free stuff

Here are two Sharebuilder promo codes, for a $50 bonus, that seemed to be active when I checked yesterday:

• ym50 (or try this link)

• share50

While I was browsing around the Sharebuilder website, during my attempts to find/verify promo codes, I also found other offers that may interest some of you. For example, here is an offer for a $49.95 “Premium Investor Start Kit“. What comes with the kit essentially makes it free:

The $50 account bonus will in itself pay for the cost of the product. That makes the rest of the goodies free.

There are other versions of the “Investor Starter Kit”, and all of them include an account bonus worth the cost of the product…so basically you can choose any of them and still get some free stuff.

I haven’t made up my mind about getting one of these kits, but the *premium* kit offer looks attractive to me. Some months ago, I mentioned that after successfully receiving multiple account bonuses, Sharebuilder became wiser and stopped me from opening more accounts with promo codes. So, before I jump in for any other product I need to do some homework….and check if I can use those promo codes in spite of my history with Sharebuilder.

If you have recently opened a Sharebuilder account with a promo code, I suggest you take it easy on these promo codes and offers for a while. Allow some space (may be a couple of weeks or more) before opening the next account with a promo code.

Finally, the results of the giveaway are here (after much procrastination). I intended to do this over the weekend, but didn’t want to post it on 1st April for obvious reasons.

In the two weeks that the contest was open for entries, the giveaway post received 22 comments.

Here are the names (and links if applicable) of all the commentators and the assigned numbers (starting from 1 for the first comment and increasing in the order in which the comments were received):

1 . Sun, 2. Mrs. Shari Lynn Hall, 3. Arthur, 4. Rebel, 5. Aaron, 6. Super Saver, 7. ISPF, 8. Linda, 9. MoneyFwd, 10. Shannon Sensei, 11. Tricia, 12. Peggy, 13. Jerry, 14. Jason, 15. Savy Steward, 16. Mary, 17. Blaine, 18. Magazine_Lover, 19. Melvyn, 20. Michael, 21. Zen, and 22. Shouldbeworking.

From these assigned numbers, four random numbers between 1-22 (inclusive) were then generated using Research Randomizer algorithm.

Here is an image showing the results:

So there you go…the winners are: 2. Mrs. Shari Lynn Hall, 11. Tricia, 14. Jason, and 20. Michael …Congratulations!

Others, thank you for participating…you made the giveaway successful. Better luck next time. Check back to see if I have some more giveaways in store (there will be at least one pretty soon )

This is in context with a movie “Thanks Anyway” (not yet released) [via Guerrilla Innovation]

The free-of-charge service is generally not welcomed by those receiving it. Instead Matthias is - not surprisingly - met with hostility and bureaucratic suspiciousness.

Although the performance is focused on public systems, it exemplifies how we tend to react with mistrust when offered something for free by someone who has no other agenda than being friendly.

Are you in tune with this thought? do you mistrust someone who offers you stuff/service for free?

Personally, I have mistrusted a lot of *free offers* myself. Initially I didn’t believe that people could make *free* money out of credit card arbitrages…it took me quite a while to convince myself that arbitrage really works. I have refused a lot of free subscription offers from newspapers and magazines thinking that there must be some kind of a catch in those offers. When Arbitron sent me 10 crisp $1 bills…my first reaction was to check on the internet if it’s some sort of a scam!

Probably it’s the rogues like the commercial below that make me mistrust free stuff. You must have seen this on TV a thousand times:

[youtube]g3PdaYxSZeM[/youtube]

Click here if you are not able to play the YouTube video above. This links to another site that runs a Quicktime version of the same commercial

Towards the end, one lady says “They let you try it free? It must be good!”. Do you subscribe to such logic about free stuff? or do you subscribe to “free? there must be a catch”?

Here is a report on Federal Trade Commission’s website against the advertising claims made by the marketers of “Focus Factor”. I am including this link just in case someone really falls for the sales pitch from the guy. Don’t laugh…may be you could not digest the Focus Factor’s logic of “if it’s free, it must be good”, but the very fact that the Federal Trade Commission had to intervene in this matter is a testimony to the effect that many people must have been suckered into the getting the product. A Google search for “Focus Factor” will provide you with enough entertaining stories (mostly complaints) for a weekend.

