Computer Buying Guide

CONCLUSION AND FINAL REMARKS

2006-12-30T12:42:00.000-05:00

Nothing in life is guaranteed and 100% safe or free. We oftentimes heard the words of wisdom expressed NOTHING IN LIFE IS FREE or IF IT IS FREE, THERE IS ALWAYS A CATCH, even IF IT SOUNDS TO GOOD TO BE TRUE IT NORMALLY IS…

This clearly shows that we are quite skeptical of anything that lands on our desks, mailbox, online labeled as ‘FREE’. To say the least, we rarely believe or expect it to be actually FREE. We look for the snag right away. It is almost second nature. The internet is to a large extent underlining some of these perceptions, breaking new ground in others, where information sharing is in fact now FREE. Others expect you to pay for things that used to be free and so the cycle and spiral goes, round and round, deeper and deeper.

In and throughout this guide we opted to focus on INTERNET FREEBIES that offer value, incentive and reward. There are numerous ways to make money on the internet and things to look out for. We tried to highlight as many as we can to help you take full advantage of the benefits, mitigate the risk and enjoy what they have to offer.

The range and scope of internet freebies are wide and broadening daily. The human innovation and capacity for new ideas fuel the fire. The internet is the enabling technology that allows us to connect with our collective global fellow human-beings and ‘sharing’ internet freebies is just one new way that we connect and transact as human beings.

It offers the chance to connect, communicate FOR FREE. The internet provides a variety of NO CHARGE items that can enrich and empower your life, yours for the downloading and taking FREE, AT NO COST.

Faxes, live chats, blogs, audio and video downloads, global communication and exchange on a massive scale … and YES some of it is offered FREE. Many try it and increased supply and demand fuel these initiatives and endeavors that quickly grow huge followings and draw massive crowds of supporters and advocates. It is the new global platform and those that are smartenough to tap into it, will not be left behind.

The internet is opportunistic, immediate and provides instant gratification, on demand. It is in pace with our fast-paced lives and now brings us some of the products, services and information FOR FREE. We do not have to pay excessive amounts for things that used to be so expensive just a couple of years ago! Things change and move pretty quickly in this online market as well. Here today, maybe gone in seconds, or by tomorrow. It is dynamic, aggressive and not for the faint of heart. Yet, it also EASY TO USE and the risks can be managed if you make it a priority to be a hands-on, informed and empowered consumer.

We will always have wants, needs and desires, the internet peeks and keeps our curiosity. It provides the vehicle to search and find things we never imagines possible a little over a couple of decades ago. FREE offerings are useful marketing tools suppliers and service providers use to secure our interest, business and loyalty for life. Teasers and incentives, hooks and invites, they all qualify and all are fair game in this online hunt for internet freebies!

Pleasure you can not measure or have to pay for, that is the promise and potential of Internet Freebies. They are GREAT (when real) and we all look forward to getting them. Soon, we find out that ringing true to earlier statement FREE sometimes does come with a price tag and some risks.

Inherent, embedded, unintentional, malicious, deliberate or just for fun, some internet freebies contain viruses for your computer, spyware and the like. Hidden agendas and shipping costs or false claims and misrepresentation are all abuses in this realm of offerings to look out for.

If you keep on trying and scrutinizing you will find something of value and to your liking offered for FREE, sooner or later. Persistence and determined effort will pay off. There are so many promises of FREE things and making money off the internet, getting your hands on something valuable for no upfront investment, is irresistible to the majority of us. We really trust this guide provided you with valuable insights, points and reminders to keep in minds as you set our on your own journey and hunt for online Internet freebies.

Some Food for thought on FREE ‘STUFF’, seen from a bit of a philosophical, tongue in cheekcommentary of sorts, offered FREE OF CHARGE!!

PEER TO PEER FILESHARING TIPS

2006-12-23T08:05:00.000-05:00

Peer to peer networks are called this because it is basically the way the files are gotten in the first place. How this works is that any file that is executable on your computer can be shared with other people’s computers. The most popular forms of p2p networks is those that offer music and movies.

File sharing can be dangerous as you can imagine, Below you'll get a variety of safe file sharing tips that are designed to help protect you if you choose to use a peer to peer file sharing network. However just to let you know again that the only way to guarantee 100% safe downloading online is by using a legal or small payment site.

Note: Legal music download sites have come a long way over the years and have succeeded at giving people excellent download quality, cheap music solutions and improved music selections to choose from. Most also give you a free music trial for trying them out.

Of course since no one knows exactly what the RIAA will sue next, the file sharing tips offered below do not guarantee that you will have a safe file sharing and do not guarantee becoming a target of the Recording Industry yourself someday. They are provided for you as useful tips and suggestions only because in the end when using a p2p file sharing application online you just never know.

Here are some safe P2P file sharing tips and useful suggestions:

1) Watch your music file size.

Basically the RIAA sued people who shared at least 1,000 songs or more. As a safety measure, and to be sure you less likely to be a target, either keep your music collection fairly small or move your music files to a non-shared folder so that they are harder to track.

After you download music, simply move the files out of the folder you designated as your shared music folder to like media player or something like that. This is not a fool-proof solution, but could be helpful in avoiding becoming a target of the RIAA.

2) Use file sharing privacy protection features.

The RIAA has mainly sued file swappers who made their own files available to others for download. Basically the music companies target users who only download music, many file sharing networks (like kazaa lite) have features that allow you to turn off the file sharing option.

However you should know that in using the file sharing privacy protection features you should be safe but doing this will not provide complete protection from the RIAA.

3) Learn all you can about a P2P file sharing program first.

Check out the file sharing site thoroughly to try to get important details and information from them such as;

1. How does the P2P site operate
2. Is the file program free of adware, spyware, trojans, etc.
3. Do they provide customer service
4. Do they offer legal P2P advice and prevention tips.
5. If you can't get your questions and concerns answered from the website, you should email them and ask.

Needless to say, if you choose to use a p2p file sharing program, I would strongly recommend that you read the site's entire security and privacy section. The file sharing networks have suggestions & tips on how to stay safe while downloading files online.

4) Know the risks involved with file sharing beforehand.

Due to the huge pile of people downloading Trojans and other malware from p2p networks, reports estimate that virus attacks, disruptive worms and security threats will just keep going. If you have ever downloaded freeware or shareware before then the odds of having adware and spyware on your PC is extremely likely.

When you are downloading files online from unknown places to you, it's extremely important that you keep your virus-checking software up-to-date. Using Norton and mcafee is a great way to start. Just note that many of these programs don’t work with firewalls.

5) Check out privacy protection software.

It's a well known fact that technology evolves as the designers needs do. And many p2p file sharers use safe sharing software programs designed to help protect their online identity by keeping their IP addresses and surfing habits anonymous.

However, even privacy protection software can’t assure you total anonymity online. Controversy about copyright infringement laws continues to surround the use of P2P file sharing online. Of course, if you are really worried, just don’t do it.

PEER TO PEER NETWORKS

2006-12-22T07:37:00.000-05:00

When it comes to peer to peer networks, it is the most popular way for most of us to get free music, movies and software. These are not like the freebies that I mentioned before. These methods are basically illegal ways of getting the most popular and recent of any of these things.

You can get movies that haven’t even hit DVDs yet. Of course if you get caught you will be in trouble. Some people find that the trouble is worth it. I don’t but you never know. For all of the illegal peer to peer networks there are, you can find a legal one too. Some of the most popular peer to peer free network programs are:

- Gnutella
- eDonkey
- Morpheus
- Kazaa
- LimeWire
- Xolox
- Shareza

Of course there are legal ones too. These often require a small payment per CD or song/movie/and software. These are free because they have the permission from the companies that they receive the songs from. Some have special deal with these companies to advertise their new things. Some of them give you free downloads with the purchase of the new ones. Some of the paid sites are:
- iTunes
- Songclassics
- New Napster
- Coolcds
- Cdplanet
- MTV

As cool as it sounds to get and use free file sharing programs like those mentioned above, you should know that there are some dangers to using them as well as wonderful downloads. Here is a short list of some of the dangers involved in using p2p networks for freebies:

- Some downloads aren’t what they say they are
- There is x-rated stuff to be found in them as well, and they are often listed as normal stuff
- Files may be of poor quality
- Files may contain spyware/adware
- Files may contain viruses or worms
- Files may not be complete
- Some force you to share files as well which is how many people get caught
- Some require payment over time
- Files may be corrupted or duplicate
- Files may not open on their own as they should

WHEN FREEBIES ARE ILLEGAL

2006-12-21T08:56:00.000-05:00

Illegal internet freebies is what is generally referred
generally referred to as piracy. Piracy is a huge problem all over the Internet. It cost the software industry alone about $12 billion last year. Here are the different categories of piracy going on today that takes money directly out of the hands of the owners and creators.

