Sunday, January 16, 2011

Pay for A Freebie with Spam? I don't like this...

On my freebie frolic today, I saw a cute little freebie advertised on Craftcrave, which caught my eye.
http://www.scraplantis.com/gabs-blog/2011/01/13/so-why-is-it-only-free-with-a-tweet-or-facebook-post/


Now, I have no axe to grind specifically with the designer Gabs, who is lovely and doesn't hurt a fly with her designing business and is most likely trialling this idea after seeing it on another blog perhaps - but I am here as a freebie hunter to say that this is ill-advised.   First of all, here is the unedited post (in entirety) so you have an idea on how it works;

SO WHY IS IT ONLY FREE WITH A TWEET OR A FACEBOOK POST?




this is the question not only me but other designers got asked and I can easily answer it to you
it’s because to earn a little thank you for all we do for free!
now why do we want a little thank you?
it’s so easy as well: we designers put a lot of love but also time and work into our designs and of course – that goes without words – into our freebies as well and guess what happened for a while now? I think you know it already: the freebies were downloaded more than hundred times but only one or two left a little message to say “thank you” – we even get complains if a link isn’t working properly. seems like people have minutes to complain but no second to say thank you.
as a designer it really hurts
:heul:
now we designers have to reach for a decision
1. stop giving away freebies
or
2. let us pay with a tweet or facebook post
so I go with the second for now and I hope you will be happy with my decision
now on to the fun – here is another freebie for you


end text quote



So here is what I commented in reply (and no I did not get the freebie)


"All mass tweeting is going to do is depreciate the brand and the freebie itself.
I also was one of the few who left comments like thank you, and there is just an app you can do for us to leave a thank you without excessive spam bot hurdles.
It is not our fault, spammers exist?? I love the new checkbox idea, with thank you, more of this, or less of this – surely customer feedback is as valuable as a worthless tweet that is destined to get repeated enmasse as your freebies become popular?
If it is a thank u that you want, then this should suffice, but if it is advertising you want, then that would mean tweets do it better for you. I think freebies are still an excellent way to build a relationship between you and customer, and the customers you get, enjoy a treat every now and again. With how competitive the market is with heaps of designers, I have been dismayed to see designers shoot themselves in the foot by making freebie hurdles – such as passwords and this kind of pay for this. I am tired of pirate phobia that punishes people that actually BUY kits??? All you do is turn us away, and pirates were never going to buy your stuff. I am really passionate about this issue, because freebies are an essential part of the hobby, and if they die out, then many people (how did most of us start by having a harmless play with free stuff right???) won’t digi scrap – then we are all in trouble.
Thank you’s are nice, but they should not be the fuel for what you do.
Your passion for customer service to the people who buy, well, that is worth something. We give your blog traffic which you can convert to ads if you wanted to – I would be more happy clicking an affiliate link then spamming my friends. I just think this would totally kill the very nature of a freebie.."
If people wish to have more conversation, my blog is
http://freebiefanclub.blogspot.com/
Thank you
Miss Renee
xoxoo




Now it is your turn!

I would like to see if any other freebie hunters and mixed buyers (meaning you buy kits when you can and when you think they are worth it, and you have to have them) would like to express how they feel.  Do you have a Facebook account or Twitter account in the first place?  Would you consider getting one in order to keep getting freebies?   Do you think this idea will catch on?
Do you agree that the tweet or post to facebook is spam, and by very nature against the common goal to keep the internet free of clutter and useless information.  How do designers not know that 853 tweets on the same item (if your freebie is well designed, sure why not - I have seen that many) will make buyers irked at your brand for choking up their feeds with redundant advertising ?

Penny for your thoughts, again this is not personal. Let's keep it that way :)
Just talking about designers and this freebie problem of getting no thanks.
I would like it solved myself as I am tired of being tarred with the same brush.
It makes me feel so guilty to be a freebie hunter, like we have a bad rap cos some people don't say thank you.
Why don't they make it easier?  Less spam hurdles, more tickboxes and chat boxes??

Share this post around if you like, I may invite some others into the discussion.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

I just started designing so everything I do is free.
I don't like the twitter or facebook freebies at all. I never had twitter but I did have a facebook. I deleted it because all anyone was doing was games and spam. No one talked about anything real. I would never start up a new acount just to get a freebie. There are times when I am tempted but I know in the long run, it won't matter.
I work hard on freebies now because I know it will bring in more scrappers so when I am ready to open a store, I will have people interested.
It was kind of sad when one of my Christmas freebies got almost 900 downloads and only 20 something thank yous but the downloads alone tell me people are interested in my work and that makes me happy.
I'm going to keep my freebies as easy as possible.

Anonymous said...

