Tips and tactics for finding and receiving free stuff through the Internet

1.  Tutorials and General advice
    A.  General Tutorial from Cool Freebie Links - Especially check out lesson 3
    B.  Ethics and Freebies - A good list of how to work in the freebie world
    C.  Start a free email account - try Hotmail or Yahoo.

2. Validity and Junk-  How do you know if the web site is good or bad?  Try the following

    A.  A good article listing steps to help validate a page.
    B.  JunkBusters - one of the ultimate sites on stopping scams, spams and other junk
    C.  Avoid MLM (Multi-level Marketing) - This article explains what MLM is and how to be careful.
    D.  How to avoid email junk mail - good article with advice about stopping junk email.
    E.  You can also try being anonymous.
    F.  A good list of articles and help on validating web sites by Kathy Schrock.
    G.  http://urbanlegends.about.com/science/urbanlegends - lots of bad sites and lots of good info

3.  What do I do if the page is missing?   Try this site for more information, 404 Error page (click on the Yikes! 404! section).

4.  Should kids send for freebies? This may be a great way to bring in parent involvement. Should kids be trading their information for neat toys and such? Maybe by using false names only and the school's mailing address, students can participate in an activity to send away for free materials????
    A.  http://kidsprivacy.org/index.html - a parent's guide to online privacy - CLICK on WHAT IS COPPA
   
B.  http://www.mont.lib.md.us/safety.html - a good list of child safety sites

5. Cookies - A cookie is a small piece of data sent by web servers that store on your web browser that helps the server identify you at a later date. A password & user ID for you to become a member of a certain site would be one example. Another would be site personalization--when you visit a site and set some options of how you like to view it or what info you would like to receive from the site. It will be saved for further visits.

There has been a lot of controversy over what information users can obtain about you with cookies. Your files cannot be destroyed or compromised by cookies. When you request a file from a web server, it includes your IP address, the type of browser you are using, and your operating system. This information is already logged in on the web server's log but cookies make it easier and quicker for the server to identify you.

If you are concerned about cookies set the options on your Browser to warn you when cookies are being sent. Do not give your correct email address on visited sites, this is a wise safety measure.
Visit these sites, they will define & explain cookies further…you need to evaluate the problem and make your own decisions!

http://cookiecentral.com - the whole website is devoted to informing you about cookies
http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/cookies.html - very good tutorial

What other questions concerns might you face?

back to home page

modified 2/26/01