Dearest Designers (grab a coffee, I need ten minutes)

I would like to speak on behalf of myself, a sworn freebie hunter and thank you leaver.

(I actually leave feedback more than just a cursory thanks - as I think it is more market worthy)

Thank you for taking a moment to hear me talk about the new trend of making freebie hunters tweet (or let's call it what it is - spam) our friends to come and visit your site and get the same freebie. No tweet or facebook account - no freebie.

****if you have no idea what I am talking about please see the post below*****

Firstly, may I just say that not all of us are just lazy freeloaders who can't be bothered to say thank you. Isn't it irony that due to spammers NOT from us, we have to spend time logging in and out of your site due to your spam settings? Then, to actually use the hosting service you use, we are forced to be constantly clearing cookies for 4shared – which guess what, logs you out of everything all over again - I think there has to be a better way.

Mediafire.  Ha! Just kidding.  *(um actually no I'm not. Mediafire is the best, it's free. Can you please just stop using 4shared. Please?  I will beg. It adds HOURS that we could be spending actually using your marvellous products.)  Just think about it. Ok?

Personally speaking, if a designer makes efforts to communicate with the readers (not just the occasional post and then lots of ads) I will go out of my way to leave a thank you.
I understand that nowdays being a designer requires a marketing team and that for some designers that means they are wearing many hats, so sometimes I am not even sure who I am thanking, or whether they actually read the comments. 

Better yet, is when the actual designer comes into the comments and engages conversation - so make sure you have a box we can tick to be alerted to any replies - we visit a lot of blogs.


I would leave a comment especially if I feel the designer is new, starting a new product line and is uncertain, or if no one ever comments, then I like to sprinkle some love around.
I have seen many designers complain and yet not many feel inclined to change their behaviour as much as their readers are expected to. There are better vehicles for encouraging interaction and response from your readers than enforcing worthless repetitive spam about the same freebie. Let us think for a moment, if a popular designer instigated this new policy.
I would recieve literally hundreds of the same tweet. I tell you now, I would be remembering your brand for all the wrong reasons. I would also resent my feed being swamped with essentially advertisements using my friends to sell me when they didn't even buy anything.
What I want to know is, is the tick box provided by blogger (which requires no login) not enough thanks? No malice here, its an honest question as I don’t know if this is the case. I LOVE when designers have the feature enabled.

You do know that you can make those check boxes that can appear at the end of each post contain whatever questions/content you wish? 

You could auto populate the checkboxes to say

( ) Thanks! I appreciate this
( ) Whoo hoo! More of this please!
( ) Thanks for the freebie, but it’s not my cup of tea.

This perhaps will increase the tick value because you will not only get thanks, but you will also get 1. customer interaction 2. trending statistics 3. an idea of what is popular with your readers.

Just an idea. (You can use those for free, and you don't need to tweet ;)

I think with a little thought, you creative, amazing designers can utilise the check box to do more than just say " thanks or I dont like this."Think outside the box.

You could even have

( ) I’ve been loving this week’s theme ( ) I would totally buy this kit!
( ) Please make more of this style of freebie

Think engage not enrage!

I wish I could take this to a bigger forum, as I am starting to see a lot of tweet for freebies and nope, I get none of them. It actually drives me away. Ditto passwords.
Pirates don't mind using passwords. We do.  You know, we buy your kits.
Pirates don't.  They don't read your blog. They don't read your warnings.
All most of these new hurdles just annoy one person - your actual customers.


I am going to post a tweet to get more people to see this letter. I encourage discussion.


Summing up, making you do something for a gift - It just seems like a non–gift.
Do you want a thank you or do you want advertising? Because you are asking for one and then enforcing the latter if you choose to make the facebook post or tweet a condition to download your "gift".


" I made this present for you, but before you get it, can you tell everyone how great it is (? unopened and unviewed) and how great I am ….. NO? Well, forget the present. No deal."

This is how it is? Is it not?

How many blogger/designers enable anon postings, which do take 5 seconds?
How many bloggers provide a chatbox at the side – and inform freebie finders
that they can leave a quick comment there ——>>>>>>
(You must do both, as chatboxes have a reputation for being full of old redundant content and we dont know if the designer reads it.)

Just one more thing (it blew out to seven - sorry!).

It is YOUR time and YOUR blog so you can do whatever you wish.
But I won't buy you nor will I download the freebie.  Some mums don't even bloody know what a tweet is?  Facebook?  You really think everyone has one?

Just as your obvious readers, it seems fair that we can shed light on what we actually feel when told we are ungrateful, lazy and rude in a matter of implied meaning. I also see blogs with 66 thank you posts, what are they doing that gets that result? Usually, it is something unique or to be really blunt, something worth paying for. That makes people go “wow! I just totally got this gorgeous thing that I will use (thats key) and that is so generous of the designer.
I simply MUST thank them cos I want more of this and also I want them to know just how happy they made me today. Result = 30 thank yous.

