What I've Learned from Freebies

So, I've looked into freebies more, and I'm part of the way to my iPod touch. Here's some thing I learned and you should bear in mind on your freebie journey.

• Use an obscure site, but make sure it's legit. Google search the name, look at freebie sites (anything4free, freebiescout, etc.). They often have databases of 'proven legit' sites. It's easier to get referrals on more obscure sites because less people have already signed up for them. While Transcendent Innovations was recommended to me because they are a very legit, good site with good customer service, they are the number one freebie site on most forums, and a bunch of people couldn't trade referrals with me because they had alreay signed up for my site.
• Clear your cookies right before visiting a freebie site to complete an offer. When you click the link to the offer from the freebie site, the freebie site creates a cookie that makes the site you do the offer on know whom to credit. If you've ever visited the offer from a different site before, the cookie will be there and that site will be credited instead, unless you clear your cookies.
• Do not ever sign up for a site you found until seeing if there's someone who will pay you to do it. After I explored a bit and decided on my site, I signed up without being anyone's referral. A pity, becuase there are a multitude of people on the forums who would have paid me up to forty dollars to do what I was going to do anyways.
• Read the fine print. Many of the subscription, book club, etc. services give you two free books now, but require you to purchase 20 in the next year. Make sure you know exactly what you're signing up for.
• Trust your gut. When you're trading referrals to get referrals to your site, be wary of anyone you naturally don't trust. You can always say no.
• Trade referrals. It's fine if you have a good friend or two who is willing to do an offer for you, but it's unlikely that you will have enough close friends that are willing to spend 10 bucks and quite a bit of time to help you get an iPod. If so, congratulations. If not, referral trades are you best option. You can buy a referral for about 25-40 bucks, but many offers require spending 10 bucks or less. Stamps.com, Netflix, Blockbuster, Gamefly, and other reputable companies require purchasing just one month, less than 10 dollars, of subscription. If you don't keep the service, this is a lot less expensive than buying referrals. After a point, usually one or two freebies, the remaining offers are more expensive than the option of buying a referral, in which case you might want to start. You can still get the product for less than full price this way - the iPod touch 16GB is 400 bucks from apple, or 8 referrals from Transcendent Innovations. This equals 50 bucks a referral, so anything less than that saves you money.
• Don't try to beat the system. They will catch you, sooner or later, and your accounts on all of that company's sites and sometimes other company's sites will be put on hold - the people who referred you will lose credit, and you will lose all credits on any of your accounts on those sites.
• Get a PrivatePhone number. You don't want telemarketers at home. If you get a number from privatephone, you get a free, inbound voicemail-only phone number that you can check anytime, online. I have one, and I've had no problems whatsoever with it.
• Get a special freebie email address. At first, I tried using my spammy sites address, but it was hard to find and notice the stuff I wanted. I found I was a whole lot better with a dedicated address. And, surprisingly, I've gotten very little spam in it, despite giving it out to a lot of marketing sites. Still, I recommend gmail for this becuase its amazing spam filters will keep all the important emails from your sites while removing the spam.
  
• Be prepared. Several thing have gone wrong for me yet, and I'm sure a few more will sooner or later. You may end up doing an offer or two for naught, realize that your site is horrible, or something else. Don't expect it to go perfectly. Of course, armed with there tips, it may go a whole lot better for you than it has for me :)