Philosphical Musing on "Free Stuff".

[Evan Cusick]

This is post is over-long but I have edited as best I can.


Hello My name is Evan I just signed up to this site. I was just curious as to whether you think this whole "Freebiejebbies" thing is worth. I signed up from an email banner and thought that it was something you could do on your own [like a reward point scheme], after doing an offer I was fairly disheartened by the fact that you also have to get "friends " to sign up through your referral. Alas I have no friends and my soul was instantly crushed under the weight of despair that did ensnare me. I then hopped onto exceem to check out this "Free community" and was intrigued by the marketing "sub-culture" that exists.

I should point out firstly that I am in no may whatsoever interested in doing this whole freebie trading stuff in the long term. I have been on "Maximiles" reward points scheme and thoroughly exhumed its free offers to my on gain and decided It was probably not really worth the time money and effort but I wasn't complaining either. I am wondering if firstly it is worth all the effort you go to to get "free stuff". I have browsed through some of the websites and they are incredibly elaborate and well constructed [credit where credit is due]. I would not have the time nor ability to design a website at that level of quality. Secondly is it really worth all the effort working as basically a part-time marketing-person for the Freebiejeebies website. It can't be the most exhilarating form of "moonlighting" or part time job. I am sure in the initial gold rush many people have done well out of freebiejeebies, but I think I have missed the boat.

Also, there is a small often overlooked matter with these sorts of incentive schemes. Namely that the things you get are rarely "exclusive" or rare or special and erm.. why would a rational person [if such a thing exists] not just buy the thing anyway as none of the stuff they give away is really that expensive in "relative" terms [even ipads are only 400 pounds or an xbox <£200]. I can't imagine asking any friends to "green" me on this website when I say "ya, you sign up to this and then take an offer you see lovefilm is free". They will either say " Like I am going to go to all this effort for you to get free stuff, Feck off mate" or "Why not just buy the bloody thing like a normal person". Tact and subtly aren't common social devices employed in conversation in Northern Ireland.

There is also the option of simple economics which is more appealing to me as it involves numbers and using people to your own gain. Namely that I could get 10 people and hire them for £5 and get them to use my referral and green me. The only problem is that given the time money and effort involved I am back to square one, namely why not just buy the thing if I want it so badly [which I don't anyway I am more interested in the economic "manipulation" of these free offer websites].
In the long term this is I would find this option economically appealing and could be used to give a healthy profit margin. However, I am again stuck with the problem that I have no friends in the first place. Also I find one other slight flaw with this plan to be a successful, namely the rate of market growth and market saturation.

I will have an unlimited catchment when I start to get my greens. Say I give out £50 to 10 willing volunteers and get 10 greens. I now have to find 10 more willing volunteers. It is not hard to see that my potential market will be saturated quite rapidly especially considering it is only one person per household. Also, another conceptual flaw in this is related again to the missing the boat analogy. Surely the types of people who would be prepared to do this sort of thing will have already done this sort of thing. Given the very limited amount of free or reasonable "offers" from freebiejeebies or the 100 other free offer sites like it there is quite a high likely hood that a person will have already utilised the offers available.

In short I am not sure this whole "free offers" thing can conceptually work at least not in the long term unless your'e Charlie sheen and have 1 million + twitter followers or something. Also, I fail to get exciting at the concept of "free" stuff like the fat ladies in the adverts do.

If you bother reading this, thanks. Any thoughts?

[LcLive]

Originally Posted by Evan Cusick

This is post is over-long but I have edited as best I can.


Hello My name is Evan I just signed up to this site. I was just curious as to whether you think this whole "Freebiejebbies" thing is worth. I signed up from an email banner and thought that it was something you could do on your own [like a reward point scheme], after doing an offer I was fairly disheartened by the fact that you also have to get "friends " to sign up through your referral. Alas I have no friends and my soul was instantly crushed under the weight of despair that did ensnare me. I then hopped onto exceem to check out this "Free community" and was intrigued by the marketing "sub-culture" that exists.

