Ok let’s be realistic here. The above is an ad for a real offer of a free Amazon gift card from a real company, but this company is NOT AMAZON!

I hope that was clear enough.

Now what is this “free Amazon gift card” thing anyway?

It’s an offer from a company that want’s to build a database of people (and their contact info) who can be identified as Amazon.com shoppers. This process, as mentioned everywhere else on this website, is called “lead generation”.

A free gift card offer is probably all the time a lead generation process. In the marketing business this is how direct sales take place. We contact the customer either by the phone (telemarketing) or email (not the spam, I mean the email you receive based on your subscription to newsletters). Sometimes we use direct mail as well.

As a marketing technique it’s the most effective in “direct response marketing” because you as a customer showed interest in a certain line of products, so when I try to sell you on one of those products my job will be easier compared with trying to sell the same product to someone who didn’t go through the qualifying process above (lead generation).

Anyway, the free Amazon gift card offer, like any other offer of a high value free gift card, is a contest. It means that you shouldn’t expect to receive the gift card in the mail in the coming few days just by completing the form or the survey attached to it. By doing so most probably you’ll only enter a draw on a $1000 free Amazon gift card or so.

Also, sometimes it’s not free as it says. Instead you’re required to take some offers that will cost you some money, not much compared to the value of the gift card. And here is how it works: You take the offers and pay some fees like shipping and handling. The sum of what you pay might be within the $20-50, but it will make the company offering you the gift card a lot of money to cover the of the card. This is a process known as “CPA arbitrage”.

If you ask me it’s unethical because the free samples and trials companies don’t want someone who’s only after the gift card. They want genuine potential customers who are interested in their products so that they might sell them more over the time.

The last thing I want you to know is that as implied from this post and everywhere else on this site, I am a marketer. And if you respond to any offer on this site I’ll probably be compensated with a buck or a buck and a half. It’s your right to know so here it is.

You might have already decided to try one of the free gift card offers advertised on this site. If so I wish you good luck. If on the other hand you are interested in how to earn free amazon gift cards for real, then here are some ways to do it:

1. Bing rewards: Did you know that Bing rewards you for using their search engine? Do a certain number of searches every month and collect points that can be redeemed as an Amazon gift card.

2. Take surveys: Survey Junkie is one of the programs that reward you cash for taking surveys. You can elect to get your cash sent to you in the form of an Amazon gift card.

3. “Get paid to” programs. I personally don’t like them because most of them don’t actually pay. However, a couple of them have paid me in the past. Clixsense and Swagbucks. They reward you cash for doing tasks, as easy as watching a video, or for taking surveys. You can elect to get paid in the form of the gift card of your choice.