What Free Means

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You have probably seen many "free" offers and tried to go after as many things as possible. Some "free" offers are not so free.

There are many big corporations that giveaway free samples as a promotion to get you to try it in hopes you will buy the product later.

Sometimes you will have freeware (software that is absolutely free) so you can sample what the rest of the lines of software they sell are like. Shareware will let you try either a full version for a limited time or full time access to a limited version of the program.

Sometimes the free offer will be a subscription to an e-zine or a contest where in exchange you will receive advertising. Legitimate contests will give you the option to not receive ads to enter the contest.

Before you sign up for anything free, think about these points:

Is the sign up information contained within one page? If there are multiple pages involved in sign up, you may enter your name, e-mail, phone number and address and then go to the next page and realize the catch is something you don't want. Your information may already be in their systems once you clicked to the next page.

Does the offer sound too good to be true? It is.

Do they require a purchase to get something free? Then the offer wasn't really free. If you were lured into a site for a freebie and are given a sales pitch before the mention of your freebie, you may not want that freebie after all. Unless the freebie information is front and center where you were directed, don't stick around.

One example is a company called 090ISP. They promised to give you a free adult web site that will make you over $15,000 each month within 3-6 months. If you respond, you are encouraged to pay for a domain name. Then if the site makes money, you have to buy your web site for $3000. The biggest problem is there is no valuable product on your site that could actually make that kind of money.

Read the fine print. You may see some check boxes that give you the option not to receive commercial e-mail. Read to make sure you do the right thing. Some will say you must check the boxes while others will say you must leave boxes unchecked.

The fine print may also warn you if you are committing to something else or if a payment will ever be expected.

If you want a source of freebie offers, check out the ones offered here.

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