How I Got a Free Playstation

How easy is it to get free stuff these days? This question keeps cropping up from friends and family who know me well for being an 'I'll see what I can do...' sort of person.

Getting hold of shareware, freeware and countless samples these days is not a problem. With the invention of this new thangled thing called the interweb, free stuff like that is not a problem.

When my young nephew came to me and asked if I could get him a free playstation I couldn't resist the challenge. Knowing full well this would be a virtually impossible task I didn't promise his free playstation would be here any time soon.

In my eagerness I got straight on to Google and typed in 'free playstation', I like to keep it simple and straight to the point!

First site that caught my eye was freeplaystation.net .... Again straight to the point!

The site was simple and straight to the point, '3 steps to getting your hands on a free playstation', this looks a bit too easy I thought to myself. Scrolling down to find the 'all you have to do is sign up with your credit card details' I was surprised to find nothing of the kind, just an information video from no less than BBC's Newsnight program about getting free stuff.

The video explained how advertising companies are enticing people to take notice of their advertised products by giving away highly desirable items such as the iPod, iPhone and of course the Sony Playstation 3.

The catch? Well.... Where money is involved there isn't one. Don't think that they are giving away a playstation for free just for looking at an advert. The way this offer works is by you signing up, taking up a free trail and then getting your friends and family to do the same.

The site giving away the free stuff gets paid by the companies that they are showing ads for, providing that the user signs up for a free trial or at most spends 5 - 10 on an offer. The site then passes some of that money back to you as a free gift for referring your friends and family.

So basically this is a form of advertising, companies set aside a certain amount of cash to pay the advertiser just to get interest in their product. Fortunately for us some of that money gets passed down to us for the part we play i.e. telling our friends and family about the free playstation site.

Luckily for me, friends and family were quick to help out knowing the playstation was for little Billy, and all signed up for a 2 week trail at LoveFilm.com.

One month after signing up, the free play station arrived. My best 'I'll see what I can do' moment yet!