Only one small problem--the hall was off-limits to press and general public until 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, the official opening.

FreeRide's executive VP of client services Justin Parks was looking at his watch when we arrived ... five minutes late because it took a little while to find reasonable security guards who could understand how it important it was for our readers that iBizMagazine.com get this story.

What does FreeRide do? Why is it one of the top 15 sites for teenagers?

How has FreeRide grown to 450,000 loyal members and 1,300 big-name sponsors--without doing any advertising?

"The best analogy is Green Stamps," explained Parks. "Our currency is FreeRide points, and we have a very short reward cycle--most people cash in their points every month."

How does it work? A new member signs up online and receives a member's kit in the mail.

But you don't have to wait for the mail to start acquiring FreeRide points.

Members can also accumulate up to 35 points a day by simply clicking through sponsor banner ads.

That means that without even buying anything you can earn enough points in one month to redeem for a CD, for instance.

"Stickiness" is the tendency of surfers and shoppers to return to the same site over and over again.

"We are the stickiest site on the Web," said Parks in his iBizMagazine.com interview. He cited a recent MediaMetrix survey that ranked FreeRide the second stickiest site (an adult site was number one).

"Our membership base is extremely active," Parks explained.

The FreeRide booth was pretty "sticky," too.

The next day I found myself back again for an online demo and to get more information on how a small business owner could benefit from the FreeRide brand-building concept.

"We generally suggestthat a company establish its presence on both the get-it and the spend-it sides of FreeRide.com," said Arty Freed, senior VP of sales.

Being on the "get-it" side means that FreeRide members can accumulate points as a direct result of their interaction with your ecommerce site.

Being on the "spend-it" side means that FreeRiders can redeem their points for your merchandise.

Freed said that most FreeRide partnerships are built around a revenue-share model, with FreeRide receiving about 15 percent on your sales to traffic sent your way from the FreeRide site.

"That makes it economical for any size business," explained Freed.

This is a unique and compelling solution to the problem of how to increase traffic to your site and encourage customers to develop a loyalty to your brand.