How to Get Free Stuff Online

Big welcome to my personal blog. If you have clicked on this post is because you are trying to learn the method I use which has allowed me to received thousands of dollars worth of totally free stuff as a brand influencer. My goal for this post is to explain in very simple terms how everything works. I want to also give you clear and actionable steps to get similar results.

Free stuff! Don’t we all want more of it? From my own experience, rarely ever is something really free. However if you can invest some of your time to try the information in this post, you may be able to get many products. I have got for myself over $30,000 worth of products with the information I’m sharing. What I have found from this experiment, is that things won’t make you happy and that time is a super valuable resource. I encourage you to use this strategies to acquire resources for your personal projects.

NOTE: Given the coronavirus outbreak in mainland, China it may be better not to purchase products coming from Asia until the disease has been eradicated. Many of the products found in seller groups come from China. Proceed at your own risk.

I want to note that part of building brands and online businesses (which is what I love to do), is to build connections and to become very resourceful. Earning “free stuff” online is one of the biggest resourceful skills any entrepreneur or consumer can master. This is all about creating win, win situations. The more value you can provide to a seller promoting a product the more likely they will be willing to send it to you for free.

NOTE: There is no such thing as free stuff online no strings attached. To make it work we need to produce value. I will show you simple ways how you can produce MASSIVE VALUE for companies deeper below in this article. Then they will send you free merchandise you want. 

As I have said before I used to be ranked in the top 200 Amazon reviewers. I achieved this status in only 3 months. The main reasons this worked out so well for me, is because I would always provide constructive criticism to the seller. In other words, I would spot flaws in their products or sales process and bring it to their attention. 

Many of them would agree with my comments and fix the issues suggested. I must confess the main reason I could do this is because I was getting all sorts of products from all sorts of brands and I could compare even the smallest details. Their packaging. The thank you note if there was any. The instruction manual, how resourceful and useful it was. The actual adds and landing pages. 

In the beginning it takes time to be able to help. But eventually it will become second nature.

I also want to let you know some of the big advertisers like Google, Facebook and Amazon don’t like it when sellers provide free products in exchange for positive reviews. Some of the platforms like Amazon, see the act as misleading and as a way to take advantage of the consumer. This has to do with the proliferation of fake reviews. Some tools can help spot dubious reviews.

Google clearly states in their policy business owners should not give out free stuff in exchange for reviews onto Google My Business listings or for backlinks. Most digital agencies don’t care about any of this and buy backlinks or reviews anyway. In order to grow the business of their customers, because it produces tangible and measurable RESULTS. 

In the case of Facebook, they don’t like the practice because some of the sellers won’t refund the users for the product they bought. Thus resulting in a negative user experience which may drive some of these users away from Facebook.

What I can tell you from my very own experience. If done correctly you can still create a win, win situation with most of the sellers. A few in the range of 1-2% may try to take advantage of you. Luckily Amazon has great customer support and you are covered with A-Z warranty if you are not satisfied with the quality of the products or services provided to you. 

With the products you get for free or very cheap. You can sell them using craigslists or other platforms like offerup. Or instead, you may be hunting for products you need to operate a business you are trying to run. As you will see some sellers offer power tools and computing equipment for very cheap. There is also all sorts of digital and office equipment.

Not only that. You can find all sort of accessories to run your business. For example the other day I bought a little studio to take photographs of small products. I got this studio for 90% discount.

Now I can take semi professional photos of ecommerce products which are valuable for the website listings of some of these sellers. Some of them would pay commissions in exchange for high quality pictures which can produce a little extra income. 

Either way. This approach doesn’t work 100% of the time. I have seen success rate about 98% of the time. Therefore I want to add this disclaimer.

DISCLAIMER: The methods I share in this post work (most of the time). Be aware Amazon has become very strict with their policy on incentivized reviews. For best results you should buy products which don’t require you to post a review. Most of Amazon’s top reviewer accounts have been banned. As stated above neither Facebook or Google like product giveaways. This in part, because it creates virality and exposure, which negatively affects their business model as advertisers. In short: some sellers give out free products to save money they would have to spend on adds. Before trying this. Keep in mind some sellers (1-2% in my experience) won’t refund you as they originally agreed so you may have to return some products. 

Also, if you happen to be a seller or publisher who promotes ecommerce and digital products. Keep in mind this strategy can’t replace paid advertising methods because the operation is very hard to scale. If you optimize your pages to maximize click through rates, engagement and conversion rates. You will see far better results with paid advertising because you can drive more traffic and test results faster.

