Let's face it, not all people are good. I know
what you must be thinking, "What a pesimistic person
you are!" However, there are some facts of life we
all just have to deal with. There are people out
there who want to scam you, spam you, or do whatever
they can so that they can make a profit.

I've been in the internet world for many years.
I've learned gradually over time how to tell the
difference between when something's true and when
it's not. Here's a run-down of things to watch for
on the 'net when signing up for free stuff.

*!*! WEB SITE ADDRESS *!*!
If you're signing up for a freebie that's
located on a page with the address of
http://www.geocities.com/~bugger/freestuff/sign-up/candle.html,
chances are you're wasting your time. If they
can't even afford to buy their own domain name,
how can they afford to produce and ship thousands
of freebies?

*!*! WEB SITE DESIGN *!*!
This is just my personal opinion (of course,
this whole article is) and you many not agree with
me. When a page has no design or layout or color,
but just some text in a really big font saying
"SIGN UP NOW!!", the freebie doesn't look too
promising or reliable. It seems to me as though
they've slapped a bunch of text on the page in
two seconds, and they are trying to get your e-mail
address so they can spam you.

*!*! COMPANY NAME *!*!
I look for this one a lot. If it's a brand
name such as Revlon, Pantene, Sprite, Yoo-Hoo,
etc.., I usually quickly sign up for the offer.
These companies are very reliable and trustworthy,
and would almost never try and scam you. If it's
a company name you've never heard of, well that
doesn't mean they're bad people. It just means
you should sign up with caution.

*!*! LENGTH OF AVAILABILITY *!*!
As I see it, the longer that freebie is out on
the market, the less chance you'll see it in your
mailbox. A good, quality freebie is uaully in high
demand with thousands upon thousands of requests
per day. How can a company afford to spend so much
money? They only can to a certain extent.

For example, the typical length for a free
t-shirt offer to be available is 1-2 weeks. By
two weeks, the company has probably gotten over
50,000 requests. Now, if they keep up at this pace,
they'll be bankrupt in a month. That's why the offer
only lasts a week; so they can afford it. Any
longer means the company probably isn't sending
anything out. Hence, they're scamming you just to
get some information from you.

I'm not stating that everything I've said
applies 100% to every freebie or company. There
are ALWAYS exceptions. Tons of free offers are out
there on the internet. You've just got to have
a watchful eye.



About the Author
Nicole Seekely is the publisher of The Panda
Pages Weekly e-zine. You can contact her at
gymaholic7@pandapages.f2s.com Also, visit her
website at http://www.pandapages.f2s.com for
freebies, cool sites, and more. To
subscribe to her e-zine send an e-mail to
thepandapages-subscribe@topica.com