Whilst I provide a source of quality free samples from across the web, I thought it would be useful to compile a list of what I believe are the Top 6 Tips and Tricks for Safely Obtaining Free Stuff Online.

1. Keep your Personal Information Private
Email Address – Make sure you setup a free email address rather than using your own private address to avoid receiving unsolicited messages within your personal account. The best free email services are Google’s Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo.

Mailing Address - Setup a Postal Box with your local post office to avoid providing free sample sites with your home mailing address.

Phone Number – Is anything more annoying than receiving unsolicited phone calls? Signup for a free phone number to use with free sample requests which will send you a voicemail message (to your new free email account) when you receive a call. Check out free services for this such as K7 and Numbr.

2. Read Everything Before Requesting a Sample
As noted within our Privacy Policy you should always read the terms and conditions from the site of the free sample offers you are requesting to ensure you know your rights and anything else you may be signing up to on the request of the sample. Some samples also take up to 3-4 months to arrive so make sure you read how long a sample will take and if the period is too long for you to wait don’t bother yourself with the frustration of waiting to receive the sample. It is also important to make sure you won’t be paying for postage and handling fees.

3. Make Sure You Are Ordering Direct or from a Quality Source
There is a lot of sample sites these days just promoting sample offers through third party merchants which provide them with commission for every lead or click generated. Whilst there are some quality samples available to order via these methods you are more likely to be signing up through filling in a survey which a third party uses your details to market additional products, etc. When clicking on a click make sure you are either linking direct to the manufacturer or a third party such as a retailer who is known such as Walmart promoting manufacturer products.

You can usually tell if you are linking direct by moving your mouse over the link and it will show either i.e. www.dove.com/samples or walmart.com/samples/dove. If you are linking to an affiliate site it will usually have a reference at the end of the web site such as www.affiliatesitehere.com/samples/ref=120912.

4. If You Like The Sample Buy The Full Product
The main purpose free samples are given away by manufacturers is to add to successful advertising campaigns by gaging the interest of the product in the market (which demographics like it, etc) and to also market additional products to you which they feel you may like. What better way to use a product than to try before you buy to ensure you like it before potentially parting way with your hard earned cash.

5. Make Life Easier when filling out Forms
If you have ordered as many free samples as me, you will know how frustrating it starts to get filling out your details over and over again to receive another sample. Rather than manually fill these details out, in most cases I now use an auto form filling software tool to make it much easier. You can obtain a free try of a great product called RoboForm here which lets you click one button to auto fill in your details.

6. If It Is Too Good to be True, It is Too Good to be True
Use common sense when signing up for free samples. There is lots of fake giveaways and garbage within the free samples market just like most markets on the Internet these days. The free Apple iPod, TV, Playstation, etc offers are a waste of your time. Think to yourself – what pay back would the advertiser, promoter or manufacturer get out of giving you thousands of dollars worth of free products? So stay away from offers such as the banner screenshot below.