What's the catch? They are free, so why not order the cool freebie and be happy? The problem is there are a couple pretty significant catches.
All of these freebie offers I’m talking about have a long list of offers and you must select one or more of the offers to get your freebie. Most of the offers are things like credit card applications, trial magazine offers, book clubs, etc. Sometimes there will be a few newsletter subscriptions or other free offers on the list.
The second catch will almost guarantee that you will get a ton of junk email (spam). One of the main reasons these freebie offers exist is to harvest email address for their marketing partners.
So how can you recognize these less than free freebie offers? They almost always follow the same formula. They draw you in with a cool freebie offer at the top of the page and then have a long list of offers with checkboxes. Some of these people are getting a little more sophisticated and don’t have the long list of offers until you click on a link to request the freebie.
If you do feel you really want to request one of these freebie offers, be sure you use a disposable email address so the spam doesn’t reach your primary inbox. Also be careful about agreeing to any trial offers, book clubs etc. You need to remember to cancel these or you may be paying for subscriptions and memberships you don’t want.
My advice is to stick to the kinds of freebie offers that are on my hand selected lists. I do my best to choose only those offers without strings attached. Also remember that not all the links you find on my site are “editorial” -- I don’t choose the sponsored links and other advertising that is displayed.