Some of these things include: software piracy of programs and PC games, digital music in the MP3 format of full albums or singles, full length movies of movies playing in theatres and movies released on DVD and VHS, old video games that now play as ROMs on software as well as console games that must be burned to a CD to play on the new console, and all the cracks going around that stop free trial periods.

The first of the above categories that was first to be pirated was the software of programs and PC games. This is was available because of Software cracks which have definitely played a big role in this, because in order to use the software a user can just have a key generated by the crack so they can avoid paying the programmers who created the software by adding the crack that tells the programmer that it was paid for.

There are many search engines out there that allow people to search for cracks in the many databases. This was common back in the time when CD’s weren’t as popular and when programs and games were simple enough and small enough to fit on a floppy disk.

Now however the CD is very common and software and games have become complicated enough to take up as much as 650MB on a CD. Crack hacks have found a way around the CD protection and because of this we now have isos. They are the exact extracted programs that were on the CD but are now compressed and on your hard drive instead.

The 600MB worth of files then has to be burned to a CD and will usually need another crack before it will be able to work. You probably won’t find isos in the public Internet like other freebies as no one wants to get caught. You’ll have to search newsgroups and BBSs or link in to the underground FTP if you want to trade to get them.

It’s a common thing for people’s entire software and game collection to be nothing other than burned copies these days. It’s a tempting thing that’s hard to resist, especially when you look at the price tags that accompany them. A friend can burn an iso to a CD for $5 whereas the companies out there will charge hundreds for theirs.

The rest of the categories for piracy are things like music, movies and console games have only experienced widespread Internet piracy in the past three years or so. With computer processing speeds getting faster and faster, hard drive capacities are growing and Internet bandwidth speed growing; movies, music and console games have been there.

Nowadays, you can get a movie that is currently playing in theatres and have it burned to a CD and be watched in a CD-ROM or DVD player for no cost other than that of the price of the cd you are burning the movie onto. You can also get computer software and play most any game for the N64 system or any of the older systems like the Super Nintendo, playstation and Xbox.

If you’d rather be current and up to date you can get Sony PlayStation, PlayStation 2 or Sega Dreamcast games burned very easily. These games are big and have to be burned to a CD for you to be able to play it on your new console. In the case of the Sony PlayStation, there is some extra hardware needed for you to play your pirated games, in the form of internal or external mod chips, which just goes to show you that they are smart enough to capitalize off of you.

It would be hard to find movies and console games in the public Internet, however there are various programs now that do the searching for you. The piracy and distribution of music is a different story altogether. The MP3 is a compressed version of a WAV file that you’d find on your music CD.

With its small size and good quality, the creation of the MP3 12 or 15 years ago has made music the most pirated thing on the Internet nowadays. Unlike movies and games, you can find MP3 music almost everywhere. There are web sites with 100’s of full albums that you can access simply with a banner click.

It’s a big network of people sharing music and has sparked the most controversy and these are called peer to peer networks. High profile musicians like Metallica and Dr. Dre have publicly launched lawsuits against Napster for distributing their music. That is okay because there are many others who are replacing napster anyways and they are far better.

Besides the collecting aspect, people have most enjoyed MP3’s for burning to mix CD’s. especially since today’s equipment ables MP3 players, car MP3 hard drives, stereo top MP3 players, and CD players that decodes MP3s while they play off of a burned CD.

Piracy over the Internet is almost impossible to stop. One reason is because there are no Internet laws that can be upheld, with privacy issues coming into play. Web sites that distribute pirated software, games, music and movies can be found and shut down but charges may never be laid which will just garner the web owners fines etc.

Pirated music, movies or games is just plain illegal and they are freebies that are extremely sought after. Some websites offer you free items like these legally because they get them from the companies so that the companies can get free advertising for their newer things.

Programs that hunt these pirated things down include Kazzaa, Morpheus, and Warez. They all offer free software, games and music illegally. If this sounds okay to you go ahead, but remember that you really are stealing and so are they!

10) If you want legal music you have to pay for it.

2006-12-20T06:43:00.000-05:00

This may be true for most current popular artists, but thee are tens of thousands of free music selections out there that are indeed free. Before you spend all your money on iTunes, you should check out free music resources first.

9) There is no harm in requesting a free offer often.

2006-12-19T06:35:00.000-05:00

I hate to say it, but thereare many people who think this way. Most offers either come right out and say or imply that you may only make one request per person or household for a reason. Being greedy and requesting multiples is considered fraud and my land you in legal trouble.

8) Free software is not as good as purchased ones.

2006-12-18T06:13:00.000-05:00

That may have been true at one time, but we are in a new era where open source and other free software has gained much more respect and are fully featured. For example, I use the OpenOffice.org suite in my home office exclusively. Why pay Microsoft, when I can get the same functionality and often less bugs for free?

7) All the good free services ended with the dot com bust.

2006-12-17T06:13:00.000-05:00

While it is true that many of the best of these ended as financial reality set in with the dot com craze, but there has been a resurgence. You just have to take some time and find the right ones.

6) Free magazines are too much of a hassle

2006-12-16T07:37:00.000-05:00

That may be true when it comes to the free trial offers from magazines, so you should look for full free subscriptions and always check to make sure the offer has not changed or become void. Publishers frequently offer free subscriptions as a way to increase circulation to sell more and higher priced advertisements.

5) Everything on the Internet is free.

2006-12-15T07:37:00.000-05:00

Some people make the mistake of thinking any graphic or any text that they can find on the Internet is free for them use as they see fit. The downside is that some of these things are not actually free at all. Unless the author states that the content is free, it is not. Be smart enough to check the copyrights and terms of service before you subscribe to internet freebies.

4) A free offer is a free offer

2006-12-14T06:08:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately, there are many free offers out there that are not worth your time, because they are free. Many people get sucked into freebies because they are free. That is just pointless.

3) Registering for freebies ensures that you will get spam.

2006-12-13T07:34:00.000-05:00

Actually, the surest way to get spam is to have
is to have an email address at all. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the freebie is to blame. actually it is easy to avoid getting your main email address on spam lists because of freebies. Never use your main email address for that purpose. I suggest having at least two junk email accounts that deal with these. Use one for low risk offers that need verification and use the other for offers of higher spam risk.

2) You can't get anything worth having for free.

2006-12-12T02:41:00.000-05:00

I will admit that most free offers are not
are not particularly valuable. But then again, once in a while some pretty cool free offers show up in the strangest places. I've received free brand-name running shoes, free coffee makers, free software, free computer parts, a free DVD player, and much more, this is not a lie. Even the little freebies are fun and should not be ignored. I never have a shortage of travel size shampoo or toothpaste and I love collecting little trinkets like key rings, coffee mugs, and the like.

1) There is no such thing as a free lunch.

2006-12-10T07:50:00.000-05:00

This is often true, but not as much as everyone thinks. The statement means you pay for everything one way or another in the end. I will agree that this is technically true most of the time. But this doesn’t stop me from looking for freebies anyway, but every request for free offers or registration for a free service takes some time and some effort as well as giving up some privacy. However, I will say that if you have the time, enjoy doing it, and are careful the cost becomes negligible.

INTERNET FREEBIE MYTHS

2006-12-09T07:22:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately with all of the great freebies you will find in life there are many of them to be found on the internet. The problem is that many people are convinced that there are too many down sides to getting free stuff online. As you might guess, I have encountered my share of skeptics who take the cynical stance that nothing in this life is free. Here are many of the myths that the skeptics mistake for obvious truths and my considered views on them:

FREEBIE WEBSITES

2006-12-08T07:45:00.000-05:00

There wouldn’t be a point in writing about internet freebies without including some very good freebie websites that you can visit. These sites provide some excellent freebies for you to sift through.

Free Stuff Central
This is a very popular free stuff site, with loads of cool things for those who are looking for cheap and frees tuff online. Many categories, including books, catalogs, CD-ROMs, contests, coupons, digital postcards, E-mail, Web space, magazines, pet stuff, phone cards, screen savers, software, and a whole lot more.

FreebieDirectory.com
This is a fun site that offers loads of new freebies every day. Each freebie is reviewed thoroughly for you and offers here include free product samples, contests, games, sounds, graphics, freeware and tons more. They even have their own search engine, so you can quickly find what you need.