I should point out firstly that I am in no may whatsoever interested in doing this whole freebie trading stuff in the long term. I have been on "Maximiles" reward points scheme and thoroughly exhumed its free offers to my on gain and decided It was probably not really worth the time money and effort but I wasn't complaining either. I am wondering if firstly it is worth all the effort you go to to get "free stuff". I have browsed through some of the websites and they are incredibly elaborate and well constructed [credit where credit is due]. I would not have the time nor ability to design a website at that level of quality. Secondly is it really worth all the effort working as basically a part-time marketing-person for the Freebiejeebies website. It can't be the most exhilarating form of "moonlighting" or part time job. I am sure in the initial gold rush many people have done well out of freebiejeebies, but I think I have missed the boat.

Also, there is a small often overlooked matter with these sorts of incentive schemes. Namely that the things you get are rarely "exclusive" or rare or special and erm.. why would a rational person [if such a thing exists] not just buy the thing anyway as none of the stuff they give away is really that expensive in "relative" terms [even ipads are only 400 pounds or an xbox <£200]. I can't imagine asking any friends to "green" me on this website when I say "ya, you sign up to this and then take an offer you see lovefilm is free". They will either say " Like I am going to go to all this effort for you to get free stuff, Feck off mate" or "Why not just buy the bloody thing like a normal person". Tact and subtly aren't common social devices employed in conversation in Northern Ireland.

There is also the option of simple economics which is more appealing to me as it involves numbers and using people to your own gain. Namely that I could get 10 people and hire them for £5 and get them to use my referral and green me. The only problem is that given the time money and effort involved I am back to square one, namely why not just buy the thing if I want it so badly [which I don't anyway I am more interested in the economic "manipulation" of these free offer websites].
In the long term this is I would find this option economically appealing and could be used to give a healthy profit margin. However, I am again stuck with the problem that I have no friends in the first place. Also I find one other slight flaw with this plan to be a successful, namely the rate of market growth and market saturation.

I will have an unlimited catchment when I start to get my greens. Say I give out £50 to 10 willing volunteers and get 10 greens. I now have to find 10 more willing volunteers. It is not hard to see that my potential market will be saturated quite rapidly especially considering it is only one person per household. Also, another conceptual flaw in this is related again to the missing the boat analogy. Surely the types of people who would be prepared to do this sort of thing will have already done this sort of thing. Given the very limited amount of free or reasonable "offers" from freebiejeebies or the 100 other free offer sites like it there is quite a high likely hood that a person will have already utilised the offers available.

In short I am not sure this whole "free offers" thing can conceptually work at least not in the long term unless your'e Charlie sheen and have 1 million + twitter followers or something. Also, I fail to get exciting at the concept of "free" stuff like the fat ladies in the adverts do.

If you bother reading this, thanks. Any thoughts?

Well that was an extremely opinionated post.

Obviously the 'freebie' scene doesn't appeal to everyone - this is what makes it unique and fun for others.

For most in the current economical climate, iPad's being 'only' £400 is actually a lot to shell out for a gadget that isn't a 'must-have' but definately an item a lot of people would want to have.

As a young parent, times are hard. I could not justify spending such a large amount of money on something I don't exactly NEED, when there are other practical things and bills to pay for.

As for referring people, there are ways and means around it, without spending a massive amount of money, or having millions of followers/friends on Twitter, Facebook or any other social network.

The websites you mentioned, most of which designed and marketed by eXceem members. Though not being a member for very long, after announcing I had purchased a domain name related to free iPhones, I have been riddled with offers of help with web design, SEO, marketing, logos and all the general know-how. I asked them why? Some say they just want to do something nice, other's say its because i seem like a nice guy in my post. But whatever the reason, the community here is second to none and everybody helps everybody out with getting items they wouldn't be able to normally afford and seem out of reach.. to actually achieve it with little or no outlay thus pretty much justifying that freebiejeebies, XPango etc DO offer items genuinely free and that throughout the process remains free or EXTREMELY cheap.

By the way.. Shout out to those in specific that have offered me their brains, offers and help so far - i appreciate it VERY much

[LcLive]

(Apologies for the typo's in that btw:P)

[Evan Cusick]

Originally Posted by LcLive

Well that was an extremely opinionated post.

Obviously the 'freebie' scene doesn't appeal to everyone - this is what makes it unique and fun for others.

For most in the current economical climate, iPad's being 'only' £400 is actually a lot to shell out for a gadget that isn't a 'must-have' but definately an item a lot of people would want to have.

