Free stuff sites make up a very decent percentage of all sites on the internet. You can get anything from free screen savers to free software to free iPods to free vacations on the internet. Obviously other than a very few select products none of them are 'truly' free. They are not even a 'shareware kind' of product. Most of these schemes will expect a certain action to be performed to claim the 'free stuff'.

Normally, signing up to an offer from an advertiser, referring friends to a site or service or buying a related product all are examples of the 'actions' expected. For example, the free iPod offer that took over the internet by craze works on the premise that each person will refer 5 of their friends to the scheme as well as sign up to a few sponsor offers himself.

What is surprising is that out of all these offers, there are very few that are webmaster-centric. You hardly find offers for free domains, free webhosting or free traffic when you sign up for an offer. This is probably because the cost of these services or products are too low to warrant much interest. It can also be that webmasters prefer more direct forms of rewards like cash.

It is not that there are absolutely no free domain offers on the net. There are a few but their 'action' expected is either to buy hosting or to sign up and post at forums. The first scenario is a little scary because most web hosting companies will register the 'free' domain in their own name. So if want to change the web host, you lose the domain name and with it all the hard work you put in to develop the brand image. That leaves the posting at forums option. Well, if you asked me to post, say 50 messages and all of reasonable length (atleast 10 - 15 words), it will take me a month. This assumes that I also have something better to do! I cannot wait that long for a domain even if it is free.

From experience, it is seen that a webmaster will never refuse a free domain name. For that matter no one will will refuse a free thing if there is no catch involved. A webmaster should be willing to sign up for a free offer or two in exchange of a free domain. If such a scheme were available it should be quite sucessful. May be not as much as the free iPods schemes but atleast 50% as effective as them. If the free offer does not involve disclosure of credit card information, it will be the icing on the cake!