Freeware Files.com
This is a nicely-organized, and information-packed site, that gives you hundreds of free software for Windows. There's also a good selection of Net tools, utilities, programming files, Windows libraries and drivers, as well as free online Java games. their "What's Hot" and "Top Ten" are great features for a handy snapshot of the Web's latest must-have freeware.

Fat Cat Freebies
This is a regularly updated freebie directory that offers a good selection of free offers. Categories include books & magazines, condoms, DVDs, fun freebies, health & beauty items, samples, student freebies, and more.

FreeBeeClub.com
If you have got something you're about to throw away you should turn to this handy website first because this free service, looks to link people who're looking for free stuff with those who have items they need to get rid of. You must be 18 or older to use this service. FreeBeeClub.com covers cities in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and mainland China.

KingFreebie.com
This new site offers a wide variety of family-oriented freebie items, including merchandise that you can earn when you sign up for sponsor offers. It is a good resource for finding G-rated stuff the whole family can enjoy.

Free-Stuff.com
This site offers you thousands of family-related freebie offers. Categories include catalogs, contests, coupons, entertainment, magazines, personal finance and more.

FreebiesPlanet.com
This site offers somewhere around 60 different categories of freebies and is regularly updated. Some of the Categories that are listed here include beauty and health items, CDs, clipart, clothes, family stuff, fonts, music, posters, recipes, videos, Web space and more.

Active-Freebies.com
This is a nicely designed freebies site that offers a variety of different family-oriented offers. Free stuff categories here include arts & crafts, books, clothing, education, fonts, graphics, health items, samples, sweeps, Webmaster tools and more.

FreebieRoundup.com
This new site basically brings together new freebie listings from free stuff sites across the Web. The site is regularly updated and loads quickly.

Absolutely Freebies
This is an excellent resource, offering lots of free Net resources for Webmasters, as well as a general user. Here, you'll find lots of goodies, such as contests, magazines, screen savers, Internet gaming, E-mail accounts, catalogs and more. Webmasters will find promotional tips, as well as free goodies to enhance their sites.

All-4-Free Freebie Tree
This is one of the largest free stuff directories on the Web today, this site is updated on a daily basis. Categories at this site include baby items, catalogs, contests, coupons, fonts, graphics, health items, Net access, games, software, Web space and more.

Free -n- Cool
This is a fast-loading, and neatly organized and just plain wonderful website, and Free -n- Cool has all the attributes of one of the best selling freebies site. You can get samples to gifts to sweepstakes and more here. The site lives up to its name, as well: besides freebies, you'll find plenty of cool links to browse.

CompletelyFreeSoftware.com
This site offers a very strong collection of freeware that is fun to browse. Each listing is reviewed and rated for you. Freeware around here includes programs for Windows, as well as DOS. Categories here include text editors, graphics programs, games, utilities, multimedia programs and more. Note: this site has begun charging a membership fee for access.

FreebieSpace.com
This is a nicely designed site offers a good variety of freebie offers, including free product samples and free trial offers. The site also has a free newsletter, if you are interested in staying posted on the latest free offers.

SweetFreeStuff.com
This is a freebies directory that offers reviews of free items in many categories, including books, catalogs, coupons, E-mail, fonts, games, graphics, greeting cards, magazines, samples, software, Webmaster tools, and more.

Free Center
This site is a good, solid site that offers freebies for both Webmasters, as well as a regular surfers. Webmaster tools in here range from counters to graphics to free home pages. For everyone else, there's lots of freebies including contests, sound files, freeware and more. All offers are rated for you as well.

RealFreeSite.com
This freebies directory that offers 60 categories, as well as a search engine, so you can quickly find what you need. Free stuff sections here include chat services, contests, digital cards, fonts, games, graphics, MP3 files, samples, Webmaster tools and more.

Digital Free Stuff
This is a great place to get free stuff offers, including Web freebies, product samples and free goodies for Webmasters. Each offer is reviewed and rated.

Best Free Stuff Online.com
Here is a freebies site that offers stuff for the whole family. Content includes freebies for moms, freebies for dads, pet freebies, as well as computer freebies, sweepstakes and more.

FreeStuffConnection.com
This site offers a wide variety of free offers for everyone, as well as Webmasters. Freebie categories around here include computer items, coupons, entertainment, magazines, samples and more.

Free Stuff Place
This site offers a wide variety of various freebies. Here, you'll find free catalogs, CD-ROMs, E-mail services, fonts, freeware, magazines, screen savers and more.

Only Free
This freebie directory offers a large selection of various free items, including free product samples, free services and family freebies. Offers here include mouse pads, gifts, DVDs and more.

EZ-Freebies.com
This is a freebies site that offers lots of helpful enhancements such as a search engine and a feature that lets you create a personalized list of your favorite freebie bookmarks.

GraphicsFreebies.com
This site ranks the Web's top free graphics resources by the number of votes they've received from their visitors. Each site is reviewed and the index is updated throughout the day.

FreeandFun.com
This site offers a variety of free services and products. Free stuff categories here include computer stuff, contests, coupons, family freebies, magazines, samples and trial offers.

CheapFree.com
This is a different and fun freebie site, these people categorize their offerings into four broad sections: "New Stuff," "Cool Stuff," "Crappy Stuff" and "Useless Stuff." This is just plain cool and worth a look.

AAAFreebies.com
This is a fast-growing new resource that offers a lot of freebies, as well as a handy search engine. Free stuff categories here include coupons, contests, fonts, graphics, postcards, product samples, screen savers, sounds, Webmaster freebies and more.

1Freestuff.com
Here, you can find freebies, including books, computer items, cooking items, entertainment, phone offers, samples, screen savers and Webmaster tools.

BestDealsOnTheWeb.net
This is a good place to go if you're looking for freebies or cheapies on the Web. The site offers a regularly-updated collection of free samples, freeware, contests, money-saving offers, coupns and more.

AAAScreenSavers.com
This site is one of my fave’s for the Web's top freeware screen savers. Screen saver categories here include anime, art, cartoons, computers, fantasy, games, holidays, horror & occult, movies, nature, religious, sci-fi, sports, TV and more.

Free2Try
This site is cool with a plethora of freebie offers. You name it, and it's here: free samples, contests, free catalogs, gift certificates, free magazines, freeware, opportunities for earning cash and much more.

Freebietools
Here is a directory of various freebie offers and Webmaster resources, including free Web space services, Javascripts, affiliate programs, redirection services, freeware and more.

FreeGraphicLand.com
Here's an index of Webmaster-related sites, that is ranked by the number of votes they're received from visitors. Site categories here include graphics, JavaScript, CGI, CCS and HTML.

Cool Freebie Links
This site has a huge list of the Web's freebies sites. Here, you get detailed reviews of each freebies resource. The reviews detail what the site is about, how it's laid out and what pitfalls you may find there. There's a lot here to explore.

ChristmasFreebies.com
This festive site offers a big collection of Christmas-themed freebies for all ages. Items here include free gifts, samples, yuletide contests, Christmas-themed software, children's freebies, and other items.

ValentinesDayFreebies.com
This is a cool place for all things free on Valentine's Day. Here, you'll find free Valentine's Day related samples, gifts, contests, games, screen savers, greeting cards, children's freebies and more

Cnet.com
This extremely popular website offers many freebies like software, mp3’s, downloads, utilities, and way more. These downloads are rated and have consumer reviews to help you choose the right ones

Download.com
This site offers customer reviews, ratings, on their free software which includes screensavers, programs, games, utilities and much more. This is actually the site I visit the most.

KNOW YOUR FREEBIE DOWNLOADS

2006-12-07T07:40:00.000-05:00

When it comes to downloading internet freebies like software, music, screensavers etc., it helps to know these freebies before you bother. You will want to get your downloads from a reputable site; preferably one that offers customer reviews.

If your website, such as download.com or cnet.com offers these, then read all of the customers comments so that you can be prepared beforehand for whatever happens. Also, if you are looking for absolutely freeware, you will have to check the license area of the description. To be sure that you are in fact getting a freebie, you will want to be sure that the license says freeware or free. If it says demo or trial, it will not be free. Let’s look at those more closely.

FREEWARE
This is software programsthat are completely free, which means that you will never have to pay for them. These are the most popular software freebies on the net. Of course they have their advantages and disadvantages too. Lets look at these right now!

ADVANTAGES
- Naturally it is free
- It often has many features that paid versions offer
- They are easy to install/remove
- They often include free upgrades

DISADVANTAGES
- Some can be tricky, and actually be trials not totally free
- Some are lacking in features
- Many require paid versions in order to receive full features
- Some contain ad/spyware, viruses and worms
- Some are simply not what they claim to be.

