OK so you've seem ads all over the internet or got spammed with offers for free iPads etc. and quite rightly you've thought scam.
Yeah that's what I thought too, now comes the bit where a spammer would tell you it's not and that it really works!
Well I'm not going to do that because the truth is that almost all of them are scams, either looking to steal credit card info, steal you identity or install malicious software on your computer and get your friends to do the same.
The way most of them work is you register for free, complete some offer and enlist your friends.
But I thought rather than totally dismissing these schemes I should investigate to see if there are any genuine ones out there.
My investigation meant that I had to be able to locate where the people running the offer were based, if the business was legitimately set up with all the required legal registrations etc. and was being run legally i.e. not a pyramid scheme.
Firstly how to spot a pyramid scheme, well if it says you get points for signing up your friends AND points for any friends they sign up then it is a pyramid scheme. Basically point are being passed up the pyramid and only the people who have got in early and are near the top of the pyramid can ever benefit and IT IS ILLEGAL.
If however you only get points from the friends your sign up then you and each person signing up are at the top of their own structure and I am told this is called cross marketing and IS LEGAL and everyone who signs up has an equal chance of success.
OK so what your wanting to know is did I find any legitimate schemes being run.
Much to my own surprise the answer was YES!
Here' the link: http://apple.freebiejeebies.co.uk/739836
The company running this are a UK Limited company and are VAT registered, all the information you need to research them is on their website, you can check it all at companies house online, and they give a no spam guarantee.
When you sign up you need to complete an offer, there are lots to choose from and they are tabbed on the website into the categories:-
All Offers
Most Popular
Betting/Gaming
Financial
Household
Free Offers
As a freeloader I naturally clicked the Free Offers tab, although the other may be worth a look.
Anyway I chose my offer and completed it with no problems and I hadn't spent a single penny.
Next I went to the refer friends section so I could sort out some referrals, and then I went to the gift section to select my gift.
This section gives you a list of predefined gifts and tells you how many referrals you need for each of them i.e.:-
iPod Touch 8GB - 10 referrals
iPad 2 Wifi - 16GB - 17 referrals
The new iPad - 16GB - 20 referrals
iPhone 4 - 8GB Sim Free - 22 referrals
The new iPad - 64GB - 28 referrals
Mac mini - 2.3 Ghz - 27 referrals
iMac - 21.5 inch 2.5GHz Intel Core i5 - 46 referrals
Macbook Pro - 13-inch: 2.4GHz - 46 referrals
You can also do CUSTOM GIFTS if there's nothing there that already take you fancy. So you want a PS3/XBOX/TABLET instead - just ask.
Or even better you can GET MONEY/CASH or amazon vouchers with as little as 2 referrals (£17 for each referral) - paid into your bank or paypal.
So what are you waiting for go to http://apple.freebiejeebies.co.uk/739836 NOW!
Monday, 9 April 2012
Your opinion counts!
Yes your opinion counts - and can make you money.
I realised that information is valuable.
Too many people seem to be giving valuable information about themselves away for free on social networking sites when there are companies out there who will pay hard cash for it.
Now there are quite a few of them around and I've tried most of them, and most of them suck!
A lot of them offer gifts/prizes or entries into competitions for prizes.
Maybe I am just unlucky, but most of these have all turned out to be a waste of time.
That doesn't mean they are all pointless.
So here is my first recommendation that will actually EARN YOU MONEY!
https://labs.yougov.co.uk/refer/6i0ylm15RqN_bO6SMFkTXQ/
Most of you will already have heard of Yougov from the news and election polls.
Well they do surveys on lots of things and you get points for completing these surveys.
In my experience you get between 25 and 250 points for each survey depending on the length of the survey and how specialised the survey is.
5000 point is equal to £50 - so that's 20 surveys at 250 points each.
If I remember correctly, when you sign up you complete some surveys for your profile so they can target surveys more accurately and you get points for these as well and it gets you off to a good start toward your first £50.
How well this works for you is going to depend on how well you fit into the categories they are surveying, so your age, location etc. will all make a difference.
You also get the option to use your points to enter draws for larger prizes and £2500, but I avoid these - I want certainties, but you may want to do it for fun if that's your sort of thing.
So go for it. OK it's not quite free money, but getting paid to bash your least favorite politician can be good fun and quite satisfying.