Why Would Sellers Give Free Stuff In The First Place?

Great, we got that out of the way! Often times when I tell my family and friends I have received over $30,000 worth of “free merchandise” they look at me puzzled and astonished. Clearly money doesn’t grow on trees so why would small sellers and big brands send people free stuff in the first place?

The fact is, using the strategies I have shared in this post I figured out how to get free clothes from companies. Many of the sellers in the communities I will reveal are clothing brands for men, women (and even kids). They are willing to send free clothes like t-shirts and expensive long sleeve shirts when you reach out to them online.

Some of the companies in the communities and groups I share also give away free products for small children and babies. Makeup and skin products for women are also popular online giveaways. Big manufacturers and brands who actively promote their products give out free samples. This is one way they test their products and also a cheap way for them to research their market and trends as third party options are more expensive.

As I have found once you build a relationship with some of these corporations some of them will offer to enlist you in their product tester programs. Basically the producers will keep sending to you free stuff by mail so you can give them your opinion. You don’t have to fill out surveys but they may ask you to complete feedback or post a review.

The Reason Companies Do Send Out Free Products…

In order to understand this. First you need to take a deeper look at how the Amazon algorithm works. It turns out that: the biggest ranking signal for Amazon stores is no other than the number of sales produced. Whichever seller, sells the most of a particular item will eventually climb the ranks to the top of their category which will allow them to sell even more products. Hundreds or thousands of units.

Other signals which contribute to the listing to help generate more sales include customer reviews (in or outside of the Amazon platform) and seller feedback provided within the Amazon community. I want to note these other signals have very little weight on the actual ranking equation. However, positive reviews on an Amazon listing have been shown to increase conversion rates. Which ultimately returns in bigger ranking when you make the sell.

I want to note multiple case studies have been made and more than 21 reviews on an Amazon listing produces very little impact on your actual rank or your ability to improve conversion rates. Lastly, if you factor in your time commitment to search for products. Buy them. Post feedback or review. And lastly receive a refund which may include a commission. You will realize none of the products are truly free. The price is your TIME.

Because More Sales Produce Bigger Rankings

With the simple understanding that sales produce bigger rankings. And with bigger rankings a seller could boost their visibility on Amazon hundreds or thousands of times more without investing on paid advertising. 

I hope you start to see why they would be willing to give out some products for free. They can rank much faster. Often times they receive positive reviews which are hard to build. Finally they save money on advertising and in the process build a relationship with a customer who can bring more customers to their listings.

NOTE: I want to make you aware that Amazon is becoming more like Facebook and Google. Amazon is becoming more active in the business of selling sponsored adds. To achieve the absolute best results the sellers are also starting to invest more and more, in paid advertising. Still, the concepts I’m telling you here work and therefore you will still find many sellers willing to send out just free stuff.

***Read below to find groups that don’t ask for reviews

Many of my friends ask me. Rey where did you get that belt. Or that nice watch and the nice shirt. They don’t know but almost all of it has been for free. One way to find the deals is using Facebook groups. There are thousands of Facebook groups out there where sellers are promoting their products for free *or very cheap*. Here is one of the groups I use most often because I don’t have to post reviews which breaks Amazon’s terms of service so I can keep my account safe.

If You Want To Try This Grab An Amazon Prime Trial. Free 2-Day Shipping Is Really Important.

To find groups simply search on Facebook:

1- Amazon no review 

2- Amazon review

On the search bar and a list of groups will populate. This is what it looks like on my computer:

Then all you have to do is join the groups. Some groups may ask you some questions. Like whether you are a buyer or a seller. They will tell you a set of rules you have to follow. Just agree to follow the rules and they will let you join. My Facebook is in Spanish because this is my native language. The bottom part of the picture I pointed to with 3 arrows just means to click there if I want to see more results.

After you are accepted into any of the groups you applied for, spend some time scrolling to see what kind of products are available and at what discount rate. I will give you some examples based on the current listings I see to make it easier to understand what the sellers are looking for.

The first post above was made on September 29 which is almost two weeks ago. Most of the times sellers have at hand a limited amount of inventory to give away. If is a small seller they will give out 1-3 products. Bigger brands would give out as much as 200-500 products of the same unit. 