Check the spam box

2006-12-06T03:30:00.000-05:00

You will find that many registration forms have a check box that allows you to let them know if you don't want emails sent to you. If you want to avoid junk email, tell them that in the check box offered. If you exercise a little caution, a little common sense, and a few tricks, you can avoid a lot of unwanted email.

Information giveaways.

2006-12-05T08:50:00.000-05:00

If you are signing up for a freebie or registering for anything on the Net you should only give the information that is absolutely necessary. If a site is asking for more information than seems to make sense for the type of offer then either use the tip above, or just avoid it.

If it looks like they are trying to qualify you for a targeted mailing list they probably are. It is also good to note that you should never give out your phone number on the Net unless there is a very good reason for doing it. Junk email is bad enough, unsolicited phone calls we really don't need.

To avoid doing this I always enter "UL" for unlisted or I give them a "555" number. If they can't send me a freebie without a phone number, I don't want it anyway so I just move on.

Just Say NO to MLMs.

2006-12-03T23:59:00.000-05:00

There may be a few legitimate multilevel marketing companies out there, but there are many that are nothing but some of then are nothing but schemes. In my opinion these schemes are one of the biggest nuisances on the Net. If these people manage to get your email address and think that you may be enough of a sucker to fall for their big offers, you get unending junk email.

The best way to avoid these jokers is by learning to recognize them when their emails arrive. If you come to a web page that is one big sign in a large font that tells you about this great deal, avoid it and don’t click it at all. Unfortunately many of these appear on many different freebie websites. If it looks like and MLM, if smells like an MLM or if it tastes like an MLM, avoid it.

Become hard to find.

2006-12-03T04:36:00.000-05:00

This is probably the single best and most effective method of warding off the spammers. If you don't give out your primary email address except to trusted friends etc. and organizations you can keep a nice clean mailbox.
The best way to do this is to sign for the free online mail service providers like hotmail and yahoo. You can even get disposable email addresses that disappear on their own. Use these addresses when you think you may be exposed to a junk emailer.

When you do start getting too much spam to any of the free accounts just cancel it and get another one. You should also use a disposable account if you post messages to the Internet forums just to be sure. Spammers often use software that combs newsgroups for email addresses.

GET FREEBIES---AVOID SPAM

2006-12-02T02:53:00.000-05:00

Sometimes when you sign up for free offers, you can get more than you bargained for like I already stated. Although most of the sites that I refer you to are unlikely to cause you to receive unwanted email, sometimes you just can’t avoid it. The downside to this is that it will land you on unwanted mailing lists.

If, like me, you already get too much spam in your inbox, I have some tips that can help you avoid the hassle all together.

Quick Tips:

2006-12-01T07:26:00.000-05:00

1. Most forms mark the absolutely necessary fields with an asterisk or bold text. The others you can simply ignore you will move faster that way.
2. Some fields may use a select arrow to allow you to choose from a list of answers (drop down menu). Let the list choose for you. If it is not listed click the other tab.

Here is what to do for your forms:

2006-11-30T05:15:00.000-05:00

1. Move your mouse over the first field in the form and click it.
2. Type in the information that is being asked.
3. Either user your tab key to move to the next field or click your mouse in the next field.
4. Continue until you have filled out all the required fields.
5. There will be a button that tells you to submit. Move your mouse cursor over the button and click once.
6. Do not click a second time. Some forms take a few seconds to a minute or more to process.
7. You are now finished and can goon to find another free offer and repeat the whole process on another form.

FILLING OUT THE FREEBIE FORM

2006-11-29T05:29:00.000-05:00

OK, you are ready to get some free samples or sign up for free services at some website, but you just aren’t used to filling out online forms or you just want a quick heads up about them. Since we now know that most of these freebies sites will require you to fill out these forms, you might as well see them and get some quick tips about it first. All you have to do is just follow the steps below and you should have no problems.

High end stuff that are free with purchase

2006-11-28T02:30:00.000-05:00

these are my favorite potential dangers because they are easy to get sucked into. These are things that “Buy a computer, get a free monitor or printer and camera”; spend $60, get a $15 gift card; buy a cell phone at full price get another for free!

All of these sound like great deals at first, but they may cost you more than you think. Before you get sucked into this type of freebie offer, you need to stop and calculate how much you’ll have to spend in order for you to receive your free item.

If you do this you may just find that you could get a computer and monitor someplace else for less than what you’ll have to pay for a computer at the freebie spot.

You should also check to see whether or not the purchase item and the incentive item are things that you truly need and will get a lot of use out of. Too often people allow free with purchase incentives to persuade them to buy items that they would probably never buy otherwise and that is just silly.

The bottom line with this is that a freebie offer shouldn’t cost you money because that completely negates the fact of it being free in the first place. Consider each deal that you are offered carefully before you bother. Otherwise, you will end up with a lot of free stuffthat actually cost you an arm and a leg.

Free trials

2006-11-27T07:49:00.000-05:00

A free 30-day trial to an online movie rental service like Netflix or even a cheap online service can sound pretty worth it when you aren’t able to afford the luxury of a full-time subscription for that magazine. However, this type of freebie can get expensive extremely quickly. Since many trial offers have the tendency to automatically turn into paid subscriptions when you don’t call or write the company to cancel, you could find yourself with an unexpected bill down the road.

Before you decide to accept any trial offers that you might come across you really have to look over the agreement to be sure you find the terms agreeable. Of course, if you decide to go forward with any deal that requires a cancellation to be rid of it, be sure to mark your calendar; and call before the trial period is up otherwise you will be getting that bill or debit from your credit card or bank. Being even a day late in canceling could result in a monthly or even a yearly membership fee. So BEWARE!

Items that require additional purchases

2006-11-26T01:56:00.000-05:00

That coupon for a free usually expensive watch can be a real eye catcher when it appears on your favorite search engine, but is it really a good deal? Maybe not if it means you’ll have to buy expensive batteries so that you can use it.

The point here is that before you decide to participate in a freebie offer that will require an added purchase (such as a watch that will need batteries or a bottle of shampoo that will require the purchase of conditioner) stop to consider what your out-of-pocket expenses are going to be. You may just find that you come out better by purchasing your normal brands, and skipping thehigh cost freebies all together.

AVOIDING THE COSTLY FREEBIES

2006-11-25T05:15:00.000-05:00

If you still think that all online freebies will help you to stretch your budget you have not been listening. Sometimes they will and others will not. The fact is that you have to learn to avoid the following costly freebies:

Unhealthy foods-
If you really think that the free bag of chips that you got after redeeming a coupon or that package of cookies that you got as part of a buy one get one free deal sounded like a great way to save money you may have to think again. What about the hidden cost? Often times the foods that are easiest to obtain for free but they can also be the worst for your health.

Before you start stocking up on any food freebie, you really need to think about that. Being offered free food online doesn’t even make sense. You have to ask yourself some key questions here, such as:
1. How far does this food have to travel to get to me?
2. Why is this food being offered for free?
3. Is this from a viable local restaurant near me, or is this to be delivered to me at my home?
4. Is this food past its expiration date?
5. What type of offer am I getting in order for the food to be free?
6. Is this food perishable?

These are just common sense questions that everyone should ask before accepting free potentially perishables. You should also consider the cost of losing weight before you decide to accept a food freebie. Gym memberships and diet programs are far from free and your health could be at risk in eating something for free that you got on the internet.

Word of Mouth

2006-11-24T05:39:00.000-05:00

You should never underestimate the power of this method. This is how most businesses manage to get most of their clientele. You can also search online for word of mouth by checking discussion boards. If you are willing to spend just a little time exploring the web, and you're sure to turn up some great freebies.

These methods having come up, let me just tell you that you can also check out Ask Jeeves and find some great reviews on freebie websites. All you have to do is type in “reviews for free stuff online” and a host of forums will come up that will give you advice and warnings about web sites that offer free stuff.

Web Searches

2006-11-23T01:46:00.000-05:00

Web searches can lead to even more free samples that you might not be able to find on free sample websites. If you wasn’t to locate these, there are several basic key words to search under. Yes, keywords are the trick to finding the right stuff.

These keywords include free sample, free samples, free trial, trial offer, free product and free product offer are all excellent search words. If you really want to get the very best search results, be sure to try all of the above-mentioned key words. That will certainly produce all of the right sites. A sample that might come up under “free sample,” may not come up under “free samples”, which is why you have to switch keywords to get to them all. As you gain more search experience, you may find that there are many other key words that work for theparticular product samples you are looking for.

Free Sample Sites

2006-11-22T08:31:00.000-05:00

Free sample sites are a great place to start. These sites list lots of free samples that are available all over the web, and provide links to the freebie sites.

