Freeride.com is a website where consumers visit various sponsors to gain points. These points can then be exchanged for a variety of gift certificates for both online and brick and mortar stores.
I have been a member of Freeride for over two years and have received countless gift certificates through their site. However, they do tend to change the setup of the site quite often.
The easiest way to get points right now is by visiting the “Search-O-Rama” area where you can get up to 30 points per day by using the various search engines shown.
If you have the time and patience to sit by your computer all day, you can ride “The Magic Bus” in the hopes of getting credited with points. . You earn tokens by visiting the sponsors displayed and clicking on a clock that pops up every 10 minutes, for up to 100 minutes or a total of 50 tokens. Additionally, “Hitchhikers” will pop up on the screen with a number and you will be credited that many tokens if you click on it. The majority of these Hitchhikers give 1, 2 or 3 tokens, but every once in a while a “Bonus Rider” will show up giving you from 20 to 50 tokens, provided you click on it. You can only click on 50 Hitchhikers per day.
There is no guarantee that you will get any points in exchange for your collected tokens. The top 5 token earners receive 10, 000 points, the next 95 get 1, 000, and then 2, 400 others get 100 points. There is also a sweepstakes for one million points, and you get one entry for each day that you collect 50 or more tokens.
Under the “Point Works” section you can get points for signing up at other websites for things like newsletters, information, coupons, and games.
If you like to do online shopping, then you could get points at the “Shop-O-Rama” where you get a certain amount of points per dollar spent at various websites. Each site offers a different amount of points for shopping with them and there is a variety of stores listed.
The “Make Your Points” section offers surveys to fill out for points, although they do not update this area with new surveys. Banner advertisements that run on the bottom of your screen occasionally will have red and green blinking lights around them. If you click on these advertisements, a new window will open with a very short survey about that site. Once you answer the questions, you will get 5 points.
As you are looking through the Freeride site, the banner advertisement on the bottom of the screen may have flashing yellow lights around it. This is part of the “Showcase Sponsor” program each time you click on these sites, you will get 2 points.
On some pages there will be a sponsor banner with a number on the upper right hand corner. These are “Featured Sponsors” and clicking on them will get you the number of points indicated. Sometimes there will be a picture of a Taxi Cab, and while clicking on these will not give you any points at that moment, they are entries into the “Grab a Cab” contest where somebody wins 20, 000 points each day. You can click on 10 Featured Sponsors a day, including cabs.
Right now, this is a general description of the Freeride site. Keep in mind that the site has changed quite a bit over the time that I have used it and it may change again, but it it is still a reliable website which rarely has server problems and that generally sends you your reward gift certificates in a timely manner.
Important Update - As of April 30, 2001, the Freeride site has been taken down for the summer. They say they will be back in the fall - hopefully this is true.