Probably, the mistrust is because of those Amway guys who offer *free over-friendliness* to make you a part of their evil scheme. Or probably, it’s those dudes at the local pizza place who give a free pizza if you sign up for a credit card. Or probably, it’s those *free* $10 checks that Chase sends (and then charges $119.99 on your credit card). Or probably, it’s those free Xbox offers that make you sign up for a million trial offers and refer them to a dozen friends.

What’s your experience with free stuff?

In the last seven months, this blog has come a long way from being a weak, disoriented start-up to attracting it’s first advertising deal and crossing the 50,000 visitors mark not too long ago. This journey would not have been possible without the support of some loyal fellow bloggers, avid readers, critics, and commentators. As a way of appreciating the continued support, I would like to give something back to my readers (you!). If you are a personal finance enthusiast, you will consider this giveaway as your *dividend* for investing your time and efforts in reading, commenting, and providing feedback on this blog, and for encouraging me to strive towards generating better content.

Ideally, I would have liked to give something to everybody who has provided a feedback on this blog; however, I am not yet in the Forbes list of billionaires, and will have to make do with distributing just $100 according to the following scheme:

• Four readers will get *anything* they wish for, up to a maximum of $25 each (shipping must be included).
• *Anything* means - any one thing that is preferably related to personal finance (for e.g. books, magazine subscriptions, piggy bank, money games, gift cards to book shops/online book stores, etc.)

The rules are like this:

• To be eligible, you need to leave a comment on this post in this manner: “I wish for _______”, (don’t put any links here and you cannot ask for cash) and below that you must answer these three questions:
  • In your opinion, what is the best action you have taken to ensure a better financial future for yourself or your family?
  • How do you intend to use the thing you have wished for?
  • What is your favorite post on this blog? (You don’t need to explain why, just give the title)

That’s it ! it’s that simple. Entries will be accepted till Thursday, 29th March.

I will number all the comments and randomly choose 4 winners from them by using something like this. After the 4 winners are selected, orders will be placed for their *wishes*. All other relevant details will be discussed only with the 4 winners.

There are different ways in which you can maximize what you can get from this giveaway. Think over it…do some research.

We have a couple of friends associated with a winemaking class on campus. One of them works in the lab in which students learn to make wine and the other one took the class (I think) last semester. Interestingly, it’s illegal to consume alcohol on campus, but legal to make it (may be, they make it but never taste it or something). Anyways, so these friends were helping their professor clean up the lab and decided to get rid of dozens of bottles of wine that had stocked up after the last winemaking class (it must have been sometime during the last year). Me and my wife *happened* to be in the vicinity and our friends were happy to dump three bottles of red wine into our backpacks.

We were a bit hesitant about how this free wine (made by students) would taste. However, I experimented with one of the bottles yesterday and found it to be extremely good (may be that one was made by students who got an A in the class). Seriously, I would have paid $12+ for this wine in a store. Assuming that the remaining bottles are equally good, we just got about $36+ worth of wine for free by just being at the right place, at the right time (accidentally).

In the past we have heard numerous accounts of students getting free lunches/snacks by the virtue of their friends working in on-campus cafeterias…but we never heard of anyone getting free wine before this.

Btw, just to satisfy my curiosity, I checked online for some winemaking procedures and stumbled on this. It’s a pretty detailed, step-by-step, guide to making your own wine at home. I am certain that it would be extremely frugal to make your wine this way…but, I am also very sure that the whole winemaking-at-home thing will not be easy (those students must have done a really good job). If you want to be an oenophile for cheap, consider investing in a winemaking class or read this article at Get Rich Slowly.

Over this weekend, make sure you check out the Freecycle.org. This website is run by The Freecycle Network, a nonprofit organization that encourages recycling. “One person’s trash can truly be another’s treasure!” is the basic premise behind the network. This is a must-see website for all those who are trying to save money and/or for all those who are going green. It’s all about giving and taking things for free. *Free* is the keyword here. All communities that are linked through this website emphasize something to this effect:

All items posted must be 100% free; no trading, buying, or selling

That sounds nice.