The benefit of using these sites is that someone else is doing a lot of the work for you. This means that you won’t have to spend a ton of research time to find the samples you are hoping to find.

Basically, one of the best free sample sites on the web is called Start Sampling.com. This website actually requires a membership, but it is so worth it. Once you subscribe to it, you have access to tons of high quality samples that you are looking for.

In the most recent months some of their sample offers have included a free full-sized sample of name brand toothpaste, not to mention a variety of free year-long magazine subscriptions. That may sound too good to be true but it isn’t.

Some more good sample sites include: mommysavers.com and freebies.about.com. Both of these sites feature daily updates, and are among the first to list new offers. Linking to them will keep you ahead of others and making sure that you find the best samples.

Walmart also offers a lot of freebie offers. Just go to walmart.com and click on the "In Stores Now" tab to see what is going up for free next. When you go here you can find deals on samples from suchcompanies as John Frieda, Neutrogena, Hallmark, Garnier and Poise.

FINDING INTERNET FREEBIES

2006-11-21T08:40:00.000-05:00

Let’s face it; Internet service on its own isn’t cheap. It is however the perfect tool to use for being cheap and getting good deals. When used properly, the Internet can give you access to countless freebies. Here's what you need to know to get started with finding them:

There are basically three approaches to finding free samples on the Internet: checking free sample sites, doing web searches and taking part in discussion boards. We will look at all of these methods.

Which Search Engines Offer Pay Per Click Advertising?

2006-11-20T08:22:00.000-05:00

There is literally hundreds of pay per click
per click search engines on the market today such as MSN, Yahoo, Google and Overture. Generally, the larger the pay per click search engine is, the more the host will have to bid to get to the top for their keywords. This is why it is worth it to them investigating different search engines to find what it would cost to bid on their keywords and how much traffic they draw in.

The largest companies in the pay per click industry are Overture and Google. Google is not a pay per click search engine, but it does provide pay per click advertising in text ad boxes to the right of search results it delivers. It also delivers pay per click ads to other content sites as well.

One of the major advantages that the lesser known search engines have is that these search engines can provide lower costs per click to rank for a keyword than the larger search engines. In addition to the general pay per click search engines, you may also be able to find thematic search engines that serve the freebie industry or specifically cater to their target audience.

This is the basics of pay per click advertising that is generally left for the freebie zone. Most of the freebie websites subscribe to this advertising method. This is how they can afford the freebies that you find. Why else would they offer so much free stuff? You have to ask yourselfwhat would be in it for them. Well now you know. They are getting paid for it.

What Is Pay Per Click really?

2006-11-19T02:25:00.000-05:00

Pay per click advertising on search engines allows hosts to choose keywords that they would like their site to appear for when a search query is performed. They get to decide how much they are willing to pay each time a person clicks on the search results. The more the hosts are willing to pay per click, the higher their site will appear in the results for the keywords they choose. When it comes to freebies…you can bet that hat and like words will be the keywords.

Pay Per Click Advertising

2006-11-18T02:17:00.000-05:00

Pay per click advertising is a bonus for affiliate marketers because it basically does exactly what it says. When visitors click onto web pages it for affiliate web host that will get paid just for the visit. It doesn’t apply to how much stuff the visitors purchase. So when they offer you freebies, they are still making money which also means you will likely get your freebies. Let’s take a look at some of the most common questions about it to help you get an exact idea of what this really is.

SEE FREEBIES FROM THE MARKETERS POINT OF VIEW

2006-11-17T04:30:00.000-05:00

It doesn’t really take a whole lot of knowledge to realize that the internet is the new wave in marketing right now. It is even better than the old methods for marketing because this method can gives the marketer returns almost immediately upon their investment if they know what they are doing and how to best capitalize off of it.

As you can probably imagine, the entire purpose of using affiliation as a part of a marketing technique is so that they can make some money. Freebies for clients are just a part of it. Below I have decided to explain internet pay per click advertising that marketers use so that you can understand more about why these freebies can be dangerous to you as a consumer. I Thought that it deserved more attention on its own as its popularity gets higher because this is the method that most of your freebies will come from.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVATAGES OF INTERNET FREEBIES

2006-11-16T03:03:00.000-05:00

When it comes to getting internet freebies it is relatively obvious that you are hoping to get something for nothing. Sometimes that can be a great thing and others it can be a disaster. I like to get my internet freebies as much as the next person, but I know that there disadvantages to doing this as well as there are positives to it too. Here is the section where we will discuss them.

ADVANTAGES TO FREEBIES ARE:

· You can increase your work productivity with free software downloads
· You can communicate in a more efficient way with email, chat and internet phone downloads
· You can use free samples as a method of learning about new products that may turn into your favorites
· Sometimes you can get extremely good deals with the freebies you find
· You can save a lot of time and money
· Of course, the given…you really lose nothing insofar as money is concerned.

DISADVATAGES TO FREEBIES ARE:

· You may not always get what you wanted
· Freebies may contain viruses, spyware and adware
· You have to jump through too many hoops to get it
· Your freebie may actually wind up costing you money in shipping costs and other fees
· You may never actually receive a freebie at all
· You may be exposing yourself to identity fraud or spam

As you can see, getting your internet freebies may wind up completely being harmful to you rather than helpful. These great deals can sometimes have dyer consequences, so you really need to check to be sure that you are truly getting what you asked for.

AWESOME INTERNET FREEBIES

2006-11-15T00:00:00.000-05:00

For all of the terrible freebie choices that you can find, there are many that are very much worth the effort. I could not in good conscious write this kind of guide without including some of the best freebies list I could find. Here they are listed for you. Let’s look at those now.

Zip- you can create ZIP compressed archives for free with this wonderful program.

Abilon – This is a very powerful, speedy RSS reader that actually offers you a choice of different views, and features a built-in tabbed browser of its own.

AbiWord- This is a light however fully featured word processor that is very compatible with Microsoft Word documents, however what makes it truly stand out is that it also runs on Linux and Macs systems.

AIM Mail- AIM mail basically gives you 2GB of storage as well as integration with AOL Instant Messenger.

AirDefense Personal Lite- This is a very easy program that alerts you whenever you connect to an insecure network or anyplace else that you have decided isn’t safe, and you are in control of it.

Alleycode- This is an easy to use HTML editor for any of the people who are comfortable with basic HTML code and need to do some quick editing.

All-in-One Secretmaker- this awesome tool blocks banner ads and pop-ups, filters spam, and offers you many more utilities for cleaning up and securing your system.

Anonymizer- This is basically an anonymous browsing service that will display all of your Web pages without giving away any of your personal information to the sites you visit.

Audacity- this is an All-purpose audio editor that lets you record, play, and edit digital files.

Avast Home Edition- This is an antivirus scanner that can do a boot-time virus scan for you.

Avvenu- This is a free remote-access and file-sharing service that allows you and your work colleagues get to files on an Avvenu-enabled computer from another computer, Web-enabled phone, or PDA.

Backpack- this helps you to create web pages with things like to-do lists, notes, pictures, etc. and let’s you share them with others

Bartleby- This is a great online reference library that offers many features, including a dictionary, thesaurus, and various books of quotations.

BeInSync- this program lets you ensure you have access to your critical files and folders.

BitTorrent- is extremely useful for downloading legitimate web content quickly or for sharing your own files.

Blogger- this is a blogging service that stays simple to use, but offers a rich complement of features.

Bloglines- This is a Web-based RSS reader lets you access your news from multiple PCs.

CCleaner- with this tool you can find and zaps useless files such as cache files and old Registry entries.

Celestia- here is a great tool for students that lets you Zoom through the solar system, and this gives you real-time views of planets, moons, comets, stars, and more.

Copernic Desktop Search- this program is great for letting you search local files as well as Outlook and Outlook Express e-mail.

Del.icio.us- this is great to use rather than bookmarks because this service keeps track of your favorite sites for you.

eFax Messenger- You can receive faxes on your PC with eFax, viewing or printing them via the eFax Messenger software.

EssentialPIM- basically just combines a calendar, contact manager, to-do list, and notes manager in a single program.

Feedreader- This is a free Windows utility that displays your news feeds, and includes flexible keyboard shortcuts for easy access.

Festoon Beta- This is an add-on for Skype and Google Talk that lets users of make calls to each other, and brings video chat capabilities to Google Talk.

Firefox- This is for those who prefer not to stick solely to bug ridden IE because it a more secure, faster, and more flexible Web browser.

FlashGot- this is basically a Firefox plug-in that makes Firefox easier to use, allowing you to grab every page from a Web site or download multiple files efficiently.

Flickr- this program lets you Easily upload, share, and post pictures.