I realised that information is valuable.
Too many people seem to be giving valuable information about themselves away for free on social networking sites when there are companies out there who will pay hard cash for it.
Now there are quite a few of them around and I've tried most of them, and most of them suck!
A lot of them offer gifts/prizes or entries into competitions for prizes.
Maybe I am just unlucky, but most of these have all turned out to be a waste of time.
That doesn't mean they are all pointless.
So here is my first recommendation that will actually EARN YOU MONEY!
https://labs.yougov.co.uk/refer/6i0ylm15RqN_bO6SMFkTXQ/
Most of you will already have heard of Yougov from the news and election polls.
Well they do surveys on lots of things and you get points for completing these surveys.
In my experience you get between 25 and 250 points for each survey depending on the length of the survey and how specialised the survey is.
5000 point is equal to £50 - so that's 20 surveys at 250 points each.
If I remember correctly, when you sign up you complete some surveys for your profile so they can target surveys more accurately and you get points for these as well and it gets you off to a good start toward your first £50.
How well this works for you is going to depend on how well you fit into the categories they are surveying, so your age, location etc. will all make a difference.
You also get the option to use your points to enter draws for larger prizes and £2500, but I avoid these - I want certainties, but you may want to do it for fun if that's your sort of thing.
So go for it. OK it's not quite free money, but getting paid to bash your least favorite politician can be good fun and quite satisfying.
Argh! THE TV BLEW UP!!!
Yep this really did happen.
I get the Nintendo Wii I had won through the post in nice time for Christmas and the TV dies 2 weeks before the big day.
Well that's going to ruin Christmas day - here kids a nice new Nintendo Wii to look at, sorry no TV to play it on.
No money, so what did I do - FREECYCLE.
So I signed up to my local freecycle and looked through the posts each day.
On day 3 someones giving away a TV - better than the one that died!
So I send them a message explaining my predicament and he reply that he's be delighted for me to have his old TV - problem solved.
Now some people on freecycle, or the more modern freegle, seem to have a disliking for people who only receive item and don't give. I do sort of understand their position even if I don't agree with it.
The thing is, not everyone has stuff to give away, and the main reason for giving is to reduce what goes to landfill and help the environment.
On top of that you are often saving people time and even money disposing of big or heavy items.
It does mean you will have to meet the person you are collecting something from and some may find this awkward.
I have to say it has never been awkward for me because all the people I have met have been very nice and indeed grateful that their old stuff is not just getting dumped and gets a new lease of life.
So far I have been given the TV, a PC complete with monitor, keyboard and mouse, a 1930's art deco wardrobe, a mountain bike and a printer. My sister even got a car!
Everything has been in good condition and I think it benefits everyone, the giver, the receiver and the environment.
I would just say don't abuse it. I have heard of people looking for things for free to sell on ebay etc.
In my experience this would rarely work or be worth the hassle. Most items are being given away because they no longer have much monitory value.
I get the Nintendo Wii I had won through the post in nice time for Christmas and the TV dies 2 weeks before the big day.
Well that's going to ruin Christmas day - here kids a nice new Nintendo Wii to look at, sorry no TV to play it on.
No money, so what did I do - FREECYCLE.
So I signed up to my local freecycle and looked through the posts each day.
On day 3 someones giving away a TV - better than the one that died!
So I send them a message explaining my predicament and he reply that he's be delighted for me to have his old TV - problem solved.
Now some people on freecycle, or the more modern freegle, seem to have a disliking for people who only receive item and don't give. I do sort of understand their position even if I don't agree with it.
The thing is, not everyone has stuff to give away, and the main reason for giving is to reduce what goes to landfill and help the environment.
On top of that you are often saving people time and even money disposing of big or heavy items.
It does mean you will have to meet the person you are collecting something from and some may find this awkward.
I have to say it has never been awkward for me because all the people I have met have been very nice and indeed grateful that their old stuff is not just getting dumped and gets a new lease of life.
So far I have been given the TV, a PC complete with monitor, keyboard and mouse, a 1930's art deco wardrobe, a mountain bike and a printer. My sister even got a car!
Everything has been in good condition and I think it benefits everyone, the giver, the receiver and the environment.
I would just say don't abuse it. I have heard of people looking for things for free to sell on ebay etc.
