Featured Post #1

And Now, On A Completely Different Subject

Does Your Dog Hate It When You Leave Him By Himself? Reprinted with permission from www.OnlineShoppingBargains.net. Here’s What I Do . . . When my dog was a puppy, I was very concerned about him every time I had to leave him alone. He had the saddest look on his cute little face as I [...]

Head FOD | August 5th, 2010 | Continued

Featured Post #2

Reviewing the Nomenclature – Part III

Lest we forget . . . Free offers on the internet are like free money from the government, neither is ever really free and someone somewhere is going to have to pay something. Stop us if you’ve heard this before (hopefully here) but the main incentive (giveaway) item that attracted you to the free offer [...]

Head FOD | June 8th, 2010 | Continued

Featured Post #3

Reviewing the Nomenclature – Part II

Alright class, let’s go over some of the things we may have forgotten about Free Offer (Participation Required) sites.        ” This is a good book.” – Emily Litella Every offer on the pages of an FO site is a banner (ad image) that links you to the web site of the brand name company making their [...]

Head FOD | June 5th, 2010 | Continued

Featured Post #4

Is it Time to Review the Nomenclature?

. Just to reduce confusion, the FO esoterica needs to be addressed from time to time. All of the terms are found in the FOD Glossary next door in the main FreeOfferDetective.com website, but a quick review is always helpful. The Free Offer (FO) sites are web pages owned and maintained by internet marketers who [...]

Head FOD | May 7th, 2010 | Continued

Featured Post #5

Genesis: Free Offer Detective .com

The whole idea behind the creation of www.FreeOfferDetective.com was to provide solid, actionable information to the consumer so they would be in control of the decision to participate in a particular site or not.

Head FOD | April 30th, 2010 | Continued

  • Featured Posts:
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Recent Posts:

post thumbnail

Genesis: Free Offer Detective .com


 . 

 

How many years has it been?

Before there was even a FreeOfferDetective.com there was just a group of internet marketers that thought the best way to approach bargain hunting on the web was to have an educated clientele base. 

Great, where do they get their diplomas? 

No, not that kind of education!  The average bargain hunter needs an education based on relevant information.  So, okay, answer these two questions about ‘relevant information’:

  • what would it look like?
  • how would it be provided to the bargain-hunting internet user?

Wow, you ask a lot of questions for someone from New Jersey.  (Are we dating ourselves with that line from Roseanne Rosanadana?)

But, when the marketers stopped to give those questions some thought, the consensus was that the method of providing the information was likely going to be a lot easier than deciding the form it would take. 

Rule #1

To their credit the group started by putting themselves in the place of internet consumers, and they began their research with that idea foremost.  They found that there was certainly a lot of free stuff (the best kind of bargains!).  But there was one genre of ‘free stuff’ that caught their eye(s) almost immediately.  These were the “free rewards” sites that required certain consumer interactions in order to “qualify” for the free items. 

These sites certainly had free stuff, but it was more than samples, or coupons, or sweepstakes.  It was a laptop, or a $1,000 gift card.  It was always very attractive, in-demand items that could easily have been sold for a “deep discount” and would still have had plenty of interested customers. 

But, free?  No way.

“How can they do that and still stay in business?” the group asked themselves. 

Formulating strategy

And the rest, as they say, is history.  The researchers started looking into the offers from the standpoint of consumers; as if they were potential participants—and, to a certain extent they were.  As they explored deeper into these sites, they began to discover that there was, in fact, a dollar offset from “free” but, while it was often reasonable, it never was actually zero.  But, they also found that with a little strategy (and timing), some good bargains could be found. 

Voila: better informed consumer

This “strategy participation” is the information that would educate the online bargain hunter.  Solid, actionable information could be placed into the hands of the consumer, and that would keep them in control of the decision to participate in a particular site or not. 

The group then found that the process for gathering this information felt as if they were detectives on various cases.  It seemed to be right out of the old movies based on the Hammett and Chandler mysteries.  (There we go dating ourselves again.)  And that sleuthing provided the theme and the name of their new informational web site with review articles on the offers.

