subject: Is Anything Ever Really Free? [print this page] People always enjoy getting something for nothing, but is anything ever really free? In his advice on how to make money, a millionaire said that nothing in life is free. A cost of some kind will be involved when something free is offered. There are, however, many instances where free items are offered and prizes are given without any cost seeming to come to the recipient. Even the super rich seem to enjoy the opportunity to get something for nothing once in a while.
Many home based businesses such as network marketing (MLM or multi-level marketing) and direct sales require people to get others to sign up under them and to buy their products, After exhausting their warm market of contacts among their friends, family, and acquaintances, hopeful distributors will often turn to buying lists of opportunity seekers. These are people who have given their name and contact information to a website, indicating that they were interested in a home based business. They may have purchased similar products. They are supposedly strong prospects because they have expressed an interest in the type of work or material you are trying to promote.
Some things may seem to be totally free, but they often prove to also be totally useless. Such is often the case with lists of opportunity seeker names for which no charge or a small charge is made. Those contacts will generally be about 95% undeliverable and about100% useless. Even the higher priced lists are questionable in the results area.
When a person signs up for a free item, he is usually required to give a name and contact information. That may become valuable to someone else and may be the cost involved in accepting the free gift. It then could bring on a deluge of unwanted emails or phone calls from others who do want your business and your money. They have the idea that you are an easy target because you may have signed up for something free which shows some interest.
There are some things which are free for which you will never have to worry about a return. Street fairs and exhibits at conferences, for example, may give out free merchandise for which they do not take names or other information. These are totally free items to the consumer, but the company is betting on some return or they would not have given out the merchandise. They want to get their name out there are being a good and reputable company which is promoting a good cause. They are willing to spend money giving out free products in order to get a return on their investment. Maybe it is for advertising or good will. The items being given are indeed free to the person accepting them, but the company is betting on some good publicity if nothing else.
There is a some type of cost involved in most free items, but getting something for nothing is generally not turned down by the majority of people.