When you are on the website, click on the link “Groups in your local area” in the left sidebar and you will be ready to go. All communication between members is administered through Yahoo! Groups…expect these groups to be fiercely moderated (this is good, it keeps out a lot of spam, politics, and other junk). This also means that there might be a small delay before the moderators approve your membership and you start giving/taking.

Some communities are extremely active with thousands of listings every month, whereas some manage with barely a dozen in the same time span. If, at present, you don’t have a Freecycle group in your local area, there are instructions on the website on how to get one going.

Note that this is not just limited to the US; there are Freecycle groups located all over the world, so look it up for your country. If your country doesn’t have one, start one yourself.

Btw, on a personal note, we students have our own recycling network going on in our local area. Most dumpsters serve as hubs for this kind of activity. Hopefully, with the Freecycle Network idea catching on, the dumpsters won’t be our middlemen in future.

Image sources: freecycle.org and www.withoutatrace.biz

PCMagCast (a service of PC Magazine) is offering a free web-seminar (webinar) by Carmine Gallo titled “Top 10 Communication Secrets of the Pros”. The webinar is scheduled for Thursday, February 8th, 2006 at 2pm Eastern/11am Pacific. Click here to read more about it and to register. It’s bang in the middle of office hours, so I am not sure how many would make it, but if you can, it might be worth the time. The duration of the webinar is 45 mintues.

Here is what PCMagCast says in it’s introduction:

Attend this complimentary PCMagCast and hear communications coach Carmine Gallo review the simple secrets and techniques he learned from interviewing more than two dozen well-known business leaders. This program is a must for professionals who conduct presentations online or in front of a live audience.

Get practical advice and real-world examples on:

• How to get people to care about your message
• How to tell a business story that is clear, concise and compelling
• How to make an emotional connection with your audience
• How to sound like a leader

If you don’t know who is Carmine Gallo, click here to read more by him.

I would especially encourage the students amongst us to go for it. Did I mention it is free?

Winkflash is currently running the following promotions:

100 free photo prints (4×6); shipping 99¢ - offer code: VP32WE54

50 free photo prints (4×6); shipping 99¢ - offer code: WF23EA73

Keep an eye on whether you are being charged $3.49 for the 100 photo offer; some people have reported that happening (it is still a good deal).

Thanks NKu for sending this information.

OK time for the giveaways that I promised a couple of days ago.
I am also keeping my promise about small USB flash drives (small is the keyword here ).

I will give away 4(four) USB flash drives; one each to 4 eligible winners of the giveaway.
The drives have the following specifications (also see the image alongside):

- Brand new SanDisk Cruzer Mini flash drives
- USB 2.0

- 32 MB (yeah!..consider this a trailer)
- Neck strap is not included

The 4 winners will be chosen out of all the eligible entries by a lucky draw. There will be a post mentioning and linking to all eligible participants at the time of declaring the results.

You have to do these two small things to be eligible for the giveaway:

1. Write a post on your blog that links to your favorite article/post on this blog. You may write something like “why I like this article”…or “this post is interesting because….” ..or something similar.
2. Leave a comment on this post to let me know you have linked to a certain article.

That’s it….done….it’s that simple.
-This is not a requirement, but if you like this blog, please feel free to subscribe to the feed . Or use the nice orange button at the top left corner that looks like this: or the Bloglines button that looks like this:

Other details:

1. The contest will end on 22nd December (Friday).
2. Multiple entries are allowed, but you should satisfy the two eligibility requirements above for each entry. For example, if you want to enter twice, you should link to two different articles on my blog and leave two seperate comments.

Not-so-fine-print:

- I won’t be able to ship the drives outside the US. Sorry about that.

- The 4 lucky winners will be chosen as follows. All the comments received will be numbered starting from 1 for the first comment and ending at the last comment. Then, from these numbers, a random sequence will be generated using an algorithm from random.org. The first 4(four) numbers of this randomly generated sequence will be the winning comment numbers.

Have fun