FolderShare (Windows)- lets you Automatically sync files and folders between multiple computers and share data with colleagues and friends.

FolderSync- helps to keep your USB drive and your hard drive on the same page

FoxIt Reader- is a smaller tool for viewing PDF files, its way better than adobe.

Free Download Manager- This is an IE companion that can speed up single-file downloads, resume interrupted downloads, manage bandwidth usage, or schedule multiple file downloads for specific times.

FreeConference.com- with this you can set up and host conference calls for free.

FreeMind- this program allows you to write your notes in a mind map.

Furl- this program lets you save your favorite Web pages in an online account that you can access from any computer.

GetByMail- this program offers access to your office computer through your e-mail account.

Gmail Google's- this amazing e-mail service feels more like a Windows application than a Web mail service because it is so easily integrated into the programs.

Google Desktop- this is a great program that extends the power of the Web's most popular search engine to your desktop by indexing nearly every document on your hard drive so that you don’t have to.

Google Earth- with this program you can spin the earth around, tilt it, and zoom in to objects as tiny as one building. Great for students

Google Picasa- this is a great way to organize, touch up, and share your pictures with others.

Google Video- this service is perfect those of you who want to be commercially oriented video producers who are looking for a large audience for their work.

GRC Shields Up- This is a browser-based tool that checks your PC for common vulnerabilities, like open ports.

Groove Virtual Office- this programs lets you bring your coworkers together because it is a file-sharing and collaboration tool.

Hyperwords- This is another Firefox browser plug-in that makes any text on any Web page easy to click.

Irfanview- This is a neat graphics utility offers basic image editing and file format conversions.

iTeamwork- This is a Web-based projectmanagement service that helps groups keep track of complicated projects.

iTunes- This you have likely heard of but it is Apple's media player and is a joy to use even if you never buy a 99-cent song. Plus it is legal!

Kodak EasyShare Gallery- this program mobile-phone access options, and has no upload restrictions.

Kristal Audio Engine- This is a very sophisticated audio mixing program that also offers many other features that you can find in paid programs.

Lavasoft Ad-Aware- this program scans your PC for spyware etc. and gets rid of them.

LiveJournal- is a great tool to use for your blog, and carries no advertising.

LogMeIn- This is a program that gives you remote access service so that youy can control your PC from anywhere, via a Web browser.

Microsoft Tweak UI- this program lets you take control of hidden Windows XP settings.

Microsoft Windows Defender- this is Microsoft's antispyware application that catches spyware that other programs ignore.

MSN Hotmail- cool email service with many features.

MSN Search Toolbar- This handy search tool indexes your hard drive and provides search results through a Windows application, rather than a browser.

Netomat- This is a networking service that allows you to create, access, and share content on the Web or a phone.

Netscape Webmail- gives you 250MB of storage and features large, easy-to-click buttons.

NewsGator- this program displays your RSS feeds in a clean, readable display.

Nvu – this is a great web page editor that doesn't require any understanding of the underlying tags.

OmniFormat- with this program you can convert BMPs to JPEGs, GIFs to PDFs, Word documents to TIF image files.

OpenOffice.org- This is a fully featured Microsoft Office-compatible office suite offers a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation package, and database for free.

Palm Desktop- this a very good calendar and address book application will appeal to users who don't even have a PDA.

Pandora- this great when all you have to do is enter the name of an artist or song that you like and Pandora creates a custom radio station that plays your music.

PBwiki- this program lets you create a free, password-protected collaborative Web site.

PDF Creator- this is a printer driver that lets you create Adobe Acrobat files from within almost any application.

Pegasus Mail- this has always been a favorite of power users, because this e-mail client gives you a huge amount of control over your mail, with support for mail merges and flexible filtering options.

podAmigo- this program works with the Podomatic Web service and helps you to organize and download your podcasts.

Project Gutenberg- this program lets you browse electronic versions of more than 17,000 books in a virtual library.

Putfile- This is a basic video sharing service works reliably and well.

PuTTY- This is a free utility that allows you to create an SSH, Telnet, or Rlogin connection.

QNext- This is a universal instant messenger service that also lets you share music.

Revver- This is a video sharing site from which you can actually make money.

RssReader- This program displays your news feeds for you. This is great for website optimization.

SeaMonkey- This suite of Internet tools includes the Mozilla browser and more like a chat program and HTML editor.

SightSpeed- This is a video calling service that synchronizes lip movements and audio neatly, and offers easy in-call controls.

Skype- This one lets you get free PC-to-PC voice calls with text chat and file transfers.

Spybot Search & Destroy- This is a powerful spyware tool.

Steganos LockNote- Password-protect text files with this cool tool.

Streamload Mediamax- this is great for users who want to share lots of big files and videos.

SyncNotes- This program runs on your computer, but allows you to view and edit your notes from any Web or WAP browser.

Ta-Da List- this program lets you stay organized.

The GIMP- this is an app that includes tools for photo retouching, image composition, and image authoring.

ThinkFree- This software runs in your browser and lets you edit Microsoft Office-compatible documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.

Thunderbird- this is a very secure e-mail client.

Trend Micro HouseCall is a web site that runs software in your browser to scan for and eliminate malware on your PC.

Trillian Basic- this is a universal IM client that lets you keep in contact with your friends no matter what chat program they use.

Vimeo- video lovers will love this video sharing service.

Wapedia- this program is for accessing Wikipedia from a PDA or smart phone.

Wikipedia this is an online encyclopedia.

Windows Live Mail- This is an Ajax-based service

WordPress.com- This hosted blogging service.

WordWeb- A handy online dictionary and thesaurus that work in any application on your computer.

WriteBoard- This service lets you create, edit, and share documents with others right in your browser.

Yahoo Briefcase- this is one of the easiest ways we know of to store and share files online.

Yahoo Widgets- this is an application that puts widgets on your desktop that provide useful information, such as news updates, weather reports, stock tickers, or photos, and they can even search for you, storing your notes, and more. Think bonzi buddy without the spyware,

ZoneAlarm- this is a free firewall.

6) The Free Gift/Rewards/Sample Issue

2006-11-13T22:54:00.000-05:00

Since these require a certain amount of your personal information to be shared in order for you to get these items, you have to be cautious with them. For example if you want a free sample, do you have to pay for something else or give out credit card information first? This area requires some basic questions that you should beasking yourself before opting for these freebies, such as:

1. Is the freebie worth the price that must be paid?
2. Do I have to buy something to get the freebie?
3. How much personal information do they require? (i.e. SSN, credit card info., bank information etc.)
4. Do I have to enter into a contract first?
5. is the freebie standing on its own or is there an added cost to pay?
6. what am I willing to do for my freebie?
7. Why is the site giving out freebies?
8. What’s in it for them?

These are important questions that you should get answers to if you really want to try to avoid being taken for a ride. As I explained earlier your freebie may not be all it is cracked up to be.

5) Viruses and Worms

2006-11-13T05:19:00.000-05:00

Internet freebies from software and downloadables like music can also include viruses and worms which we all know can be fatal to computers. Most of these can be found in music downloads and movies. The reason is because of their popularity. Naturally your best bet in avoiding these is to avoid using the free site programs and instead go through cheap and paid services like iTunes.

4) About spyware or adware freebies.

2006-11-12T00:56:00.000-05:00

Even though I have covered some of the software freebie problems I had to give out a special section that was geared toward spyware and adware together.

The fact is that most downloadable software has added these into it. Some of them are harmless and can be removed with a good program like Adaware. Others however, are more like viruses or worms.

Knowing about these is important because they often don’t tell you that they are there and many cause major computer problems. I have had so many problems with it in the past, that I have thoroughly exhausted every resource in trying to avoid them.

Spyware can be anything from search additions to actual programs. They are not all dangerous but some of them make duplicate files on the programs that you already have and can’t be removed. It is for this reason that they are harmful because they take up all of your computer’s resources. The best solution to this problem is to download your freebies from reputable sources that offer user reviews. That way you can get solid info about it from others just like you.

Mozilla FireFox web browser, which includes a built-in pop-up advert blocker.

2006-11-11T02:18:00.000-05:00

These two tools need to be downloadedbut they generally don’t offer any spyware. I will list some websites that offer free downloads later on in this guide for you to be able to go to that are excellent for downloads and advice on downloading.

3) Be aware of pop-up advertisements.

2006-11-10T06:33:00.000-05:00

These days, many webmasters have started including irritating pop-up adverts on their pages in the specific effort of generating more money. How this works is that after the initial onslaught of pop-ups that a visitor gets, other advertsappeared on the scene as well such as: pop-unders.