In my experience this would rarely work or be worth the hassle. Most items are being given away because they no longer have much monitory value.
The 1st internet freebie
OK so you've got the picture, Christmas approaching, no money and kids to keep happy.
Not being an internet free loading expert at this time I naturally look for competitions.
Now this isn't going to be of much use to anyone now as the competitions I went for are no longer run.
It was a movie quiz run by Channel 4/Film 4.
Anyway, basically I am a bit of a movie fanatic and was able to win a Nintendo Wii, games, DVDs and more on this quiz, but they axed it :(
The important lesson from this is, if you are very knowledgeable in a specific subject then look for competitions/quizzes on that topic.
OK, I admit this isn't the greatest tip to start off with, an there are much easier options as I have discovered, but I am just filling the history which led to me getting thousand of pounds worth of stuff for free.
SO KEEP READING
Not being an internet free loading expert at this time I naturally look for competitions.
Now this isn't going to be of much use to anyone now as the competitions I went for are no longer run.
It was a movie quiz run by Channel 4/Film 4.
Anyway, basically I am a bit of a movie fanatic and was able to win a Nintendo Wii, games, DVDs and more on this quiz, but they axed it :(
The important lesson from this is, if you are very knowledgeable in a specific subject then look for competitions/quizzes on that topic.
OK, I admit this isn't the greatest tip to start off with, an there are much easier options as I have discovered, but I am just filling the history which led to me getting thousand of pounds worth of stuff for free.
SO KEEP READING
Sunday, 8 April 2012
How I became an Internet free loader
OK so picture the scenario, my employer is going down the tubes, losing customers every week.
So the workers are standing around doing nothing waiting for work to come in, only it doesn't.
Now none of us are stupid and we all know this can't continue, so do we wait for the inevitable or do we jump ship.
I jumped ship to a rival company.
Now this seemed like a good move. I got a pay rise and the company I jumped to was getting most of the work my previous employer had lost.
Anyway, wind time forward a little.
I suffer a period of ill health and my new employers merge with my old employers and there is job duplication - so there will be job losses.
Given the amount of time I have had off through illness (about 3/4 of the year on full pay), I don't reckon my chances of surviving this cull are very good.
So I decide to take early retirement and go to university.
So there I am, a mature student at university with wife and kids and a small redundancy check that is quickly running out.
I could have got a part time job, but that wouldn't have worked because I was still ill - it would have killed me and being a student was very easy for me.
Now we are just about surviving on the student loans but no money for the kids Christmas presents.
And that's when I started seeing what we could get for free, just to get the kids some presents.
No charity mind you, or begging, or lying. All just from people who wanted to give stuff and money away.
It worked and I intend to share the thing I found in this blog to help others.
Note I am in the UK, so I will focus on things UK resident can get for free, but some will be international or have equivalents in other countries.
And if you know of anything I don't mention let me know and I will check it out, but don't spam me because I only intend to cover things that I have personally tried and know to be genuine.
So the workers are standing around doing nothing waiting for work to come in, only it doesn't.
Now none of us are stupid and we all know this can't continue, so do we wait for the inevitable or do we jump ship.
I jumped ship to a rival company.
Now this seemed like a good move. I got a pay rise and the company I jumped to was getting most of the work my previous employer had lost.
Anyway, wind time forward a little.
I suffer a period of ill health and my new employers merge with my old employers and there is job duplication - so there will be job losses.
Given the amount of time I have had off through illness (about 3/4 of the year on full pay), I don't reckon my chances of surviving this cull are very good.
So I decide to take early retirement and go to university.
So there I am, a mature student at university with wife and kids and a small redundancy check that is quickly running out.
I could have got a part time job, but that wouldn't have worked because I was still ill - it would have killed me and being a student was very easy for me.
Now we are just about surviving on the student loans but no money for the kids Christmas presents.
And that's when I started seeing what we could get for free, just to get the kids some presents.
No charity mind you, or begging, or lying. All just from people who wanted to give stuff and money away.
It worked and I intend to share the thing I found in this blog to help others.
Note I am in the UK, so I will focus on things UK resident can get for free, but some will be international or have equivalents in other countries.
And if you know of anything I don't mention let me know and I will check it out, but don't spam me because I only intend to cover things that I have personally tried and know to be genuine.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)