Just look at the last Goodie Train.
Submissions that were of better quality do get the comments.
It may be not nice, but lets really get the truth out on the table.
All freebies are not created equal. Freebies are not just done for the kindness factor - it is a marketing strategy, so we can play with your designs and also sample the quality.
So there is always that benefit of potential sales - am I right?
I know they take time to make, money to host and we bloody should be thankful.
But could you possibly try to make it easier to do so before you actually try and make it harder?

I will never tweet for a freebie on principle - and I am not alone.
People may say I understand why, but give them a choice - and will they still choose it?

The culture of thanking for freebies is not universal. But this is not the way to start a culture that is respectful, considerate and gracious.  That is what our digi culture is, and why it is such an amazing community. This just feels weird. Admit it!

Freebies are a part of the hobby - how did you get started? We all played with freebies once.

We all can be a sucker for a very good freebie. That's so unique. Let's protect it.
If I tweet about you - it's cos I want to. In the future, will people think that of my tweets?

Some designers give too much away, and it devalues their brand.
Maybe give less but make it higher quality. You will get those thank yous.
I see it on blogs most of the time a great freebie is offered.
I can provide examples in private, as designing is also a personal taste.
I do not claim to be an excellent judge of designing skill. I just hunt freebies and I buy kits
from those good freebies and designers.

Mind you some awesome designers are too scungy, and it also ruins their image.
We all know who they are. But it does take tweaking and communication.

You have every right to tell us if you feel let down, in fact I think its better to paint the whole story though – from both sides. Ask your readers why and then make it easier - not harder.

I'm still here... and still freebie hunting

Phew! I've been amiss from this blog for a  good fortnight or so and I apologize - I had to impose a ban on myself.  Not from you so much lol, but from downloading any more freebies until I managed to wrestle down the 50 GIG zip archive I already had (and that's just on one computer, all up I have 130G to unzip) as it was making my computer very sluggish and blogging, not to mention ANYTHING else was exceptionally slow.  Mind you, I did happen to make a decent dent in the ominous "unzipped" folder which will now ensure I can open Photoshop at least, lol
 I didn't have any room for months to allocate to the scratch discs (whatever they are - I set mine to be 3 GB do you think this is enough, wisely designer peeps -who may read this?)


As you may recall, last week was IDSD  (International Digital Scrap-booking Day) and there was 14 pages of Craft Crave just to begin with, five worthwhile blog trains and of course the Goodie Train. I liked the novelty and prettiness of the theme, The Orient but I think overall some designers felt extremely inspired by the palette and theme but generally most designers most of felt a little flummoxed/stifled at how to create original pieces, for instance I now have fifteen geisha elements and twenty Asian coins, which I think I won't ever use, but I couldn't resist their cuteness. Fall Carnival remains my number one contender for best train of the year. Did you spend up big on the DSD weekend?  One of my biggest motivators for designing myself is so I can raise just a small amount of funds to spend on paid kits - they really are ten times better than freebies.
And you know that I love my freebies. It's nice to just have everything co-ordinate rather than attempting to disguise the fact you have created a layout from a hodge podge mix of different designers, kits and colour schemes. However, beggars must not be choosers and for now, I am extremely grateful that freebies exist, so I can partake in this excellent creative outlet - I find just the process of planning layouts and collecting freebies cathartic, so I can imagine actually using my collection will be an immensely rewarding task. I still have only made one measly layout. But I am going to change that this week, as I am ready to post some layouts here - not on any gallery yet (argh!) and we can all have a chuckle - I am sure that I will be my own best/worst critic!

I also really enjoy MScraps (but how could you not with all of those esteemed designers in one place!) and lately I have been really impressed with the generosity of CatScrap, and have some beautiful QP albums as a result.  What are your favorite blog trains?  Do you prefer PSP heavy trains such as The Brat Pack Train or prefer the minimal elegance of an Mscraps train?  I do love Jen Yurko's contributions every time along with many others (ok I will name names but my memory is flawed remember so excuse me if I spell you wrong or get the name muddled, I am recalling these from the top of one's head!)  Doodelle, Scrap Matters peeps, Pixel Perfect Designs, Flergs, Ellie Lash, Vicki - A Work In Progress, Fei-Fei's Stuff, Captivated Visions, Caged Bird Designs, Aprilsa Designs -- ooh I know I am missing some, so I might in fact put together a list of best blog train submissions and award a prize - maybe take a vote?  Yes, let's do that.
Let me know if you have a blog train favorite or perhaps you yourself are a designer, you are most welcome to nominate yourself (encouraged even!)

