Have you seen the lacework site, www.freestuff.com? Or have you been turned on to www.freeipods.com? Or possibly some friend sent you an email suggesting you log on to one of these sites and take advantage of one of its numerous free offers.

Well, before you start the process of getting that free iPod, Ill take you through whats required. Then, you can decide for yourself how free it really is.

After you log on, the first thing you will be required to do is register, which means providing your name, address, email address, etc. Sounds easy so far.

Next, you will be required to sign up for one of the sites free offers. For example, you could sign up for a credit card or buy low-cost printer inks. Gosh, imagine, all you have to do is sign up for a credit card and you get this nice iPod absolutely free.

Not so fast there, friend.

Choosing an offer is only part of the deal. Because, after you sign up for that free credit card (or whatever), you will be required to supply five email addresses of friends or relatives. Hmm, even that doesnt sound too bad. Heck, so maybe five of your friends get some emails from www.freeipods.com. Theyre probably getting a lot of junk mail already so whats the big deal?

That its, right? Your free iPod should be in the mail. Hold on a second. Freeipods.com wants to check the offer you chose was legit, Youll be told this process could take a few days and that you should check back periodically.

You log on two days later and Eureka! The system found that you did buy those printer inks or did sign up for that credit card. Now, your iPod is on the way, right?

Wrong.

Next, you will be required to contact those five friends or relatives to make sure they take advantage of one of those wonderful offers. That sound like a good idea to you? How about, Dear Aunt Ivy. Will you please register on freeipods.com and sign up for a credit card so I can get a free iPod?

Heres another thing to think about. Suppose only four of those five friends sign up for free offers. Does this mean that freeipod.coms sponsors got four new customers and you got nada?

This just didnt seem like a good thing to me. I didnt want to harass five of my friends to sign up for a credit card or whatever. Instead, I just gave up on getting a free iPod. Im not even sure that if everybody had signed up for an offer that I would have gotten the free iPod. Maybe there would have been even more hoops for me to jump through before that free iPod was sent to me.

I have been told that if you go through the entire process (whatever that is), you will receive the free iPod.

But there is that old saying, If it seems too good to true, it probably is. And for me, getting an iPod free falls into that category. It might seem free to you but just understand that this free comes with a definite price.

Have you heard about HD radio technology? It makes AM sound as good as FM and FM sound almost like you were listening to a CD ... and its free! To learn more about this amazing new technology, just go my Web site, http://www.hd-radio-home.com, to get all the buzz. Douglas Hanna is a retired marketing executive and the author of numerous articles on HD radio and family finances.