Question: How much would you do to get something free?
Ok, so first of all, let’s start this post off with a promotional link.
This link has been inserted here because if I am one of the first 250 bloggers to talk about it, I will get a free $5 DairyQueen gift card. Am I one of the first 250? probably not. Because once the first blogger posts about it, a few other bloggers will read the post and quickly dash to their websites to post, and from there, it all goes down faster than a forkbomb on a self-reproducing machine. I might add that I also have two free ‘wine.woot.com’ car decals and a baby blanket/plush toy set on their way to my house because I filled out an assortment of free online surveys.
I have no idea what I will do with either them once they show up on my front porch. ( But hey, they were free! )
Despite the word ‘free,’ everything comes at the expense of someone, be that the manufacturer or the distributor or the guy who’s dog peed on your rug the other day. But big businesses aren’t just going to start giving away their products free for the taking; people have to make a living somehow. So why does it seem like they are doing just that? They aren’t!
How can they do this and use it to their advantage, then?
Some of the time, they ask you to fill out some kind of product survey. Product surveys use your information to make their product more sellable.( Imagine that! :p )
The internet seems like the perfect place to do this, as there are so many easily accessible people who want easily accissible (albeit useless ) free stuff. Of course, there are a few problems with this. People who fill out these surveys are usually ‘just here for the beer’ ( ‘just there for the bear’? ) so they could easily fill out a mass random/flamey/flattering or otherwise useless information without giving the company anything they really wanted.
Other times, a company might just give you a product (usually software, I guess?) for your consumption so that maybe t he company will gain mindshare with you and you will buy their products in the future. This, of course, is useful to them because in a best-case scenario you end up donating to them and buying thier stuff.
Either that or they just go open source and pwn all other competition. 
Another case is as linked to in the beginning of the article. By submitting, you gain a small ( To the company, that is ) prize and they get free advertising. (ROFL, I just realised that. DQ is getting sneaky. 
)
I suppose a derivative of this is some black hat having you fill out all of your personal data in return for nothing, so that he can sell all of it to some huge annoying advertising company.
All this brings us down to another question: How would a cost-benifit analysis come out w/ this? Do I really need a 100% organic ‘cute teddy’ plushie with a 1/6 size baby blankie tied to it? What about a decal I would have to peel off of my car every time I hung out with someone decent? ( much less TWO. )
The answer:
Yes, if you’re really really really bored. And fortunately I am.
Christian, you have a gift. This post is only just one example of why I would love it if you came over and posted on my blog every now and then. This is AWESOME! We need to talk.
sorry I’m not getting on the blog very often. I wish I could trade with you becouse I’m so bisy I can’t even have time to get on the blog.I’m just wishing I could get bored once and a while.
You make me laugh! Love the query that leads up to the last sentence of your post. You could always give that cute plushy toy and blankie to your sister for her birthday (don’t tell her I suggested it
). That could be your challenge: to ‘earn’ (and oh, you will certainly earn them if you fill out all the surveys and offers they throw your way to get the coveted ‘free’ item) your family’s presents for the year off the Internet doing just what you did to get these freebies you are writing about! Up to it? Got the time? You will never be bored again!
Hey,
I have no idea if this is important or not, because I am not a computer expert, but everytime that I go into your blog, my Avast anti-virus gives me a warning with a siren sound. It states: Malware was found! file name http://nerdhow.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/42zip.jps
Malware name: Multi; ArchiveBomb [Exp]
Malware type: Exploit
Like I said, I have no idea if this is important or not. It instructs me to abort connection, which I do, although it doesn’t take me off your blog, and I was still able to make this post.
Could it possibly be connected to your Feb 6th post?
Ruthie
Those people prey on your boredom…
We discussed this earlier, and came to the conclusion that nothing is actually free. Please edit this post to include this important point. }:)
42.zip is a kind of file called a ‘zip bomb.’ When fully uncompressed, comes out with 16^5 4.3GB files. Added up that equals ~4+1/2 petabytes-worth of 0s.
AFAIK there is no virus in it. It’s just some specially created set of ‘documents.’
Good luck unzipping it. (;