Free Stuff Hunting Tips and Strategies

[brian]

Free Stuff Hunting Tips and Strategies

This thread contains quick tips on hunting for free stuff. Tips include filling freebie forms, protecting your personal information, avoiding freebie scams, and getting more freebies.

This is an ongoing thread with regular updates. If you have any tips that you would like to share, please reply to this thread.

[brian]

Search before posting any new freebies, deals, contests, and offers.

Please search before posting any new offers.

It is important to search for any existing postings before posting. Otherwise, the forums will easily cluttered with duplicate postings. Plus, you will waste time clicking on offers that you have requested before.

You will find a handy "Search" link on the dark blue bar, located on the top of the page. Click on the link and a search box will slide out.

If you do not see a search box, you can access the site search at http://freestuffpage.com/forums/search.php

When you are searching, please try with minimal key words first because if an existing posting does not contain one of your search words, then you will not see the posting.

For example, you want to post a new Free Dove Cool Moisture Shampoo and Conditioner offer. However, there is already an existing, duplicate posting "Dove Shampoo Sample" on the site .

When you search for duplicate posting and you search with all of the search words: Free Dove Cool Moisture Shampoo and Conditioner, you will not get the duplicate posting.

You may want to search for Dove first to see how many postings are available. If you are overwhelmed by so many search results, you may want to narrow your search by adding another keyword, Dove Shampoo, in your search.

Hope that this helps. If you have any other tips or strategies, please reply and share. Thank you!

[brian]

How to Answer “How You Have Found Our Offer?” on Freebies Request Forms

When you are completing freebies request forms, you may be asked how you have learned about the free offer.

How would you answer this question? Do you say that you have found the offer from Free Stuff Page or a freebie site? Or do you reply that you have heard about it from a friend or a search engine?

It is your decision on which answer to use. If you answer truthfully, saying that you have heard about the offer from a free stuff site, then your chance of getting the offer may be reduced. Some businesses filter or rejects requests made by freebie hunters.

On the other hand, you may feel more comfortable in replying that you have heard about the offer from a free stuff site.

Personally, I type in that I knew the offer from a free stuff site. I just move on if some companies decline sending samples to freebie hunters; there are just so many freebies available. Hopefully, my answer would help companies to know that on the Internet, freebies and deals are shared and posted for everyone to access. They need to be prepared for their offers to be requested by anyone in the world.

Note that I sometimes receive emails from companies to remove their offers. They either did not know that there were freebie sites out there or they were overwhelmed by the traffic from freebie sites. I would promptly remove their offers, as per their requests.



How do you usually answer this question?

Have you received emails or phone calls from companies refusing sending you their offers because of your answer?

Please reply and let us know!

[brian]

Use a Free Email Address When Requesting Freebies

When you are requesting freebies, you should use a free email address from Yahoo!, MSN (Live) Hotmail, or GMail. As you request freebies over time, you will get more unsolicited emails (spam).

It is better to separate freebie messages from your personal and work messages. Otherwise, you may miss important messages from the spam clutter. When your freebies inbox gets unmanageable, just create another free email address.

Alternatively, you can use a disposable email address. There are free services that allow you to give disposable email addresses. A popular free service is Spam Gourmet at spamgourmet.com. Sign up with them to get an account ID. With an ID, you use this email address: someword.x.user@spamgourmet.com, where x is a number of emails you are willing to receive and user is your ID.

For example, if your account ID is bob and you sign up for a free apron, then you can use give this email address: apron.4.bob@spamgourmet.com. If the free apron site starts to spam you, then you will get up to the first four emails from them. Plus, you will know that the free apron site is the sender because of the "apron" keyword. You will not receive the fifth and additional emails from the free apron site. When you sign up for another freebie such as free chocolate, simply change the keyword to another one (e.g., chocolate.2.bob@spamgourmet.com.)

Please visit the site http://www.spamgourmet.com/ for more information and advanced options.

However, some spam operators and legitimate sites may disallow you from giving them a spamgourmet.com email address. In this case, you should revert to your free email address.


Do you have any tips or tricks for avoiding getting spam when hunting for freebies?