I love freebies too, but some of the designers make it impossible to leave a thank you as an anonymous taker. I don't have twitter, a google account, a blog, a url or any other fancy widget. I just want to say thank you, but I can't. I do have facebook, but it's to keep in touch with far-away family to see the pictures of growing kids, so I don't want to clog up my account with nonsense (not that the freebies are nonsense, I do love them) but I don't need to see 900 thanks you's. I'm sure the other 850 that didn't leave comments feel the same way.

Anonymous said...

I to am a up coming designer and I love to hear feed back on my items. When I get something (brought or fee) I always say thank you. I guess thats how I was raised. I enjoy sharing the things I make. Every once in a while I do like to read the thank yous. When I log on to my blogger and I see I have comments I'm in joy because it lets me see that they do like my items and they not just downloading it because it is free.

I once had a tweeter account but deleted it because I didn't see any point about it.

I have a facebook page so I can keep in touch with a few family and friends because I do live to for away. I have a blog account so I can post up my items for all to see and use.

But the whole tweet or facebook post to get a freebie I don't agree to much on. There are other ways to get freebies. I would do the posts myself to let people know what is going on at my blog. Not have people comment in order to get a freebie.

KelliesKreations said...

I am a designer and i give away freebies. Yes i do it cos i love to design and i enjoy people using and liking my designs. I pay for a lot of the stuff i use to make my designs so i appreciate thankyou's. I have thousands and thousands of downloads on my 4Shared account but only a few thankyou's. Why is that? Im giving you somwthing for free...why cant you say thanks? I think its rude. Thankyou's arent fuel for what i do. But they certainly are nice. I come home from work and sit at my pc for hours making freebies. Yes i know no one asks me to, but people sure do hit that download button quick smart as soon as i have something new up. I wont do the whole Facebook or Twitter thing. If the no comments annoy me that much i'll go back to password protecting my files or just stop doing it all together.
This is a good post. And you've been so quiet lately!!!

Anonymous said...

Hi Miss Renee,

you speak to me from the heart. I'm not on twitter or facebook. Since it is dangerous to privacy.
But I have another problem. I write many thanks for freebies and often personal words, but the owners give me an answer on their! blog (under my post), is not on my blog or guest book, what would please me because a link is under my Nickname to my blog. I'm not reading my posts for a second time!
I give therefore only freebies, if there is an anniversary. I'm also a bit sad that solidarity does not hobbyists. But what costs nothing and is abundant, is for human no good, especially for those who see money as a god ....
Sorry my english, It's Google-translation :-)
I would link your blog on my blog.
Have a nice day!
Doro

mskinsey said...

Below is a copy of the post I just left on Gabs's blog:

Thank you for this sweet little freebie. I’m all for leaving thank-you’s and praise whenever I can, but right now I am on one of the slowest Interent connections in the world (sometimes down to 7.5kb/sec! I kid you not), and it is anguish just to access web pages much less ones that are heavy with graphics, sounds, videos, etc., mush less have to go thru several steps to tweet on Facebook.

I did join Facebook, but much against my will. I’m only there so I can communicate with my oldest son, who does not do email. However, I am not so sure that the owner of Facebook and his minions of administrators have their customers best interests at heart. I think they are more interested in making money than in us. Of course, I don’t know why the owner thinks he needs more money since he’s already quite rich. But greed seems to be the order of the day in this new millenium.

I saw the movie about Facebook and social networking on a flight home over the holidays, and I was appalled by the poor ethics displayed in that film by the man who became the face behind Facebook. Is this the kind of person we want to entrust our privacy with? I think not. But I will go along with the flow for now as the alternative is to miss out on lots of lovely freebies created by designers I love.

It would be great if other choices were made available that did not involve Facebook and Twitter. BTW, regarding the latter, I can’t imagine a sillier site or concept. Everyone I know makes jokes about people who post details about the most mundane aspects of their lives in that venue. My goodness, how do they even have lives to live? They are all twittering … if they aren’t wasting their time in the cafe or farm on Facebook. Are these are the great minds of the future who will be taking care of the world one day?

Cheryl said...

I opened up this topic to discussion on my fanpage.

I am very hesitate to use it.

I just wanted to leave you a comment though because I saw you call yourself a "freebie hunter".....

...did you know I came up with that name for the digi world?

No one knows it. I'm trying to remember the blog long ago where it was coined.

It was two girls back in 2005/2006 that were the first "freebie hunters" and I chatted with them in their cbox chat and came up with the name and then the next day they blogged it that they liked it so much they were going to call themselves freebie hunters. Then they made sidebar banners with the name for others to use and that's how the name spread.

KelliesKreations said...

Hummie are you saying shes not allowed to call herself a 'freebie hunter'?? did you copyright the name???