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Following Up on Fallacies about Getting Free Stuff
“Free stuff” – the mere whisper of the words is often enough to make many people throw common sense out the window and head for the free goods like a missile to a target. And then there are those people whose eyes glaze over when they hear those words, because they can’t believe anything worth having can actually be free. The truth about free stuff is really somewhere in the middle. Yes, you can really and truly cash in on many freebie deals for things that you want to have, but a healthy sense of cynicism about free gear is also useful. Here are some of the important things to keep in mind about free stuff.
The first myth you should throw out the window is that nothing good comes for free. The fact of the matter is that the price tag on a good doesn’t always match up to the quality, and there are many great free things out there. Case in point: music. Sure, everyone has heard the scare stories about file sharing online, and maybe some big record labels will come after you if you focus on their artists. Dig a little below the surface, however, and you can find a whole new world of really great bands that are more than happy for you to listen to their music over and over again. The same goes for free software. People on the cutting edge of technology who have a passion for creating new and efficient applications often develop open source code software. They’re doing it for the love of it, and they often have more talent than any ten suit-and-tie tech guys trying to hock their latest product for a mega profit margin.
Here is where the reality part comes in, however. Yes, you can find wonderful things that are completely free – but yes, you can also find a lot of free things that aren’t worth your time at all and in some cases can cause you a lot of trouble. The net is a great place to fall victim to a “free stuff” scam, but you can also sometimes come across these scams in the mail as well. If something is free, but requires you to give your credit card number or bank details, run the other way.
Another myth people have about free stuff, especially free stuff on the internet, is that when you try to cash in, the only free stuff you will be getting is an inbox full of more spam than you can handle. The truth about this is, well, that is can certainly be true. Many companies give away free things in exchange for your email address, so they can try to hit you up to purchase things in the future. What makes this a myth, however, is that it can be avoided. If you don’t want to choke on an inbox of spam, and who could blame you, set up a special (free) email account that you will use exclusively for freebie hunting. You’ll have the best of both worlds.
The last myth about free stuff involves the “catch” people are always looking for. Often, for free stuff, the catch is a bit of junk mail or email or the fact that you have to submit to a time consuming survey. Sometimes, the catch is that if you get free stuff through a trial offer, if you don’t cancel it, it keeps coming, and this time you have to pay. The truth about these catches is, however, that the catch is in the eye of the beholder. These things don’t make products any less free; so don’t write off every free offer offhand. You might just find a catch you can live with to get a great free product you really want.
Keeping your Career Intact During Maternity Leave Since, for the most part, maternity leave in this country is not paid, the reality of returning to work after having a baby comes much sooner than it does in most countries. No one wants to return to absolute chaos after they have the baby. Cut down on the stress of going back to work by being prepared. The length of your maternity leave can determine the amount of stress you return to. If you are willing and able it is a good idea to work as long as possible. Of course, everyone is not willing and able. For those that need a longer leave, they should put some plans in place to make the transition back to work smoother. How long you are on maternity leave varies. However, if you plan on returning after you have the baby, you do not want to return to a totally chaotic situation. That means that you want to have the needs of your career in tact before you take your maternity leave. Nothing should interfere with your new addition to the family. While you are bonding and spending time with your newborn you do not want the stress of the office hanging over your head. Lay the ground work so that you do not have to worry about the office while you are away. If you are the boss, you have a lot more stress to manage. It is important that you leave a responsible and capable person in charge of things in your absence. Start training that person to deal with the aspects of your job that they will have to handle as soon as you know you are pregnant. Nothing is more annoying than getting “How do I…” phone calls when you are on maternity leave. If your job is massive, split the responsibilities between two employees. You do not want to split up the tasks among too many people because this can lead to confusion. Two should be the maximum. Be sure to leave things in order. If you are not the most organized person, get that way when you find out you are pregnant. While you are on maternity leave anyone should be able to walk into your office and find what they are looking for in a very short amount of time. If things are messy there is more of a chance for things to go wrong. If you are one of those women that needs to have an extended maternity leave because of pregnancy complications, don’t fret. Enjoy your time offer and relax but also, if you can, try to stay on top of what is happening in your career field. Take an online class and brush up on skills. If you are not sure you want to return to your 9-5, research a new career. The Internet has made working from home a very real and popular option. Search for a job that will allow you to stay at home but also bring in some income. Some jobs, such as Computer Programming, can fetch a pretty penny. Do some research and find out what will suit you best. Work part time until you are ready to have the baby. While some women are eager to take their maternity leave, others are not so excited about it. If that is the case, talk to your employer about working part time until you are due. Some women work until they go into labor. There is no need to do that if you are uncomfortable but if you are having an uneventful pregnancy and love your job, why not? Get Roboform to Help with those Countless Online Forms for Free Stuff RoboForm, is a web site that offers users programs to make life on the Pc and on the Internet easier. These programs help the user to remember and securely store online and offline passwords. How often does it happen that someone forgets the PC password and then there is no other way than reinstalling the whole PC operating system? The programs offered by the website also help with many other Internet and PC issues and tasks. RoboForm can log the user automatically into online accounts, complete online registrations and complete checkout forms with just one click of the mouse. This makes the program a great help with the countless online forms that exist for free stuff. Over and over fill freebie seekers online forms. Name, address, e-mail, birth date and more and this program is able to fill the information into the online forms with essentially one mouse click. For example, for online sweepstakes entries, the most important factor to receiving free stuff is how often one is able to sign up for different sweepstakes. Hunting down online free stuff is already time consuming, but filling out all the long and tedious entry forms every single time takes even longer. The company states, that this program can help the consumer increase the number of filled forms for sweepstakes at least ten times, since the users identity is stored in the software and then used to fill the online forms. When sweepstakes allow for multiple entries, the program can speed up this process even more. The software offers the option to save the data into a file and then the user needs to just choose the data and hit the fill and submit button and the sweepstake entry is on its way. For consumers of the software it is important to know, that RoboForm will not disqualify consumers from the sweepstakes and as the company states is completely legal. The reason a user cannot be disqualified for using this program is that the company that offers the sweepstake will not even remotely know that a program was used. Data is saved on the user’s computer and just used to fill the forms. The filling happens just like when the consumer enters the information himself into the form. Even if programs state that automated entries are prohibited, this excludes this program. The automated entries are referring to programs that submit the data to the page without the user ever viewing the page. With this program the user is still required to open the page, view it, and then fill the forms. The only part done by the program is filling the form. The user then still has to check the filled form and hit the submit button on the page by himself. This is what makes the whole process legal and a good deal for freebie seekers. By many this software is called the best way to automat sweepstakes and increases the free stuff coming into the house. Due to the programs ability to save online addresses users can browse thru their sweepstake web pages without having to remember all the long URL addresses. Additionally due to the ability to save already filled forms, users can easily participate in daily sweepstakes for certain products. When combining this software with one of the online pages that offer links to free contests, free products and more, consumers can be showered in anything from free movie tickets, to food products and health products. Many consumers have positive feedbacks to offer about the amount of freebies they are able to get every month. Sometimes people apply for freebies, even if they do not really need them. There are always pages up there, where the product can be donated or sold to other people. |