have referred 5 people who went on to complete an offer. Your referrals site allows you to check the status of your referrals, showing you how many referrals you have, their email addresses, and whether or not any of your referrals have completed an offer. Simply click on the ‘status’, or ‘account status’ link to view the status of your referrals.

What Happens When Your Referral Completes An Offer.

Those referrals who have yet to complete an offer usually have a yellow symbol next to their email address. Those who have completed an offer will have a green symbol, along with a description of the offer completed (this is where the term getting ‘greens’ comes from when describing getting credits). When your referral completes an offer, it can take a short time for the green symbol to appear. Again this varies depending on your referral site, and it can take anything from a day up to a week for the credit to be granted.

On some networks, for example the Giveaway Network and Real Incentives, you will see an 'offer pending' symbol whilst your referral's completed offer is being processed. This is a relatively new feature, which has been implemented due to the popularity of the Lovefilm offer, and because this offer frequently reversed as a result of improper completion. It can take several weeks for the Lovefilm offer completion to be confirmed, so be prepared to wait for this offer to be confirmed.

At this stage it would be prudent to reemphasise that those completing the Lovefilm free trial must receive at least one DVD in the post before deciding whether or not to cancel the free trial. Otherwise, if the trial is cancelled before receiving any DVDs, the offer will be reversed (see next page for further discussion of offer reversal).