 and I was right back to the red zone, with only 96mb to run the pc on (I do not recommend this, weird things start happening, I have expected to open my case and see twenty mischievous goblins having a drunken party inside, such was the inoperability of my computer.
Even though I'm 31 and therefore still acceptably permitted in nightclubs without looking entirely desperado, I am a bona-fide geek-chic. Give me gigabytes over an ice cold G&T any day.  I've always been enchanted with the  border-less freedom and instantly teleporting to a million (billion) cultures and locations of the Internet.. In fact, I was rather hoping the enamourment  would subside into something less intoxicating, so I can return to the days of bone idle laziness occasionally.  "Whatever can I do with myself today?" that seemed reassuring rather than the frenetic nojob ever gets finished before another one starts pace of middle age.  Remember being bored?  Doesn't it seem like ions ago, much before kids, careers that will not wait and everyone wanting a little piece of you that you can't even find for yourself thesedays?  Yes, the internet is speedy time travel and my cultural passport with a click of the mouse.

You may have noticed I left a particularly touching comment or feedback on your blog, and this is why you are now reading this, as I left a link - that is not self-promotion really, as I travel to hundreds of blogs in a week and have no way of ever finding out what the designer or writer said in response, it's quite sad really. But, it won't stop me from leaving these warm-fuzzies or customer feedback (which as I am qualified in Marketing Research and customer relations, I'm one of those  "can sell ice to eskimoes kind of girl" ).

 I have decided I will post my comments here, so I can remember them and also invite my readers to add their thoughts and opinions, besides I do wish to model " Freebie Fan Club Model Behaviour Code" which states that leaving contexual comments on posts that you feel you are taking something valuable from away from or you just feel implored to cheer that designer up who for baffling reasons seems to have no readers judging from the appalling lack of thanks or comments, despite having a downloaded tally in the hundreds for the hard work and talent they share.
I always like to make those designers feel heard - it can be very unnerving to be carrying on daily diatribes and conversations with oneself, in reality this is called insanity but online - it is called Blogging!

So, on that note,   Goodbye to myself - and to whomever may be reading along.
I'll be posting more regularly now, this was quite easy to type (as I love to write and talk - can you tell lol?)
and I will be sharing my commentary on what posts I have read and commented on, which will provide some interesting discussion and exploration of some excellent designing talent at very least.

Fondly,
Miss Renee

p.s Spread the word and my link, I would be eternally grateful - talking to oneself can get terribly mediocre!
I am now going to list the freebies via my side link - which I will update every day (if needed) This way I can also share discussion and freebie hunting tips and news in the main blog post for our beloved readers.
Always check the sidebars for great links to great freebies - all personally handchosen by myself and if you work down the list, you will be assured of getting the maximum hit of freebie goodness from all over the world. So get your google translate ready - because a good freebie hunter must be fluent in all languages freebie style!    Telecharger away!

Whoops!  My horribly flawed memory had a slight malfunction -  I forgot I had a blog almost - almost!

I have been on a unzipping blitz for the last four days and admit that I am now getting more of a feel of what my sorted scraps do and don't need.  It seems to me that a lot of elements are repeats of the same things namely flowers and epoxy! Flowers of all kinds - paper, beaded, ribbons, ceramic, felt - it seems flowers are popular scrapping items. Nothing against them personally, but I have enough of them now - ditto for butterflies, flairs, psp anything (honestly I really am done with those kind of elements, I almost crave real items - real buttons, real ribbons and real extractions. The artistic interpretations are best left to doodlers, as I can never have too many of them. I really enjoy designers who think outside the box when creating elements for themed kits. One of the goals I will have a designer is to be creative and constantly injecting personality and individuality into the design so my customer can tailor the layout to them specifically, through clever elements that allow maximum participation and interaction. I'm going to have a look around the shoppes and web to showcase some specialty elements and the designers here on the freebie fan club. It would be handy to know - especially if we can get some exclusive freebies for the blog to publish.  I am curious to hear about your freebie stashes - what folders are bulging?  What elements do you love receiving as freebies?  I love getting anything for my "specific date related" folder meaning date wheels, mini calenders, elements that you can show the date on the layout in an eye catching way.  

I also love anything memory keepsake related - camera elements, labels, cursive script minimal word art, neutral colours, journal spaces that are unique.. in fact, I have noticed that I am moving away from collecting glittery clustered items and now seek a cleaner, more sophisticated use of whitespace and a few themed elements to accent the story of the layout, rather than using elements to tell the story.  Posh indeed!

Running List of My Freebie Travels Tonight (list updates)

http://designbydani.com/girltalk/category/freebies/    Dani's Freebie Archive for Halloween Goodies.
http://suzee-q-stuff.blogspot.com/2010/10/wackadoo-wednesday-freebie-post_27.html Starting Here.

Attack of The Sads

Hi there :)


I'm posting here a little late, because I've been having some heartachey woes and even freebies could not cheer me (it was THAT bad) I'm bipolar and have bad days, weeks sometimes even months. I'm hoping to provide myself with a creative outlet with my scrapping to help process some of the traumatic things in my past and also the ongoing challenges of this disease.