I recommend you to contact the seller who made the post within a week. The best time frame to get a reply from them is to contact within 24 hours of their Facebook post on the group.

I want to note a lot of the people you will be contacting are virtual assistants located in Shenzeng, China. This is the hottest city for ecommerce and heavily visited place by Amazon entrepreneurs hunting for products to source. They access Facebook (which is censored) by using VPN’s that can bypass the firewalls the Chinese government has set in place. They have been recruited to give out the products. Their English is not perfect. In their lingo:

NOTE: If you are looking for a reliable VPN to protect your identity online and do product research on multiple countries PIA VPN is one of the best in the market. I have been using it for 4+ years and it has served me very well. Sometimes I’m doing keyword research and tools tell me I ran out of credits for the day, or Google makes me solve puzzles because they think I’m a bot. This VPN solves that and more because I can easily change IP addresses, and unlike free VPN’s that would leak your information this one is very secure. If you need a solid VPN try Private Internet Acccess [LINK].

This is What The Sellers Mean On Their Post

1- No review (means you DO NOT have to add a review on Amazon)

2- (Just us/US, UK, GERMANY)… it means the offer is valid for those specific countries US = United States, UK = United Kingdom). There is also AU (Australia), FR (France) and ES (Spain).

3- No comment means they don’t expect you to add review or comment outside of Amazon

4- PP refund: This is how they give you your money back. They will need an email address linked to your PayPal account to complete the refund.

5- PM just means to Private Message them on Facebook and let them know you want the item or deal which they are offering. 

6- PP Refund with fee means the seller with pay for the PayPal fee of 2.3% + 30 cents. Otherwise they don’t cover it. Some sellers put you as a relative to avoid paying fees.

7- Cover tax, means the seller will refund the tax charges made on the Amazon platform. Otherwise this will also be your expense.

NOTE: Something I do to minimize PayPal/tax fees and earn a little money is to use the Amazon reward visa chase card. This card gives you 5% cash back on all orders made on Amazon. Since very few sellers do charge sales tax, you will usually earn 2% cashback on your Amazon reward card to use for whatever FUTURE purchase you want. Is not a lot of money but considering some products I got for free are over $50, that’s a $1 commission. Some sellers are nice and send you more money via PayPal than what you paid for and the PayPal fee, resulting in $5-$10 commissions even for NO REVIEW products. In the case of review products you can expect to earn commissions but since this breaks Amazon’s policy I would suggest to stay away from it to keep your account safe.

One of the nicest advantages of the Amazon Chase card is it even allows me to buy products online on Amazon and pay later. I get six to 18 months (interest free) to pay everything back. This is great because sometimes I need to buy better equipment for the projects I’m working on which I can’t afford with 1-time payments. If I use other cards, interest rates would apply. Just look at the picture below. This is awesome!

***Another way to get 5% back is with Amazon Prime Visa Signature Card. You could also find lowest prices on Amazon products by using Honey Chrome Extension or price tracker CamelCamelCamel to alert you when items hit your price. Spy your competition with Jungle Scout.

Contact The Seller And Send A Picture Of The Product Or Deal You Want (Use Lightshot)

To contact the seller/virtual assistant handling the offer simply click on the name of the person in this case “Perez Sol”. A new window will pop up where you can message them and also see other products they are offering. Usually the last offers they posted on the group you joined will be shown at the top. For example there is one from November 5 in the picture below with 40% discount.

Click on “Message” (Mensaje in mine) and you will be ready to communicate with the seller or person who posted this deal within this Facebook group. The easiest way to ensure they will understand what you want is to send them an screenshot of the post. For example I found a post for a denim jacket I’m interested in which I can get for $5. This is what my message to the person looks like:

To send them the image is super simple. Download lightshot to your computer. Once you have it all you need to do is: 

1- Click “Prt Scr”, “PRINTSCREEN” key on your computer which is usually above Insert Key. 

2- Select the area you want to share. Which is the picture and text of the Facebook deal the user posted.

3- You can upload the image to the cloud and share it as a link or use “CTRL + C” to copy the image and then “CTRL + V” to paste on the message you are sending to the seller via Facebook MESSENGER APP. 

If you prefer video here is a 2 minute lightshot introductory tutorial so you can see how it works. This is one of my core productivity tools I use for everything. I highly recommend you to start using it.