These adverts are extremely similar to pop-ups, in that they cleverly conceal themselves behind your main browser window so that they do not pop up on the site but they will show themselves in the taskbar. There are tools that can be very useful in combating these ads. Both of them arehighly effective and shown below.

2) Get a compression or archiving utility.

2006-11-09T05:20:00.000-05:00

When you are offered freebies like software you will often find that they take up far too much disk space to run. It is like a form of adware that these companies rely on. Usually this happens because they add extra files to the software so that they can receive compensation for every download that they get.

A good example of this is when you find that you download some software and find that they have added search utilities to your browser that you didn’t want. It is real annoying but there is something that you can do about this.

Software providers usually offertheir own free programs in a compressed file format. If you are using Microsoft Windows for your computer, these files will usually have a .zip extension at the end of the file (i.e. mediaplayer.zip)

This format is used so as to reduce the amount of disk space they use and help speed up download times. If you're using Windows XP, then you're already set for decompressing files, and you would not need to download a separate utility.

Most popular compression utilities that you can find can handle various compressed formats, not just .zip extensions. Some of these file extensions are .rar or .tar.gz file, you should be fine. There are still many programs that don't require decompressing so you should realize that if you already have an archiving program installed yourcompression requirements should be fine.

1) Be aware of spam.

2006-11-08T02:59:00.000-05:00

The Internet is completely filled with junk-mail senders, commonly referred to as spammers. We all know what these are. Basically if you fail to protect yourself against spam, you'll find yourself receiving thousands of them. Unfortunately, most of the companies that are giving away freebies sometimes ask for your e-mail address. I’m sure that you see where I am going with this.

Although providing your delivery details is generally imperative if you want to get the item, you need to note that e-mail addresses are not a necessity in receiving an item. They will not be sending it there will they?

When you do give out you email address, you can bet thatit will likely be sold to other companies, who sell them again and so on. This just starts a horrible cycle. What this should tell you is that before you embark on a freebie spree, you need to be sure to set up a secondary email account that you will use only for this purpose.

You can do this by choosing any free e-mail address provider like yahoo or hotmail. Generally speaking, if you request a freebie over the Internet and they ask you to supply your e-mail address it is a given that spam will soon follow.

INTERNET FREEBIE BEWARES & HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM

2006-11-07T01:46:00.000-05:00

As you can imagine, there are manydifferent things to beware of when it comes to internet freebies. There are also various ways that you can avoid falling into the many pitfalls that come along with these freebies as well. Think about it this way a free sample of toothpaste is a real freebie, since it's a real-life item that you can buy in a store.

Digital freebies, which are offered all over the place are things like free fonts, online games, emoticons, and free Web site creation tools. These are often free to. By now you've been explained the basics of what internet freebies are out there but there are a few other things youshould be aware of when it comes to actually getting them.

Free Shipping on purchases

2006-11-06T07:49:00.000-05:00

This freebie is basically the biggest selling point on the internet these days. Basically it just states that If you buy the product, you will receive free shipping when it is sent to you. For this you have to think that many of these companies will secretly include the shipping costs in the actual price of the item.

Either this will happen or you will be paying the shipping costs in another way such as by being charged extra fees such as processing fees or handling fees which are added to the cost of the product at the time of purchase.

As you can see there are quite a few different types of freebies and freebie offers. What we will be looking at in the next section is the common freebies that you can find and the many

Free Reward

2006-11-05T04:54:00.000-05:00

The free reward lets you receive a product or service for free after doing something that the company wants you to do first. A perfect example of this type of freebie is that you only get the freebie after filling out a survey or getting cash for opening an account of some type.

For this freebie you will want to see if the needed task or obligation is even worth the reward that is being offered. This is just common sense. Another thing that needs to be taken into consideration here is that in doing the activity it may actually wind up costing you in some other way down the road.

Free on a Trial basis

2006-11-04T04:40:00.000-05:00

This is just annoying because for this you get a product or service for free but only for a limited time. Two perfect examples of this are in the case of gym memberships where the first month is free with the full payment of a year’s membership or like you can get three free issues of a magazine with a paid subscription.

This is very process as you get with a free sample because the companies giving away the free trial are hoping that once you begin using their product or service, you'll continue to it for a long time.

Sometimes the free trial will be completely free with nothing for you to do once the trial period is over but that is rare. Most of the time you'll be required submit some sort of payment first so that you can try a product and then cancel the membership or subscription once the free trial period is over.

The problem here is that if you don't or forget to, then you'll automatically be billed for the product or service that you really don’t want. A good example of this is the case with the free AOL service for three months. Eventually you will be billed for it even if you don’t like the service simply because you forgot the cut off date.

Free After Rebate

2006-11-03T05:55:00.000-05:00

Like I said above, this is where you start off by paying full price for the product and then are able to send in some type of proof of purchase in order for you to get your money back. While these can be a great deal if you actually go through all the steps to get your rebate, they are often more trouble than they are worth.

It's also important for you to read the fine print and terms of service thoroughly before making the purchase. There is a good chance that you will find some restrictions whichcan make getting the rebate difficult.

Free With Purchase

2006-10-31T23:02:00.000-05:00

This is actually pretty straight forward because it is very simple. Basically for this freebie you receive an extra something for free when you purchase a certain product. It is generally a like object such as if you buy a set of cosmetics, you get a free carrying case for them. While these can be good deals if you were planning to buy the main product being sold anyways, however it is pointless if you don’t really need the main item. Don’t buy it if you don’t need it just because it comes with a free product.

Free With Postage or SASE

2006-10-30T22:16:00.000-05:00

This type of freebie is when you are offered a free sample of a product, but you're required to pay the postage of the item or send a self addressed stamped envelope (SASE) if you are going to receive it. This sounds pretty straight forward right?

What you have to watch our for in this case is that the site providing the freebie isn't hiding the actual cost of the product within the shipping charge. A good thing for the average consumer to note is that the legitimate offers are usually much better than the ones that you can get from a free sample with free shipping.

Free Sample

2006-10-30T05:29:00.000-05:00

This is the most common type of freebie that most people will find when looking around. A free sample is when a product is given away with the intention of letting you try it to see if you like it. Let me tell you that in this case, more often than not you will actually be receiving a sample size as well. Think of Avon’s mini lipsticks that are good enough for about 4 real uses.

This happens because the manufacturer believes that in sending you a free sample of a product and covering the shipping costs will entice you to buy their product on a regular basis. Most of the time these do not carry any hidden costs. These are the best and most straight forward freebies that you will find.

Just know that some free samples are not free and require you to pay for the shipping cost. You know that commercial that you seewith the free full size bottle of the “focus” pills? That is my case in point.

DIFFERENT INTERNET FREEBIES

2006-10-29T04:35:00.000-05:00

When it comes to the different types of freebies that are out there you have a huge variety of them to choose from. I have to admit I am a freebie junkie myself and have sifted through just about every type that you can think of.

If have had my share of successes in this area and my share of failures as well. I have received great freebies that I still use today and I have had to chuck some of those not great ones too. Just some of the freebies you can find on the net include things like:

- software (fax, email, burners, word processors etc.)
- gifts from purchases made
- electronics
- music samples
- movies and movie programs
- quickie items like clothing, household items
- wireless phones
- satellite dishes

These items don’t even cover half of what types of freebies you can get offered. You can get virtually everything for free if you search hard enough for it. Most people assume that getting some sort of freebie means that you will get the item at absolutely no cost.

Although on the surface this claim sounds great and makes total sense, the reality is that there are a wide variety of ways that the term freebie is used on the Internet. For the average consumer It's important to understand the different types of freebies that are out there and the meaning of each.

Free After Some Sort of Rebate

2006-10-28T06:21:00.000-04:00

The way Free After Rebate works is when you are offered an item that cost $30 and you are promised a rebate for the full amount after the point of purchase, it is a tricky business. These freebies are also good in quality, and once again because money is involved, more likely to show up at your door.

Of course there is a problem here in that with this type of promotion the rebates often take many months to redeem after the initial purchase is made.

Also these companies are hoping on the drop out rate of all those people who either forget to submit the rebate. Many of us also find that these rebate offer totally inconvenience you to the point where by the time you are finished with all of their requirements, you have missed the deadline for receiving the rebate. This is a very popular scam.

The point with any freebie that you will be offered is that there is generally a catch to it that you have to watch out for. This is why you should really check out these offers before you sign up for any freebie on the Internet. In the end you may find that you do not get you freebie for free, or you just may not get one at all.