What other disposable email address services do you know or would you recommend?

Please reply and let us know.

[brian]

Fight the Urge to Shop by “Shopping” for Freebies
by Brian Chow

On Oprah’s Debt Diet site, I read how Chloe’s had cleared shopping sites from her “Favorites” to help her with impulse shopping. While I did not have a list of these sites in my “Favorites,” I realized that I regularly visited Amazon.ca, eBay, Sears.ca, and FutureShop.ca to check for deals.

Thinking through my subconscious habit, I became aware that I would spend more time browsing these sites whenever I had the urge to buy. How could I deal the urge to spend?

I had decided that whenever I had the urge, I would request more freebies. For me, requesting freebies was similar to shopping. When hunting for freebies, I browsed for suitable samples, supplied my shipping information, and waited for them to arrive. In several weeks, some of the freebies I requested would appear. Whenever I greeted my postal carrier, I would still get the thrill of anticipation. These steps and feelings mostly resembled the ones of online shopping. By requesting more freebies, I would exhaust the urge to spend, and I would never need to whip out my credit card.

Do you find yourself frequently browsing eBay, Amazon, Overstock, and Wal-Mart to see what’s on sale? If so, consider following Chloe’s advice and remove shopping sites from your “Favorites.” Then, take an extra step to resolve shopping only for freebies whenever you get the urge to buy. Replace shopping sites with freebie sites in your “Favorites.” You will get some retail therapy, without spending any money.

[brian]

McLoren Clean: A Possible Illegitimate Freebie and How to Tell It is Probably Illegitimate

Recently, I have noticed a freebie offer for Mr. Orange Cleaning Supplies. After reviewing the offer, I have decided not to post this freebie. While this freebie offer is considered legitimate if one sample is sent, I doubt that many freebie requests will be fulfilled.

Here are some of the major clues I have used to conclude that this freebie is likely illegitimate.

1. If it is a manufacturer's site or an online store, it should not contain any banner ads. (A notable exception is Amazon.com.) Manufacturers and online stores make money from selling products, but having banner ads on their sites send visitors elsewhere, or worse, to their competitors’ sites.

If the site is content based, like an online magazine, then ad banners are acceptable. The online magazine site needs income from the banner ads in order to offer freebies and promotions.


2. Investigate the domain creation date. Use these sites to search for the domain registration information.

http://whois.domaintools.com

http://www.betterwhois.com

http://www.dnsstuff.com


In the McLoren Clean example, I have used http://whois.domaintools.com to search for mcloenclean.com.

Here a screenshot of the domain registration information.

I honed in on the date “created.” The domain was first registered on July 18, 2006. As of this writing, it is less than 24 hours! An established company, or even a person, that wants to give away freebies would usually spend time planning for the promotion. Which company or person can get its act together to register a domain, design a site, and launch it within 24 hours?

What about other details listed on the domain registration? Because names, addresses, and email addresses can be hidden and changed anytime, I do not trust these details. I have tried calling the number, and it is an inactive JP Morgan phone number.


3. Search for the domain or product name on search engine to see whether it has been mentioned by sources other than freebie sites. (Some freebie sites may post this offer and the search engines index their listings.)

Here is the Google results page for “Mcloren clean”
http://www.google.com/search?q=mcloren+clean

Here is the Google results page for “Mcloren orange”
http://www.google.com/search?q=mcloren+orange

These name combinations are non-existent on sites other than freebie sites. A company usually tries to introduce a product first by ensuring its name get out there. A company may send press releases, send review samples to media, get endorsements, and commission advertisements. Search engines may be able to pick up references to these marketing methods.


What about checking the privacy statement or terms of use listed on the site? I do not usually check these because they can be easily copied or modified from other sites. A shady site owner can post proper privacy statement and terms, but do not intend to follow them.


By now, you may be asking, “Why do these possibly illegitimate offers exist in the first place?” While I do not know the real reasons because I have never created them myself. I have two hypotheses for their existence.