Post-hibernation, Focus is Unchanged

We are happy to say that, following our brief hiatus, what you’ve read above is the same goal and steadfast endgame that we’ve always had: an informed consumer!

Head FOD

FreeOfferDetective.com

April 30th, 2010 | Head FOD | 0 comments | Continued
post thumbnail

And Now, On A Completely Different Subject



Does Your Dog Hate It When
You Leave Him By Himself?

Reprinted with permission from www.OnlineShoppingBargains.net.

Here’s What I Do . . .
When my dog was a puppy, I was very concerned about him every time I had to leave him alone. He had the saddest look on his cute little face as I left the house and it was absolutely gut wrenching to walk out the door and leave him there. I heard about a method that was supposed to help and decided to try it out.

I took one or two of his favorite dog treats and put them in a small brown paper lunch bag. As I walked out the door, I set the lunch bag down and left. It didn’t take him too long to smell the bag and rip into it to get the treats.

Don’t Forget The Process

The important thing is not to give the dog the bag until the moment you leave. Now, if you have a small dog, the bag probably won’t be necessary, just leave him a treat that will take a little while to enjoy. The idea is to replace a potentially sad event with a very happy one. (And, occupying his attention until you’ve safely left the premises.)

Instead of the dog being sad or upset when you leave, they’ll begin to look at you as if to say, “Don’t you have somewhere to go, and where’s my treat bag?” It really works. The other advantage is that you won’t have a dog that is upset and looking for mischief once you are out of the house. Instead of returning to shredded drapes or damaged furniture, you just have to dispose of a few little pieces of shredded paper bag.

Good Results

I recommended this method to some of my skeptical friends and they were astonished at how well and how quickly a sad moment changed to a happy one for them and their dogs. It really isn’t necessary to give the dog anything extravagant when you leave; it is just intended as a “diversion” to keep him occupied until you are out of his sight.

Get a Free Dog eBook

Also, why don’t you help out with creating a new eBook about dogs. Details can be found at www.YourPetHealthInfo.com. Get the free video link and then fill out the survey to get a free eBook.

August 5th, 2010 | Head FOD | 0 comments | Continued
post thumbnail

Reviewing the Nomenclature – Part III



Lest we forget . . .

Free offers on the internet are like free money from the government, neither is ever really free and someone somewhere is going to have to pay something.

Stop us if you’ve heard this before (hopefully here) but the main incentive (giveaway) item that attracted you to the free offer sites will cost you nothing.  But, in order to obtain this incentive item, you will be required to participate in a specified number of product offers over the three selection pages (silver/gold/platinum) of the site.  Such participation will require you to spend money.  Here are the last of the nomenclature items that we’re reviewing:

  1. Most Risk Free Trial (RFT) offers are called negative option transactions, meaning that, upon completion of the initial trial period, unless you cancel the order, you will automatically be sent a periodic supply of the product you originally sampled, and you will be charged for these products.  
  2. This is why we continually stress that shoppers always read the “Terms and Conditions” (often called the “Gift Rules” or something similar) of each ad/offer as well as for the entire free offer site.  This is where the “fine print” is found which will spell out the transaction details.  For example, some offers require that you “bring a friend” who must also register and complete a set of selection pages just like you did, in order to qualify for the giveaway incentive item.  Other offers specify a time limit within which all transactions must be completed. 

Friends, there are some amazing items that are given away at these free offer sites, but you can’t be nonchalant when shopping at them.  They’re not like your favorite neighborhood dollar store.  You must use all of your carefully developed shopping skills and your finely honed sense of cautious skepticism when dealing with them.  Don’t be afraid of them, but don’t jump into them without doing some homework. 

We encourage everyone to review the glossary page next door at FreeOfferDetective.com.

Here’s Wishing You the Best of Bargains,

Head FOD
www.FreeOfferDetective.com

June 8th, 2010 | Head FOD | 0 comments | Continued
post thumbnail

Reviewing the Nomenclature – Part II


Alright class, let’s go over some of the things we may have forgotten about Free Offer (Participation Required) sites. 

