Get Your Free Meal on The Internet
One of the basic facts for companies doing business on the Internet is that the more you give away for free the more you
get in return. I want you to take advantage of this and gets lots of information, services and products for free. Your attention is the most valuable commodity for businesses trying to find success on the
Internet. You often hear them refer to 'eyeballs' - the more eyeballs a site gets the better chance they have for success. This works to your advantage. I spend a great deal of my time surfing for freebies and in this months column I am give you some of my favorite Freebie web sites.
Before we begin one thing there is one rule which is important to keep in mind. Just because it is on the Internet does not automatically mean that it is free. For example, you cannot copy pictures or content from a web site and use it as your own. Unless the information or picture is in the public domain or clearly designated as Freeware you should always get permission in writing from the author. Also, if you download a shareware program to try you must abide by the authors licensing agreement which often means paying a nominal amount after a trial period. When you pay for the program the author sometimes provides you with additional features and a written manual.
Okay, lets start taking advantage of that free meal on the Internet!!!
How to get a free internet connection: www.Juno.com offers FREE a free Internet dial up connection and free email. If you simply want to send and receive email open a Juno account. Millions of people are now using Juno. They will send you an easy to install CD to get you set up in minutes. Then simply start using your email account for free. No $19.95 monthly fee or even $1.95 monthly fee.
How to get a free email account: www.Hotmail.com provides you with a free email address. This way you do not have to use the name your Internet provider gave you. If you decide to change providers at some point you can still use the same Hotmail address.
www.iname.com gives you free email with the option of choosing from many domains (i.e.: yourname@myself.com).
How to get free stock quotes and financial news: www.Nasdaq.com offers Free Stock quotes, financial news, SEC Documents, Analysts Recommendations and Charts for Nasdaq listed companies. Also quotes and news for NYSE and Amex companies.
www.MarketPlace.com offers quotes, detailed P/E, Yield and Payout as well as original articles from on staff correspondents.
How to get a free personal computer: Visit www.free-pc.com as soon as you can. Originally they were going to give away only 10,000 Pentium computers but they are considering increasing that to a much larger number. Response to the offer has been overwhelming so register fast.
How to get free catalogs: www.CatalogCity.com offers hundreds of free, often hard to find, catalogs organized by subject. Simply pick and choose the subject that interest you.
How to get a free home page for your family: www.Grandparents.com.
www.JointPlanning.com offers schedules, address books, reminders, and file sharing useful for organizations, clubs, and businesses which need to coordinate plans from different locations.
www.MyFreeOffice.com - Lots of free web services available (email, chat, instant messaging, online scheduling, 2 MB Web page) in exchange for allowing them to solicit you a few times a day and put a banner ad on your page.
How To get hundreds of free books: www.gutenberg.net - An incredible site for book lovers. You can download hundreds of books for Free. Many are classics. These books are all in the public domain so you can read them and even copy them and pass them on to your friends. The Gutenberg organization spends all of its time putting books in the public domain in digital format. You can easily download any book in text or "zip" format. Digital format has advantages over paper because you can easily search on any word in the text and find it in seconds. If you prefer to read it on paper you can print the sections that you want to read when away from your computer.
gopher://lib.nmsu.edu/11/.subjects/Education/.childlit/.childbooks - has hundreds of classic books for adults and children. It includes authors such as Louisa May Alcott, Lewis Carroll, Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain and many more.
Free government information: www.Fedworld.gov - the starting point for free government information. From here you can find government agencies and free reports published by the U.S. government.
Free Images: www.pdimages.com/web6.html-ssi is the public domain images site and it has lots of beautiful pictures which are in the public domain.
How to get free products and magazines: www.freeProducts.com lists many sample products you can get for free. They also offer contests with prizes for major manufacturers. Recent prizes included a trip to Hawaii, a DVD player and a 46" rear projection television. Sponsors of recent contests include Sony and American. They also have a large section with links to companies giving away free samples.
www.freestuff.com lists free newsletter, contests and magazine offers.
Betty Fox is the Founder of Grandma GrandmaBetty.com.