1. The site owner collects and sells your personal information.

2. The site owner makes money from banner ads. Freebie offers are attractive and, some say, addictive. They are one of the easiest and fastest ways to drive traffic to a site. If a freebie is posted on a popular site, then it gets spread quickly by members who are just trying to be helpful by sharing this offer to others. (You are probably familiar with legitimate freebies that have been quickly shut down because thousands of requests were made in just a day.)


These are some of the major clues I use when reviewing offers before posting. What about yours? What are your tips to stay away from potentially illegitimate offers?

Have you developed a method to filter out potentially illegitimate offers?

Do you just go ahead with the offer by putting in fake information because it never hurts to try?

What do you think of me blocking offers that I think are likely to be scams? Do you want me to just provide a warning and let you decide?

Lastly, how useful is this freebie tip?

Please reply, share, and let me know! Thank you.

[brian]

***************.com Free Playtex Baby Products: Applying Tips on Identifying Possible Illegitimate Freebie

Night Time Infant at ***************.com claims to offer free baby product. Is this another possible illegitimate freebie? Let’s apply the tips discussed on “identifying possible illegitimate freebie” for this offer.


Tip 1:

Is this a manufacturer’s site or an online store? Yes, it appears that the site is a manufacturer’s site. It lacks sufficient amount of content to be a content site.

If yes, does it have any ad banners? Yes, the site has ad banners.

If there are ad banners on a manufacturer’s site, then there is a possibility that the site is created to gain advertising more than promoting a product.


Tip 2:

What is the domain creation date of ***************.com? By using http://whois.domaintools.com to search for ***************.com, I have found that the domain creation date is August 1, 2006.

(What is today’s date? August 2, 2006).

If the domain is created so recently, then there is a possibility that the freebie is illegitimate. Remember that companies need time to plan for giving away hundreds, if not thousands, of samples on the Internet. They usually register a domain well in advanced in their planning processes.

In addition, I have searched for the phone number listed on the domain information page, and I have found that the number is for Burger King in Springdale, AR.


Tip 3:

Has ***************.com been mentioned by online sources other than freebies sites?

The Google Search of ***************.com yields zero result as of August 2, 2006. “Your search - "***************.com" - did not match any documents.”

The Google Search of “Night Time Infant” yields results that do not point to the ***************.com site as of August 2, 2006.


Because this freebie fail all three of the questions, it is unlikely that many requests made will be fulfilled. Therefore, this offer is possibly illegitimate.


What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? Are you going to try requesting this freebie to see?

Lastly, how useful is this freebie tip? Please reply and share! Thank you.

[SheeEttin]

Not sure I should post this after reading this thread, but...

I've found Google incredibly useful. Try common combinations of words such as "free sample", "order sample", "sample form", and "order form", using the inurl: parameter (i.e. inurl:free_sample) so that page URLs are searched, and not the pages themselves.

[jameshargett]

I see no problem with your post.

Google and search engines are always useful. There are lots of tips and tricks that I would guess 90% of internet users are unware of, and that's one of them.

Easy way - use http://soople.com/

Heres some info on advanced searches:

http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators.html

and

From http://www.google.com/help/operators.html

Advanced Operators Google supports several advanced operators, which are query words that have special meaning to Google. Typically these operators modify the search in some way, or even tell Google to do a totally different type of search. For instance, "link:" is a special operator, and the query [link:www.google.com] doesn't do a normal search but instead finds all web pages that have links to www.google.com.
Several of the more common operators use punctuation instead of words, or do not require a colon. Among these operators are OR, "" (the quote operator), - (the minus operator), and + (the plus operator). More information on these types of operators is available on the Basics of Search page. Many of these special operators are accessible from the Advanced Search page, but some are not. Below is a list of all the special operators Google supports.