      ” This is a good book.” – Emily Litella
  1. Every offer on the pages of an FO site is a banner (ad image) that links you to the web site of the brand name company making their product available either by trial offer or outright sale.  Remember, these are the clients of the marketing company that owns the site.  They pay the site owner to generate traffic to their ad images and know nothing of the incentive item that attracts visitors to the site. 
  2. Not every incentive gift (“headliner”) item is a bargain compared to what your costs for the selected product offers are.   It will still cost you nothing because it is being offered by the site owner when you complete the required participation in a number of  product banner ads over the three pages (they will cost you, but the main item won’t). 
  3. Risk Free Trials (RFTs) allow you to try a product for a specified period of time if you’ll pay the account start-up costs (a small bookkeeping fee or the shipping and handling charges, or both).   This will require your credit card information.

None of the terms we use are that difficult, but they are specific to the free offer site milieu.  We encourage everyone to review the glossary page next door at FreeOfferDetective.com.

Here’s Wishing You the Best of Bargains,

Head FOD
www.FreeOfferDetective.com

June 5th, 2010 | Head FOD | 0 comments | Continued
post thumbnail

Is it Time to Review the Nomenclature?


.


Just to reduce confusion, the FO esoterica needs to be addressed from time to time. All of the terms are found in the FOD Glossary next door in the main FreeOfferDetective.com website, but a quick review is always helpful.

The Free Offer (FO) sites are web pages owned and maintained by internet marketers who showcase the various products of their clients who have paid the marketers for a certain volume of traffic to be introduced to the clients’ product ad banners displayed on the FO site pages. In order to attract the traffic, the marketers offer a high-value “headliner” incentive item (Gift Card, Laptop, etc.), which will be free to participants if they accept and participate in a qualifying number of the clients’ offers. Such participation will cost the participants some amount for, at minimum, shipping and handling to receive the product.

Well, then how can they say that the Offer is Free?


Simple. Because there are two types of offers—the clients’ product offers (for sale) and the site owners’ giveaway offer (for free if you qualify for it by participating in the required number of client offers). The incentive item which “headlines” the FO site front page has nothing to do with the client ad/banners found on the Silver/Gold/Platinum presentation pages within the site.

In their Terms and Conditions page, the site owners specifically emphasize that their clients have no knowledge of the main incentive item, its purchase, or its disposition. They also mention that the national brand name company whose logo appears on the incentive item being offered, likewise has no knowledge that their item is being used as an FO attraction.

FO Bottom Line


So, after completing the requisite number of client offers, and the results are verified, participants will receive the main incentive item for no cost, per se. However, during the process of qualifying for the free item, there will have been a monetary outlay at the various ads selected by the individual participants. The aim of participants should be to minimize the outlays while still qualifying for the main incentive. The researchers at FreeOfferDetective.com have already done this and show their results in the review articles written about the offers in which they participated.

This is what makes the information at FreeOfferDetective.com so valuable.

Regards,

Head FOD

May 7th, 2010 | Head FOD | 4 comments | Continued
post thumbnail

What a scary word that is: “free”


 

The Distinction Is Pretty Subtle

We’re sorry.  It’s probably our fault.

Maybe we haven’t drawn the distinction clearly enough, but there is still some confusion about that term “free” when it comes to the Free Offer (FO) giveaway sites. 

And, that’s because sometimes you can’t tell the players without a program.

“The Secretary Will Disavow any Knowledge…”

Right up front, the FO web site owners tell you that the offering vendors on the three selection pages have nothing to do with the main incentive item, its purchase, or its disposition. That’s strictly handled by the marketers who own the web site. They also tell you that the national brand name company whose logo is on the incentive item being offered likewise has no knowledge that their item is being used as an FO attraction.