Some other posts which catch my attention:

My brother loves to exercise. I’m sure he would love one of these for Chritsmas. At 80% off, I may surprise him. Sometimes if you have a website or YouTube channel which is dedicated to product reviews you could ask the seller to give it for free in exchange for an authenthic review in one of those channels. You can also take advantage of Tomoson and many other influencer programs as you build your audiences and channel so as to get free products and get paid at the same time.

Monetize The Products You Buy With Unboxing Videos Or Amazon Associates Affiliate Program

One other thing you can do is buy the product at 80% discount. Do an unboxing video of the product. Post the video on YouTube and finally to the description of the video you can add a link to more similar products with an Amazon affiliate links. For example this man made an unboxing video of the AirPods and in the description of the video he added his affiliate links to monetize the content.

TIP: YouTube has many ways to promote your content which search engines, or other social media platforms don’t utilize. Among them is the suggested videos and autoplay of related videos. Users browsing the web are consuming more long form video than ever before. YouTube also allows many ways to monetize videos.

Joining the Amazon associates program is really easy and there is thousands of products you could promote. You can even search for the same product you just bought on Amazon associates and get an affiliate image link or text link for the item as you can see below.  

NOTE: Effective April 21st, 2020 Amazon will be lowering commission rates substantially to 3% or lower. Many people are moving away from Amazon associates program to other ones which pay higher rates. Adam from wpcrafter is one of many people to talk about this. I think Amazon is doing a big mistake by abandoning so many publishers and affiliate marketers during this time of pandemic and economic crisis given Amazon is booming. 

In this way you can create content which you could monetize if you are good at making unboxing videos or blogging. It may take a few years before this strategy results in thousands of dollars worth of income every month but if you stick to it this is how some influencers are making a lot of money these days from the work they made many years back. It takes a long time to rank on search engines but as traffic starts to increase the value of each page you made long ago raises in exponential proportions. Which will greatly increase your income opportunity. 

TIP: If you want to monetize your website with Adsense, create content relevant to micro niches which sell products worth thousands of dollars. This will bring you top tier traffic. Meaning each click is worth much more. Some ideas include mini race cars, motor bikes, Japanese katanas, jet ski/boats and recreational vehicles like campers. Do your research. Some people made their target to write about luxury painting and this has worked very well for them.

From Amazon affiliates you can expect to earn 4-10% of what the product is worth. Even though Amazon pays a small percent since they have become the biggest ecommerce retailer and their customer support is so good. You can expect this channel to drive a lot more sales than most other affiliate programs.

Adsense pays 68% of what an advertiser bids to you. So if you can manage to attract bids from big advertisers doing real state, banking services, selling or renting luxury cars and hotels. You can expect each qualified click to pay you $2 or more. 

In fact, I had never been successful generating income with Adsense. But now that I understand this is how it works. This website, which is less than a month old since I launched it. Is already producing more than $2 a day consistently. Once my SEO strategy kicks in 6-12 months from now, I can probably make more than $100 a day consistently. I may even choose to scale by testing paid advertising methods. Then I can rank faster and if properly optimized I could also generate more profit from Adsense and Amazon affiliates than what I spend in advertising. KEYWORD RESEARCH and finding low competition niches is the key to hit results much faster.

The lesson is, if you optimize your website to bring in the best traffic. Adsense will produce great results for you. I spent 10 months working on another blog which I did not optimize properly. This is when I first started out and I knew nothing. After 10 months I had made $12.68 which is nothing. 

That’s also really important. Don’t do this to make money. As it may take you years to succeed. Usually it takes at least 3 years producing valuable content so you can see great results. I would recommend you to do it to grow your skills and to produce value to other people. Until it generates all the income (and skills) you need.

TIP: If you want Adsense to produce more income for you. Link out to high authority sites. Search engines like Google and Bing are in the business of SELLING ADVERTISING. The most valuable clicks, which produce the most profits, for both publishers and advertisers are made within High Authority domains. Those entities are more trusted. Better maintained. More secure. Provide better quality information. All of which results in better USER EXPERIENCE. Since, the best ads and most profitable adds are served in these sites. It makes business sense for search engines to increase your rank when you link to high quality websites. GIVE VALUE and you will RECEIVE in the form of more traffic and the ability to partner with brands.

There are also many products for women. Like clothing, bags and hair products. And toys for kids as well. For example I found deals for cameras and I have also seen professional cameras which normally go for $800 for less than $500. This post was made less than a day ago.