Alternate query types cache: If you include other words in the query, Google will highlight those words within the cached document. For instance, [cache:www.google.com web] will show the cached content with the word "web" highlighted.
This functionality is also accessible by clicking on the "Cached" link on Google's main results page.
The query [cache:] will show the version of the web page that Google has in its cache. For instance, [cache:www.google.com] will show Google's cache of the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "cache:" and the web page url.


link: The query [link:] will list webpages that have links to the specified webpage. For instance, [link:www.google.com] will list webpages that have links pointing to the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "link:" and the web page url.
This functionality is also accessible from the Advanced Search page, under Page Specific Search > Links.


related: The query [related:] will list web pages that are "similar" to a specified web page. For instance, [related:www.google.com] will list web pages that are similar to the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "related:" and the web page url.
This functionality is also accessible by clicking on the "Similar Pages" link on Google's main results page, and from the Advanced Search page, under Page Specific Search > Similar.


info: The query [info:] will present some information that Google has about that web page. For instance, [info:www.google.com] will show information about the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "info:" and the web page url.
This functionality is also accessible by typing the web page url directly into a Google search box.

Other information needs
define: The query [define:] will provide a definition of the words you enter after it, gathered from various online sources. The definition will be for the entire phrase entered (i.e., it will include all the words in the exact order you typed them).


stocks: If you begin a query with the [stocks:] operator, Google will treat the rest of the query terms as stock ticker symbols, and will link to a page showing stock information for those symbols. For instance, [stocks: intc yhoo] will show information about Intel and Yahoo. (Note you must type the ticker symbols, not the company name.)
This functionality is also available if you search just on the stock symbols (e.g. [ intc yhoo ]) and then click on the "Show stock quotes" link on the results page.

Query modifiers
site: If you include [site:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to those websites in the given domain. For instance, [help site:www.google.com] will find pages about help within www.google.com. [help site:com] will find pages about help within .com urls. Note there can be no space between the "site:" and the domain.
This functionality is also available through Advanced Search page, under Advanced Web Search > Domains.


allintitle: If you start a query with [allintitle:], Google will restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the title. For instance, [allintitle: google search] will return only documents that have both "google" and "search" in the title.
This functionality is also available through Advanced Search page, under Advanced Web Search > Occurrences.

intitle: If you include [intitle:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to documents containing that word in the title. For instance, [intitle:google search] will return documents that mention the word "google" in their title, and mention the word "search" anywhere in the document (title or no). Note there can be no space between the "intitle:" and the following word.
Putting [intitle:] in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting [allintitle:] at the front of your query: [intitle:google intitle:search] is the same as [allintitle: google search].


allinurl: If you start a query with [allinurl:], Google will restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the url. For instance, [allinurl: google search] will return only documents that have both "google" and "search" in the url.
Note that [allinurl:] works on words, not url components. In particular, it ignores punctuation. Thus, [allinurl: foo/bar] will restrict the results to page with the words "foo" and "bar" in the url, but won't require that they be separated by a slash within that url, that they be adjacent, or that they be in that particular word order. There is currently no way to enforce these constraints.
This functionality is also available through Advanced Search page, under Advanced Web Search > Occurrences.


inurl: If you include [inurl:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to documents containing that word in the url. For instance, [inurl:google search] will return documents that mention the word "google" in their url, and mention the word "search" anywhere in the document (url or no). Note there can be no space between the "inurl:" and the following word.
Putting "inurl:" in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting "allinurl:" at the front of your query: [inurl:google inurl:search] is the same as [allinurl: google search].

[brian]

Six Things You Could Do with Freebies that You Have No Use for

Sometimes you may get freebies and samples that you have no use for. You may get freebies not applicable to you or you may get more samples than you need. I have recently received a free dog food coupon, but I do not have a pet. What could you do with them?

Here are six things that you could do with samples that you do not need.

[paopao]

Thanks for the tips and strategies. It broaden my knowledge.

[spoiledali]

hi,


Sometimes you may get freebies and samples that you have no use for. You may get freebies not applicable to you or you may get more samples than you need. I have recently received a free dog food coupon, but I do not have a pet

I had decided that whenever I had the urge, I would request more freebies. For me, requesting freebies was similar to shopping. When hunting for freebies, I browsed for suitable samples, supplied my shipping information, and waited for them to arrive. In several weeks, some of the freebies I requested would appear. Whenever I greeted my postal carrier, I would still get the thrill of anticipation. These steps and feelings mostly resembled the ones of online shopping. By requesting more freebies, I would exhaust the urge to spend, and I would never need to whip out my credit card


tnkx.