Yes, You Will Leave Money at the Website…But That Doesn’t Count

All the web site owners are telling you is, in order to get the main incentive item that “headlines” their front page, you will need to participate in a number of offers made by their clients on the silver/gold/platinum selection pages. And yes, participating in those offers will cost you some cash. But, that’s different. Your credit card will be lighter than when you first came onto their web site, but since they only control the incentive item and not the individual ad/offers, whatever you spend on those doesn’t make the main item less free.  Are we together, so far, Bargain Seekers?

So, How Cheaply Can You Still Arrive at the Prize?

What you should really take a look at is how much of a monetary trade-off will you have to make in order to achieve the incentive item. In other words, how cheaply can you get away with qualifying for said item? And guess what? That’s what the review articles at FreeOfferDetective.com will show you on the selected sites that they research.

August 25th, 2009 | Head FOD | 0 comments | Continued
post thumbnail

Free Offer, New Wrinkle


 

Some of the free offer sites are rolling out a “late inning” enticement to get you into the second tier section of their sites.  The second tier is another set of three selection pages just like the first ones (identical layout except for the survey pages—and, you’re already registered). 

To get you into that second tier of pages, some sites are giving you another major incentive reward as a “fourteenth selection.”  (We’re just calling it the “fourteenth selection” since the normal FO setup is a 2-2-9 selection program, and, if you go into the second tier of selection pages, the first choice you make there will be your fourteenth. 

Anyway, this means you’ll end up with three major giveaway items: this bonus 14th selection and the main item in each of the first and second tier layouts.  But, the prize for the fourteenth selection is contingent on successfully completing the entire second tier offers.  So, you’ll end up with either three prizes or just one.

August 21st, 2009 | Head FOD | 0 comments | Continued
post thumbnail

Layout of the Typical Free Offer Site


 

A Shopping Drama in Three Acts 

Most free offer (FO) sites present their wares in three stages:

  • The Preliminaries
  • The “Money Pages”
  • The Bonus Round 

Act One – Introduction

The preliminaries include the front page display of the “headliner” incentive item which attracted your attention in the first place.  You will receive this item for free if you qualify for it by participating in a required number of ad/offer banners on the three selection pages that follow.  Said participation will not be free, which is a bone of contention for the uninitiated who don’t realize that the offer of the free incentive item is being made by the web site owner, NOT by their individual clients who rent space on that web site to advertise their products for sale. 

 

Then comes the registration form where you provide an email address and your personal demographic information. After registering, you will proceed through several “survey” pages where you may optionally fill out forms that allow you to garner some side benefits.  These may be specific product brand information or some small giveaway item.  When you arrive at these pages, you will find the entry fields already pre-populated with your personal information and, whether you choose to participate in the survey or not, you will likely receive follow-up e-mails and perhaps even correspondence to your registered address. 

 

Act Two – Where the Rubber Meets the Road

The “money pages” are the focal point of the free offer site and will display a cornucopia of ad/offer banners from the individual brand name companies doing the advertizing on the FO site.  Over the three silver/gold/platinum selection pages there may be as many as 150 ad banners from which to choose.  As mentioned earlier, your choices on these pages will cost money.  And, you must make a specified number of choices per page—usually 2 on each of the first two pages and approximately 9 choices on the last page. 

Act Three – Free Offer Redux

It is becoming increasingly common for free offer sites to provide another complete set of selection pages for you to obtain another incentive giveaway item.  These bonus pages, which are not present on all FO sites, allow you to choose from a list of offered items, then repeat the selection process over another set of silver/gold/platinum pages. 

You will find that although incentive items offered by individual FO sites vary in type and value, the three-part layout of their web pages seem to be a fairly standard design.

August 17th, 2009 | Head FOD | 0 comments | Continued
post thumbnail

Categories of Free Offers


 

Two From Column A

Free Offer sites are web locations where you can obtain incentive items such as laptops or major gift cards if you participate in a number of the presented offers from selected advertisers.

There are two types of offers on these sites: the risk free trial (RFT) and the outright sale, including subscriptions.

