What I Have Committed to Bring to the Table of Freebieism
First off I just want to disclose that any “we” and “us” or “our”
is, for the time being, just me, your friendly freebie freak. I’m thinking positive and forward to the day
when I absolutely need at least one other person to keep this website
hopping. It is no way, meant to
misrepresent the size of this operation.
How I Got into Freebies
I’ve been at the freebie game off and on for a long time. With it came coupons… then sweepstakes, then
giveaways… and then the search for the best survey and pay-per-activity sites. Exposed to so many tempting deals, I even became
“that person”, not caring what friends thought, I gave the wait staff a coupon
during a sit down meal.
At the dawn of the internet I found a free sample site whose
name escapes me. There was no fuss. They would just send me a box of samples from
a variety of companies once a month. If
I remember correctly, once in a blue moon they’d ask me to fill out a survey,
but it wasn’t often. No one believed me,
even when they saw the box. They just
figured it was some kind of scam. Not
sure what happened with them. It may
have been I just moved or abandoned my email.
Before that, I was the teenager that discovered requesting a
catalogue from Pueblo Colorado was for real. I could get free things from all kinds of government agencies, mostly newsletters
and magazine-like informational publications.
There was no public internet, so information was not as cheap as it is
now. Soon I was awash in
information. The “internet” was in my
room - under my bed, overflowing off of my bookshelves, hiding in my closet… filling
up the back seat of my car. No one
understood.
Soon there was internet 1.0 and I was hunting under every
rock just to see what I could find. I
would think up urls and type them in just to see what I could see. (To date my all time favorite website is
http://www.purple.com.) If only I knew
the importance of buying internet real estate back then.
Within a few years the fact that the internet was evolving exponentially
became apparent and then bang! IT happened - I was introduced to high speed
internet. I could open 50 tabs in my
browser. I thought I had invented
multi-tasking. I was in love all over again!
What could the internet do for me? That was the eternal
question. For awhile I took up an online auction store. I kept lists of up and coming websites that
were all about this new thing called social media. I even categorized them into bookmarking
sites, photo storage sites, video sharing sites. I started keeping lists of everything I got
for free. I would delve into and dissect
websites that promised me prizes and rewards and paychecks. I kept tabs, even at times tracking the time
I invested on each website doing various things, including the old fashioned
survey, to see if it panned out.
I was eyeballs deep.
No one understood how and why I spent so much time in front of “that
screen”. They still thought all there
was to do was play games and chat, but mostly chat. Chatting was a diversion, a distraction. It was what I did when my brain was fried
from surveys and making lists.
The Impetus to Making it Happen
So here I am.
Sometimes I feel as if I wasted my life.
But as I grow in age and wisdom, situations pop up more and more where I
can take all this trivia and the oh so many jobs I tried my hand at, and
actually make it something useful. A few
months back a friend asked me if I was secretly a genius. I laughed it off, but they said, “no,
seriously. How else can you know so
many random things on so many different topics?" I continued to laugh, but how
could I say I wasted my life away, not wanting to miss a second of the
internet? The best I could label myself was “jack of some trades.”
After spending thousands of frustrating hours digging
through crappy scammy freebie sites, I admitted to myself that I absolutely
knew what it took to make a good freebie site - one that can be honest,
forthright, organized and useful - and still, in time, build up to something
that might actually earn me a few dollars in advertising. I fooled around with the idea, got
brainstorms, bought websites, stopped and started, vacillated on whether the
idea was worth sinking my time into. Got
sucked into other ideas, bought other websites, helped people out with their
ideas, watched missed opportunities come and go, watched websites rise and
fall.
It always came back to freebies, my not so secret lover I
just can’t quit. Really I was just tired of the idea that no one seemed to get
it right, and when they did… they’d up and disappear! It angered me to know
that there were thousands upon thousands of people in just the United States,
probably wasting thousands of collective hours each month sifting through
things that were not what they wanted, things that were old, things that were
scammy, just to get to that precious little nugget of truly free. Of course one man’s trash is another man’s
treasure, by why why why don’t people care enough to just be honest about what
they are offering and for goodness sake, keep it up to date AND organized?
Even those popular “honest” websites that aren’t bogged down
in advertisements that look like posts, definitely have their issues. They say free free free all over their
website, they repeat that word in their posts and come to find out you have to
pay shipping. Obviously they just
assumed or didn’t care enough to take the time to check out what they were
advertising. Let’s face it, when you are
looking for truly free, there’s nothing more frustrating than the hidden
shipping cost or obligation that fails to be mentioned until you’ve already
given up your personal information!
And then there is the website that says free free free and
over half their posts are things you have to go out and get or aren’t free at
all. I don’t know about you, but if I
wanted to go spend 10 dollars in gas to get something, I’d probably not have an
issue paying for it. I’m going to risk a
big assumption here, but I do think there are many, MANY of you out there just
like me, who want truly free and only want to go as far as the mailbox.
Don’t get me wrong, there are times when you might want to
go on a little in-store freebie adventure with friends, or pick up a few free
goodies while out shopping, but when I’m looking for free - I want free! I don’t want to sort between in-store free
and sit on my butt free. What Makes This Website Different
We find and go through the ordering process and soon after
will post those freebies that meet our requirements, saving you lots of time
and getting you many freebies with little effort. If you’re reading this, you probably feel at
least a little bit like I do do, a trip to the mailbox is like Christmas,
Easter and your birthday all rolled into one.
Requirements
1. They are family friendly, meaning they are not related to alcohol, drugs, tobacco or inappropriate adult subjects. (You may sometimes find condoms and other similar products, but we consider these "family friendly" for reasons I'm sure you can figure out.)
2. They are absolutely free! There is no obligation beyond providing commonly requested information and perhaps liking a Facebook page. There are no shipping charges. And it takes no more than a few minutes AT MOST to fill out their form.
3. We actually order the free product. Very rarely will we post items that we have not actually ordered.
Those that we post that we don’t order might include products that we are not eligible for, such as ones that require you have a certain medical condition or require you are a parent of a baby or small child. In this case we will proceed as far as we can into the ordering process.
We order products for several reasons - to ensure that the sample is still available (sometimes they will collect your information before telling you they've run out) and to make sure their form is not broken or that there aren't any other problems or issues like waiting until they've collected your information before telling you there are requirements, such as shipping.
4. If we originally ordered the freebie more than 24 hours ago, they will be rechecked for all requirements before they are posted. (Short of attempting to order them again. Companies don’t like that!)
5. Except in rare cases, filling out a form has to mean a fairly good chance of receiving a physical product delivered to your mailbox. There are no guarantees in life of course! In general this means no free trial memberships, no online videos, no apps, no digital music, no coupon books. Very rarely will you see magazines (as they usually require you to cancel something or end up owing money.)
Wrapping it Up
In the end it my passion, not just for freebies, but for
quality, coupled with my eye for detail that will ensure a pleasant experience
while not just visiting, but UTILIZING this website as a tool to get what you
want with ease. I’m just
starting out, so things aren’t at 100% right now, and it’s just me for the time
being, but I hope you will join this freebie freak on her adventure and watch
this website grow into something unique and USEFUL in hopes that it will
provide exceptional value – for free!
Be well,
Vicky