Free After Some Sort of Rebate

2006-10-28T06:18:00.000-04:00

Free After Some Sort of Rebate

2006-10-28T06:08:00.000-04:00

Free With the Cost of Shipping

2006-10-27T05:40:00.000-04:00

These offers are a completely different source of problems on their own because there is actually money involved. The truth behind Free With Shipping is that these companies have deals with the manufactures of these products to sell them at a promotional price or even completely free of cost.

Some of the cost may be given back to them when it comes to the cost of shipping. Sometimes these offers are nothing more than gateway offers to try and tempt you to buy more expensive items. In most cases, these freebies are of much better quality and chances are it is likely that you will receive these freebies the stock is usually rotated, replenished and tracked. These are good deals in that you get the item for free, however sometimes it can cost you quitea bit in the end so watch out.

Totally Free Stuff

2006-10-26T06:13:00.000-04:00

These offers are those that are obviously the best and most trusted form of free stuff to find on the net. This is what every single one of us who seeks freebies looks for when they search the net, and we do it because it is the opportunity to get goods and services absolutely free of charge.

I have noticed that as most of the websites become larger they offer less and less of these absolutely real freebies and they also quickly sell out to pushing less than stellar freebies that pay the site every time an item is requested (pay per click advertising).

The best freebies that you can find on the net are those that offer no compensation at all to the site. Basically how this works out is that all of the free offers these sites post were from free links that generate revenue to the web owner.

These companies are offering the web visitors a free item in exchange for valuable marketing tools such as a hold on their key demographic and psychological information that they could use as a means to gather information on your behavior and interests and they will eventually use this information to more effectively influence your buying decision.

So what this means is that in return for a free t-shirt you are providing the company with information about yourself and in some cases you are even agreeing to sign up for a newsletter that will help the company promote their goods.

You also may be forced to agree to view ads or even click on ads to obtain free merchandise which is another way for them to get some money. Unfortunately these totally free offers are also the most difficult to claim and receive.

The totally free services that the net offers are almost always paid for by advertising. This ends up being seen to their advantage because then they are able to pay you to surf is by selling advertising and giving you a small percentage of what they make in advertising revenue.

THE TRUTH ABOUT INTERNET FREEBIES

2006-10-25T03:01:00.000-04:00

When it comes to getting Internet freebies, it helps to begin your journey with knowing what these freebies are really about. You have to pay real close attention to the way that a website is advertising their freebies because you may not be getting the bargain that you are hoping for. Let’s start by looking at these first.

Buy Computer Uk

2006-09-08T12:43:00.000-04:00

Whenever you next think about buying computers, you just have to turn to this article. It is a complete resource on buying computers. Why do you think a buying computer was made? Do you have an answer to this? Well, if not, you can very well find the answer here. This isnt your Moms Ordinary Keyboard – The Five Latest Trends In Computer Keyboards There was a time when keyboards existed only on typewriters.

Laptop Computer Buying Guide

2006-08-08T14:20:00.000-04:00

Loads of know-how on buying computer found inside. buying computer is a word we come across quite regularly on radios, television and newspaper. We have now also made it accessible in article markets. Wanna Go Wireless? Five Essentials on what You Need to Make It Happen The ability to access the Internet via wireless means has become one of the top selling assets for cell phones.
Read More

Buy Computer Desktop

2006-07-07T15:29:00.000-04:00

The best place to look for mater pertaining to buying computer. With this article on buying computer, we hope to bear the fruits of labor we put in compiling this article. Let us now reap the fruits with you. We have taken the privilege of proclaiming this article to be a very informative and interesting article on buying computer. We now give you the liberty to proclaim it too. Web Cams – Big Brother Could Be Watching So you get a web cam to enhance your internet experience.
Read More

Buy Computer Speaker

2006-06-05T16:40:00.000-04:00

This article on buying computer aims at providing you with all the necessary matter you will need to understand more about buying computers. So read it well. You may have thought you knew everything about buying computer; just confirm by reading the matter that is found in the following article. Getting Graphic – Five How-tos in Choosing the Best Graphics Card For your Computer We consider that we have only touched the perimeter of information available on buying computer.
Read More

Buy Linux Computer

2006-05-12T16:19:00.000-04:00

Bet you never knew this about buying computer!The essence of a great article on buying computer is one with creativity in it. This article was written keeping this very point in mind! Floppy Facts-Three Drawbacks to Floppy Disc Floppy Drives and Floppy Disc do still exist, but in a few years, that probably wont be true. Floppy Drives are a near obsolete technology and which means they are on their way out. Remember your old 45s? Do you recall how you absolutely refused to believe that they were one day going to be dinosaurs? Now CDs are the way you listen to music.
Read More

Buy Computer Component

2006-05-08T14:05:00.000-04:00

A thorough article on what you needed to know about buying computer. Lots of effort was put in compiling this article on buying computer. However, you just have to put some effort to read it. Top Things to Look for in a Laptop Many people decide to buy a laptop computer because it offers flexibility and portability. Laptops are most suited for those who do light computer work such as surfing the internet, word processing, accounting, and to help manage bills and home organization.
Read More

Buy Computer Accessories

2006-05-05T15:27:00.000-04:00

All the explanation you needed on buying computer. An article is never complete without it�s explanation. This is why we have provided an explanation of buying computer here to complete the article. Youve earned an A+-Top PC Hardware Topics in Studying for A+ Certification Congratulations! You have already taken a huge step in your future by enrolling in an A+ Certification course. Now you just have to make sure that you pass it. Many have stood in these same shoes before and made it out the other side alive. You have chosen to get into one of the few career fields that are booming at this time. This could be your first step in the right direction.
Read More

Buying Computer Games

2006-05-02T16:01:00.000-04:00

After thorough reading and research on buying computers, we have compiled an article, which has everything that has to be known about buying computers in a single article. The subject of buying computer is a very vague one. This is the reason we have dwelled into the matter in a rather deep way to make others aware about buying computer. Don�t be surprised if you find anything unusual here about buying computer. There has been some interesting and unusual things here worth reading.
Read More

Buy Computers

2006-04-29T16:14:00.000-04:00

It was with great effort that we compiled this article on buying computers. So we would be pleased if someone like you used it for your reference on buying computers. 60) You have come to the right place to learn more about buying computer. Check up on our resources to learn all about buying computer.You have come to the right place to learn more about buying computer. Check up on our resources to learn all about buying computer.
Read More

Tips On Buying A Computer

2006-04-27T11:27:00.000-04:00

Getting all this information on buying computers was interesting. Keeping this interest in mind, did we compile this informative article on buying computers. All you needed to know, and will need to know on buying computer is found in the following article. Don�t hesitate to start reading. The Processor Procession – Intel versus AMD Processor Technology Now that we think about it, buying computer are not actually that difficult a topic to write about. Just looking at the word, ideas form in people�s minds about the meaning and usage of buying computer.
Read More

Best Buy Computers Canada

2006-04-25T18:38:00.000-04:00

Keeping your informed on various aspects of buying computer. Keep yourself occupied reading all there is to know about buying computer. This is indeed a great way of learning more about buying computer. Writing something about buying computer seemed to be something illogical in the beginning. However, with the progress of matter, it seemed logical. Matter just started pouring in, to give you this finished product.

Read More

Buy Desktop Computer

2006-04-23T03:23:00.000-04:00

Best Time To Buy Computers

2006-04-20T15:22:00.000-04:00

We hope you find all that you wanted to know about buying computer in the following page. Take all your time to utilize our resources to it?s best. We hope you find all that you wanted to know about buying computer in the following page. Take all your time to utilize our resources to it?s best. Knock out the Noise – Five Top Tips for Silencing your PC For anyone who utilizes a computer on a regular daily basis, the noise a PC makes can be loud and irritating.

Read More

Buying Home Computer

2006-04-19T14:29:00.000-04:00

This article provides all the necessary know-how on buying computer. After reading this article on buying computer, you will find that you have practically covered all there is to know about buying computer. Scan Artist – Five Top Tips in Choosing the One that Suits your Needs We have actually followed a certain pattern while writing on buying computer.

Read More

Where To Buy Computer

2006-04-17T16:26:00.000-04:00

What Computer Should I Buy

2006-04-16T14:22:00.000-04:00

Buying Computer Guide

2006-04-14T19:52:00.000-04:00

Read the detailed information on buying computers. After reading this article on buying computer, you will find that you have practically covered all there is to know about buying computer. Gig ‘Em – How to Decide Which Hard Drive Is Right For You Deciding on the appropriate hard drive is a personal decision made according to an individuals computing needs. These days, 20 gigabyte, up to 40 gig, 80 gig, 100 gig and even larger are common. When pricing hard drives, it is common to see very little price differences between smaller size drives and larger.

Read More