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Why Companies Give Away Free Samples
I frequently get emails from visitors asking why companies would give us such great quality product samples for free. Surely these free samples cost a fortune for companies to give away to us right?
First let’s talk numbers
I have found that most top free sample providers give away anywhere between 5,000 and 20,000 samples of a product being promoted.
Let’s say that product is a 2ml perfume sample of Burberry Brit for women. Froogle.com tells me the best price to purchase this sample is $1.99 US on eBay, so for simplicity sake let’s say it only costs 5% of that to be manufactured (wild guess), giving us a cost of approximately 10 cents per sample.
Say the promotional provider gives away 20,000 and it might cost them $2000 plus let’s say $500 in shipping costs giving $2500 total.
Now let’s get to the real power.
The Power of Viral Marketing
Whilst directly it may cost $2500 to send 20,000 perfume samples to consumers like us and no profit is made directly from providing these free samples to us, what it does is create huge amounts of free advertising and sales from viral marketing.
Of the 20,000 people receiving the sample
- If most took the time to order then some would probably like the product so they’ll end up buying it. Say the full product in this case costs $50 they may make $30 profit margin on that and say only 50 buy the product that is $1,500 profit.
- They’ll recommend it to a few friends, so that might increase the sales to bring in another $3,000 profit
- Sites like mine would have promoted the product to our visitors which create more exposure to the product to visitors and traffic to the manufacturer sites even after the free sample offers expire
So they make an easy $4,500, gain large amounts of free advertising and promotion (that would have cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars if they paid) and gain more exposure and goodwill towards their brand.
Now compound that in relation to the thousands of free samples available 
Loading ...FreeStuffDay.com.au Review (AUS)
FreeStuffDay is a unique freebie website that offers Australian visitors the chance to win prizes of significant value (the biggest free prize this month is a car!).
How does it work?
FreeStuffDay.com.au connects advertisers of the free products with consumers like you by sending you once only information about their products.
Unlike a lot of sites where your information is sold on FreeStuffDay has a tight privacy policy for not sharing your information with anyone.
What is great about this site is that 1 day per month is the winning day called Free Stuff Day where members fight for the free prizes. This month there is currently 49 companies listing 413 items that will be given away in 1 Day and 11 Hours as of writing this post.
Register today as you have to be in it to win it
Loading ...Free New Year Cards & New Year Wishes Quotes
With 2008 just around the corner what better way to celebrate (further to a big night of wining and dining!) than to send your friends a free new year’s card.
Check out the following sites for the best Free New Year Cards
I’ll also leave you with a few great New Year Wishes Quotes.
Life is short, break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably and never regret anything that made you smile – Unknown
An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves – Bill Vaughan
Happy New Year everyone!
Loading ...Readers Mail
I’m going to start posting some of the emails received from visitors and my responses so the whole community can read the questions and feedback.
From: Robyn
I have yet to find one of these sites that ships to Guam or any other U.S. Territory. Is there is reason for it ??? Is it just the format most sites use??
Thanks Robyn
Great question Robyn. I find that most free product samples are concentrated on the USA mainland as this is where the majority of manufacturers headquarters are based and in sampling a population for free sample distribution it is often cheaper for them to send via post locally than to other islands. With the majority of manufacturers headquarters based in the US this is why it is also harder to find a large amount of quality samples in Australia, Canada, etc.
From: Samantha
Why do you post mostly USA free samples? Don’t forget us Aussies!
Hi Sam – I’d love to post tonnes of free quality samples for Australian visitors. Unfortunately, the supply of quality freebies in Australia in somewhat limited to compared to what is available to the public from the United States. I will do my best to keep providing Aussie samples though
From: Rachel H
I ordered the Neutrogena Cream sample 6 weeks ago and it still has not arrived?????
Most free samples do take a considerable time to arrive with some I have ordered taking 3-4 months, by this time I’ve forgot I even ordered them! Unfortunately this is one aspect of receiving free stuff we sometimes have to grin and bare.
Loading ...FreeSampleForager.com Review
In the spirit of making sure you are aware of other quality free sample web sites I am going to regularly bring you updates on sites I frequently visit myself with behind the scenes interviews with the site owners.
This month I’d like to introduce you to Dave and Tiffiney from FreeSampleForager.com
A Bit About Them
Dave and Tiff are a married couple from North Carolina in the USA. Dave is a web site developer and business start-up consultant, while Tiffiney is a small business owner. They both live busy lives and still seem to find time to bring some quality free product samples to you.
How Long Has FreeSampleForager been operating?
About 9 months, since April 2007.
Why Did They Start the Site?
We were free sample hobbyists for some time and enjoyed sharing our finds with friends and family.
It was frustrating trying to link each and every freebie in email and chat, so we started FreeSampleForager to have an easy place to let our loved ones know where to find cool freebies.
Over time, we have grown to thousands of daily visitors from across the world and have seen our traffic grow so large we had to move the site to a more powerful server late this year.
What do they get out of giving you freebies?
At first, we really enjoyed how much our friends and family responded. Many of them became serious freebie hobbiests. As the site grew, we realized our site had become a hub for many thousands of people from all walks of life who enjoyed this hobby.
It is incredibly rewarding to get emails from people who never knew there was such a fun, easy, and no-cost hobby where you could get such safe enjoyment and sent all sorts of surprises into their mailboxes 6 days a week.
At the same time, we love the fact that product-makers are able to get their samples and freebies out to the family decision-makers and primary shoppers who would be most likely to consider purchasing their products.
Fostering the relationship between brands and consumers is an amazing process and we are fortunate to have created and maintained such a fun and useful link in the flow.
What are your main geographical visitors?
Our main visitors are in the US, but we also have many visitors from Canada, Australia, the UK, Ireland, Mexico and from places as diverse as Chile and South Korea.
Why should visitors read your web site?
We maintain daily freebies in an easy to follow, well-tagged, and categorized directory while weeding out offers that are not-safe, not-legit, not-free, or which may not be offered with intention of sending out thousands of free items.
Many small businesses put up free sample offers on their sites and in their stores, but are not financially able to handle the traffic that the FSF and sites like it can send. We do not post these sorts of offers, saving everyone involved time and frustration.
We never post links that require one cent of cost to the receiver, or which require more than simple forms, an email, a phone call, or (for in-store offers) simply asking for the freebie at a store location.
Do you make any money from your site?
We have used many different monetization strategies, but our current layout uses Google Adsense (Pay-Per-Click) and Google Referrals (Pay-Per-Lead).
We have also sold ad placement for specific campaigns and will continue to consider all advertising requests.
Do you have a web site feed visitors can subscribe too?
Your visitors can receive our free sample updates by subscribing to our feed.
Other information you’d like FreeSamplesDirect visitors to know?
2008 will bring new features and functions to our blog, many of which have been specifically requested by our readers.
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I highly recommend checking out Dave and Tiff’s site and telling your friends and family about it if you enjoy it.
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