How-to Score Freebies Online
Free Samples
Free samples are fairly easy to come by online. Logical Harmony does a weekly freebies roundup and you can also Google (“free beauty products”, “free baby products”) or scour the backs of print magazines for offers. Be wary of any offer that asks for credit card or other personal information. Most samples giveaways will ask for your name, address and email. Most samples you receive are one or two-time use trial sizes, but many can be worthwhile if saved for travel or a night out. Many times you also receive a coupon or two with your sample. I recently received some samples of John Frieda Root Awakening that I loved, and I find fragrance samples a really great way to try a new scent for a day or two without commitment.
Blog Giveaways
I have won quite a few items via online (blog) giveaways and it’s always worth the minimal time and effort it takes to enter. Although you can enter contests by huge brands and websites (Nylon Mag does lots of giveaways, for instance), I like to enter giveaways hosted by bloggers – the odds of winning are much higher but items can still retail from $50 to even hundreds of dollars. Obviously, the more giveaways you enter, the better your chance of winning. Many giveaways also give opportunities for extra entries. Some are quick and convenient (following the brand on Twitter) whereas some take more time and effort (blogging about the giveaway from your own site). For the giveaways I really want to win I take the time to complete all of the extra entries, even if it means subscribing to the same feed via both reader and email.
Some giveaways will let you tweet for extra entries, and some even let you submit a new tweet (and thus new entry) per day, or even per hour. For these giveaways (especially ones I really want), I bookmark the post in my web browser and visit daily.
You can find buttons to sites that frequently host giveaways in my sidebar, or try hitting up a search engine with “giveaway [month & year]” and see what pops up! Some items that I have won via giveaways include TOMS shoes, jeans, a humidifier, baby clothes and baby bottles. Some of my favorite blogs for giveaways are Denim Debutante, Fashion Fling, The Fashionable Housewife and Welcome to the Motherhood.
Aside from my favorite sites, I also keep a folder in my Google Reader exclusively for blogs that I know host lots of giveaways.
Stash Mama recently posted her tips for winning blog giveaways as well, with her own list of won items. 
BzzAgent
BzzAgent allows you to try out new products for free. The site relies on WOM (word of mouth) marketing, and in return for swag you are asked to fill out fun and simple surveys about products you review and spread the bzz with friends online and off. What you are sent depends on your individual interests and status (based on completed surveys and campaigns) and can range from coupons to full size products. There is never any obligation to buy and you can link BzzAgent to your Facebook account. (Shipping is also free to you.) Some items that I have received via Bzz include L’Oreal and CoverGirl cosmetics and even bags of rice!
All of these methods are great for trying out free products or even scoring some major swag. Of course, you should still take time to research items and companies as if you were making a purchase – Whether or not you spend money, every time you show interest in an product or business you are casting your vote as a consumer.
What have you scored for free online?
© 2012