As a young parent, times are hard. I could not justify spending such a large amount of money on something I don't exactly NEED, when there are other practical things and bills to pay for.

As for referring people, there are ways and means around it, without spending a massive amount of money, or having millions of followers/friends on Twitter, Facebook or any other social network.

The websites you mentioned, most of which designed and marketed by eXceem members. Though not being a member for very long, after announcing I had purchased a domain name related to free iPhones, I have been riddled with offers of help with web design, SEO, marketing, logos and all the general know-how. I asked them why? Some say they just want to do something nice, other's say its because i seem like a nice guy in my post. But whatever the reason, the community here is second to none and everybody helps everybody out with getting items they wouldn't be able to normally afford and seem out of reach.. to actually achieve it with little or no outlay thus pretty much justifying that freebiejeebies, XPango etc DO offer items genuinely free and that throughout the process remains free or EXTREMELY cheap.

By the way.. Shout out to those in specific that have offered me their brains, offers and help so far - i appreciate it VERY much

Thanks for the reply.

"For most in the current economical climate, iPad's being 'only' £400 is actually a lot to shell out".

I think that in any economic climate shelling out £400 on whatever devise would be extremely expensive and hard to justify for most people.

"But whatever the reason, the community here is second to none and everybody helps everybody out with getting items they wouldn't be able to normally afford"

I am no doubt that they are surely a bunch of lovely people.

Alas, the problem likely lies with me. I guess it just may be a consequence of my somewhat de tribe outlook on life but I am just not particularly thrilled by new consumer gadgetry and whatever is in fashion.



"Well that was an extremely opinionated post. "

I'll take that as a complement ^.

[Ilikefree]

I'm just gonna say that the amount the freebie networks have paid out is very high. If the getting referrals to complete offers concept didn't work, they would have noticed.

[LcLive]

Originally Posted by Evan Cusick

Thanks for the reply.

"For most in the current economical climate, iPad's being 'only' £400 is actually a lot to shell out".

I think that in any economic climate shelling out £400 on whatever devise would be extremely expensive and hard to justify for most people.

"But whatever the reason, the community here is second to none and everybody helps everybody out with getting items they wouldn't be able to normally afford"

I am no doubt that they are surely a bunch of lovely people.

Alas, the problem likely lies with me. I guess it just may be a consequence of my somewhat de tribe outlook on life but I am just not particularly thrilled by new consumer gadgetry and whatever is in fashion.



"Well that was an extremely opinionated post. "

I'll take that as a complement ^.

Exactly Each to their own

DEFINATELY take it as a compliment haha!

[Evan Cusick]

One more thing I notice that freebie sites links are banned on large social network sites like Facebook. Is this because it is a form of free advertising or just to avoid spamming.
Also how come you don't let anyone post links to a Freebie URL on the site but you can link to a website that redirects to your URL?

[Cruelworld]

Originally Posted by Evan Cusick

One more thing I notice that freebie sites links are banned on large social network sites like Facebook. Is this because it is a form of free advertising or just to avoid spamming.
Also how come you don't let anyone post links to a Freebie URL on the site but you can link to a website that redirects to your URL?

To avoid spammage on both counts.

FB got hammered with referral links of all sorts, from gambling to pharma, free trials and CPC offers. Pretty much everything so they started to crack down on it.

No referral links are allowed on this forum at all to stop spam.
If they were allowed then it'd just turn into a spam swamp.

You are allowed your websites in your sig as long as there is a link back to exceem.

[jd2012jd]

It's quite hard to get referals but I guess sites like this where you can trade make it a lot easier if you're just out to get a couple of items.

For me, all I want is to probably do a couple of items over the next few months, as a 'side project' which will reward me in the long term. If I have to spent £50 to make £150 and therefore £100 profit then that's worthwhile in my opinion given the relatively small amount of time you can put into it all.

I'm guessing after I've had a taste of it I'll probably do many more!

[MJ10]

Originally Posted by Ilikefree

I'm just gonna say that the amount the freebie networks have paid out is very high. If the getting referrals to complete offers concept didn't work, they would have noticed.

FJ Have sent out over £1million I believe! (most of that to Furbs, Ayo, Amy and Harvez )

We need to do an update of the eXceem Member figures, but it's just such a huge amount that's it's hard to find the time!