I'm sure in time, I'll let you know all about me -but for now, I just keep it lightish.
I am doing layouts this weekend - notice I am just telling myself to do it.
My partner has gotten Swine flu, and playing nurse after playing nurse for a broken foot is really hard on both of us, he is grumpy and I am emotionally frustrated - my partner in crime is out of action and cuddles could be so nice right now, but they are not allowed.
So, I thought I should try again to go freebie hunting, and so I did..


Captivated Visions give great freebies don't they - oh the clusture elements- great quality. 
http://blog.captivatedvisions.co.uk/?p=2531
Check the last few posts, I also got a freebie called The Thinker - but I'll be darned if I can get the link to the blog, and I must link to that of course.


A high quality string bow element (CU) http://louclark.blogspot.com/2010/10/cu-mix-and-freebie.html Small freebies are still excellent when the quality is high.


http://tracireed.com/teamblog/?p=3078
*The tracy reed love affair continues - freaking 12 BB page album in a thanksgiving theme.
Tracy Reed is well on her way to recieving the hallowed Freebie Queen of the Year Crown.. oh yes, there will be judging and glittery presents.




A funky little template for you - it has my favorite trend at the moment, underlayers :)
http://katharynbrine.blogspot.com/2010/10/friday-freebie-lt16.html


http://candycoutoure.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-cute-halloween-kit-boo-with-qp.html
Kendall is bestowing us with yet another awesome QP - halloween themed of course!


I trust you all got the DARLING little smoke puff alpha from the always fab Kristen @ Digi delights? It's so cute and so obvious really, but I have seen no one do such an alpha!


http://digidelights.blogspot.com/2010/10/fired-up.html

OH AND LAST PART OF THE GORGEOUS KIT = THE ELLIES AND ALPHA ARE STILL UP!!
This is so fun, I adore these cute toon like elements in the latest halloween kits - I am a sucker for a good doodle. Goodness!   That just sounds so wrong, lol!  You know what I mean! It's great designing so be sure to leave the designer a note of thanks, it is very important we give back our appreciation to those artists who choose to give to us, it only takes a few minutes, much shorter than making this kit I imagine :) Just sayin folks!
http://scrappinserenity.blogspot.com/2010/10/tonight-its-halloween-alpha.html
http://scrappinserenity.blogspot.com/2010/10/tonight-its-halloween-elements.html


And lastly, for those who like photoshop styles like I do (not to mention fonts, actions and textures which I also covet - but I have a problem, lol) 
http://pinkigloodesigns.blogspot.com/2010/10/friday-freebie-3-happy-halloween-styles.html
Three lots of halloween glitter styles -woo hoo!  Thanks for that Pinky!




I'll be back with more over the weekend and some more chats.. still feeling a little sad so best try meditation to just "be" and see if that helps a little. Don't laugh, I am a desperate woman. I am off to ommmmm!

Little Birdy - Digitals Is Turning Six and You Get The Gifts!

Digitals is having some excellent birthday freebie promos and many of my favorites are listed below
as having something free on their blog for a week or a day, let's do this quickly - just the list then?

BLOG GIFTS:
Visit these designers' blogs for birthday bash gifts. Some are offering one gift for the week, others are offering a new gift each day of the week:
Amanda Thorderson http://flamingo-amanda.blogspot.com/
Barb Speck http://www.barbspeck.blogspot.com
Beth Rimmer http://www.bethscreativechaos.blogspot.com/
Christine Smith http://christinesmithdigital.blogspot.com 
Color With Caryn http://blog.colorwithcaryn.com/
DeDe Smith http://www.designzbydede.com
Diana Burton http://www.dbdesigns.digitalscrapbookpages.com/
doinDigital http://doindigital.blogspot.com/
Elka Romero http://elkaromero.com/ 
Georgia Oliver http://dreamsinkdesigns.blogspot.com/
Jennifer Maceyunas http://jenscroppingcreations.blogspot.com/
Joyce de Jonge http://joycedejongescrapbookdesigns.blogspot.com/
Kathryn Estry http://kathrynsdigitaldesigns.blogspot.com/
K Joi Studio http://kjoistudios.blogspot.com
Kalo Designs http://kalodesigns.com/wordpress/
Katie Mann http://katiemann.blogspot.com 
LBCreations http://lbcreations.blogspot.com/
Lifesong Kreations http://lifesongkreations.com/
Nini's Notions http://ninisnews.blogspot.com/
Paula Yagisawa http://designsbydreamerpaula.blogspot.com/
Sarah Meyer http://blog.sarahbdesigns.net 
Scrap4Brains http://scrap4brains.blogspot.com/
Silvia Romeo http://www.silviaromeo.blogspot.com