A link on top of Gmail caught my eye. It offered free resources for writers (how could I resist clicking that?), but after clicking, the website I was brought me to disgusted the hell out of me.
The offer was too good to be true – they always are. Free stuff, free ebooks, free resources and tools, all for the poor freelance writer trying to get ahead. What blew me away was that with one sign-up to some unknown newsletter was that I’d receive over 30 free things.
The list of what I’d get went on and on: How to write an ebook, how to keep track of a novel, how to stimulate creativity. None of the material was from any name I recognized, none of it looked as if it was quality, and a lot of it was useless garbage. The page had a nice layout though, I’ll grant it that.
My suspicion radar was screaming and waving red flags. A couple of quick searches, and I discovered that all these free goods were available on their own. Someone with lots of time and nothing better to do could go find each one on different websites. The offer of a one-click centralized download option was nice, but it brought to mind one important question.
Why?
Why would someone go to the trouble of gathering up all that stuff to promote a newsletter? Why would someone bombard people with tons of free goods like that? The eternal question, “What’s in it for the guy behind this all,” isn’t answered or explained. So he can send out a free newsletter? That doesn’t make sense.
I have to admit, I don’t like that. If I’m going to get something for free, I want to know what’s in it for the person offering the free stuff. Do they want to tempt you to buy something? Do they want fame? Do they want fortune? Are they making money off affiliate offers? What are they getting by being so generous with me?
I want to make an informed decision. I don’t like smoke and mirrors, and I don’t like being screwed over to make someone else rich. Sneaky tactics, forget it – I’m not into that. Even if it’s free.
Visit the site if you’d like. Peruse the offers of free stuff. Click and download if you want. As far as I’m concerned, there’s something suspicious behind all this, and I’d rather save my disk space for something far more valuable. Like PacMan. Tetris, maybe… I always did like that game.
