Findinf Freebies Online-What your Should Know

If you are new to the web and have been looking around using the search engines, directories and other starting points, you will almost certainly have seen that if you look long enouph you will see various freestuff such as free samples, free information and reports, free ezines, discount coupons and a variety of other free or nearly free deals known as 'freebies' or perhaps 'freebees'. Yes the net has been loaded with freebies ever since a certain former VP invented the Net a number of years ago. As amateer of fact there has probably never been a more ideal time in the short history of the web to be a freebies seeker. And od course, finding freebies is a great deal offun! Who would not love to be able to get freestuff mailed to them like jelly beans, health bars, feminine beauty samples, coupons and gift certificates just by filling out a brief survey when it is convienent for you? If you already have a website or want one, you may find free website hosts, free blog hosting services such as Blogger and free webmaster tools like free downloads, free scripts or templates, free content such as articles and newsfeeds for your site, traffic counters and a wide array of related freebies. You usually just need to go to your favorite search engine and type in "free _ _ _ _ _ _" and what you want will pop up. Needless to say, as with any good thing in life, there is a certain catch. We all know by now that you rarely get something for nothing. When you apply for a freebie you obviously have to fill out a form with your mailing information and sometimes a survey as well. Therein lies the catch. There is no such thing as a free lunch, after all. There is usually a very good reason these items are offered for free. Companies use these assorted freebies with the idea that you will remember who gave it to you and then buy something from them later(although in a few cases, especially with a big company like coca-cola, they may simply be trying to increase brand awareness of a new product). They also will naturally have your contact information from the survey and now will know what appeals to you. You will quite possibly get related offers sent to you from time to time, and these probably will not be free. If you apply for free samples such as, say for example lipstick, you can reasonably expect to get product brochures, sales catalogs or some other type of correspondence that relates to lipstick. This does not have to be a negative thing, however, as many individuals actaully want to be updated regarding products that they are interested in. In the majority of cases then, it is a win-win situation. But in certain cases, you might get inundated with too much correspondence and, ahem perhaps even spam. maybe a lot if you fill out dozens or hundreds of freebies forms, like I have (it is my job). I have a tip that can help you here, however. Get a "throwaway" email account from a free email provider such as Yahoo or Hotmail and use that when you fill in the surveys. This will prevent your primary email box from getting filled up with unwanted mail. Your postal address? Well you have to use that if you are requesting free samples. But postal mail is getting more expensive and junk mail mostly comes the electronic route these days. Most firms will not be able to afford to send you much junk via snail mail.