It was before I had broadband, so it took forever just for all the OTOs to load, let alone to download all the products I’d signed up for.

I’d realized I was now on lots of mailing lists, of course, but not that some list owners would mail me 3, 4 or even 5 times daily – and, on narrowband from the other side of the Atlantic, the mails themselves took ages to download and unsubscribe from.

Worse, I hadn’t even organized my downloads properly, and the file names didn’t look like anything I recognized… and then my virus checker claimed that most of them had trojans, anyway – probably false positives, but I wasn’t taking chances.

I can laugh about it now, but it didn’t seem so very funny at the time, and it was quite a while before I tried a giveaway again – and when I did, I made sure I had a clear plan of what I wanted and how best I could organize my downloads and resulting mail.

Giveaways can be a way of making useful contacts, as well as getting worthwhile stuff for free, but only if you’re organized and don’t let yourself get sidetracked.

I hope your advice will save a lot of people from the hours of wasted time that I inflicted on myself.

If free isn’t free, than it’s not free and shouldn’t be used that way.

However, Free remains one of the more powerful words in marketing because its effectiveness, even though it’s used so frequently.

Alternatives are words like complimentary, no-cost, gift, 0-cost, etc. I like complimentary, but it’s a pretty big word for such a simple concept. :)

Bob

The word “Free” is so blatantly overused online. And rarely does “Free” ever really mean free.

What would be your personal choice for an alternate word? …
One that doesn’t appear with every respiration!

Thanks for the gift giving and gift receiving advice,
~Melanie Kissell

Marketers that try to sell after giving a gift seem to be unethical…when you expect everything to be free.

There are two solutions to this.

1.) Set up a free E-mail account to give out to these “gift-givers.” Gmail is great for this because it has a wonderful SPAM filter. Then, only sign up for “gifts” using this free account

2.) Hit the unsubscribe link

For the truly unethical who promise not to sell your name, but do anyway, use AOL. When you report SPAM to AOL, they seem to take this seriously, and with enough complaints, they seem to stop all the E-mail from that marketer.

For those marketers who do sell you something, you also have the ability to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.

As far as for marketers selling junk. “Let the buyer beware.”

Most of the products that these “Gurus” sell can’t be used, or won’t be used by 95% t 97% of the purchasers. Therefore, it doesn’t matter if they are five or six years out of date.

I believe that the only ethical model for a “Giveaway Marketer” is to provide all subsequent products for free trial. Let the product prove its value before we pay seems fair. If we are told that we can earn $1000 a day in 30 days with two hours work a day, then let us pay on day #31. But, if the product fails to deliver as advertised, then we either delete the product or give it another chance. After 60 days with no results, we delete the product.

Besides, earnings that the marketer reports are “flim-flam.” The only true earning results need to come from a true random sample of all purchasers’ results. Anything less is pure sham on the marketer’s part.

Eventually, Internet Marketers are going to spoil this for themselves because of the abuses, and the outcry will result in “truth-in-advertising” regulation.

This might sent lots of “big name” gurus to the poor house…or to jail…and will be good for our profession.

Until then, “Let the buyer, even the “buyer” of free products, beware!