Risk Free Trial

As the name implies, the RFT is a way for you to try out a product for a trial period. For this trial you pay only the account start-up costs, usually a small bookkeeping fee, or the shipping and handling charges, or both. This is why Risk Free Trials are also known as “Free plus” offers, meaning Free Plus Shipping or Free Plus S&H. Most health and beauty offers are RFTs. At the expiration of the trial period, you become enrolled in a membership program that automatically sends you the product at regular intervals and for which you pay a special membership price. Memberships continue until cancelled.  

 

Outright Sale

Just what it says. These are plain old “buy this product” offers, and many are at reduced pricing. These offers include book clubs, DVD/movie clubs, and straight subscriptions such as satellite TV services, monitored alarm systems, web hosting deals, and the credit monitoring reports. These are all offers which declare the associated costs at the time of sale. In other words, you will know you need to buy X number of books/DVDs over the next 2 years and the prices start at $14.95, etc. Or, you know what the monthly fee for the satellite service will be and that you’ll have to purchase a dish antenna.

These are in contrast to the RFTs where the shipping charges vary depending upon where you live, and the post-trial membership fees are usually found in the offer’s fine print. Nothing wrong with that, certainly, but that is a distinction separating the two categories of offers.


Although acknowledged and explained by the researchers at FreeOfferDetective.com, such membership programs—and their costs—are NOT taken into account when considering the dollar offset between “free” and what the main incentive item will actually cost. The FOD review articles concentrate only on finding the cheapest way to qualify for the main incentive item, not on what ancillary costs may be incurred on the way.

Here’s wishing you the Best of Bargains,

Head FOD

FreeOfferDetective.com

July 11th, 2009 | Head FOD | 0 comments | Continued
post thumbnail

Is That “Free” Offer Really Free?


 

Dare We Say It? Free Offers Are Not Free!

If that statement is a shocking truth to some people, well…then, they just haven’t been paying attention.  Consumer edification is one of the reasons why we’ve developed this little review web site.  (Look, there’s a commercial message before we even get out of the first paragraph!) 

But, seriously, why would these offers really be free—meaning without cost?  Just because they say they are?  We refuse to believe that the most discriminating shoppers in the world have become that gullible.  And, they haven’t, of course.

Why Would Valuable Items Be Offered Totally Free?

The most casual of observers, if they’re honest with themselves, just have to know that the incentive items used by free offer sites (laptop, $1,000 gift card, airline tickets, etc.) couldn’t actually be free since they all have relatively substantial (i.e., not cheap) dollar values.  Surely we haven’t become that much of a something-for-nothing society.  At least, not yet in the marketplace.   

“Well then,” some would say, “they should be prevented from using the term ‘free.’ ” 

Really? And who will enforce that rule, the government?  Oh, please!

The Other “Free”

The free marketplace doesn’t need any more government meddl… er…uh… monitoring than it already has.  And that’s another reason why this web site has come into existence…to help keep the free marketplace just that way. Free. Not Utopian, certainly, just Unfettered—which is yet another definition of the word.  Laissez-faire as our libertarian friends would say.  (Those are the real kinds of ‘free’ to believe in.) 

What would be infinitely more useful than more government oversight is a well-informed consumer base that is kept aware of the nuances of online advertising and marketing.  Which, amazingly enough, brings us back to the original reason for FreeOfferDetective.com.  We want people to know more about these free offer sites so they can be better informed in order to base their decisions to participate (or not) on their freedom of choice rather than on what somebody says.

Please Join Us To Make Us Better

We’d certainly like to hear from others who have any kind of opinion or comment about these free offer sites.  Or on anything else you’d care to talk about in the vein of internet marketing or online bargain hunting.  (We know this opening post didn’t put a smile on everyone’s face. Let’s hear from you.) We’re brand new and can make new categories of posts up in the yellow menu bar.  Come grow and learn with us. Subscribe now. 

Here’s wishing you the Best of Bargains,

Head FOD
FreeOfferDetective.com
 

 

 

July 6th, 2009 | Head FOD | 0 comments | Continued