Around the Holiday Season free product giveaways are very popular. A group of marketers get together, pool their products and allow you to download them for free - in exchange for your email address.
This seems like a great deal, so what’s not to like?
In my experience the purchase price of a product is usually a very small component of the overall cost of the product. What is far more expensive is the time and attention you need to devote to the product to evaluate, study and implement it.
Before you download a free product - or purchase one - always budget the time and attention required to make use of the product. If you can’t afford it in those terms, then pass.
The other side of free giveaways is that the marketers want something in return for giving away their products: you attention. You will immediately be subscribed to their email lists and subject to their marketing messages. One Christmas giveaway that I signed up for last year has resulted in an additional 2,895 emails in my inbox. (Yes I am a bit obsessed with tracking…)
Never download or purchase something “just in case” you may need it in the future. Always follow the “just in time” research rule: look something up, download and purchase products only at the time when you need it for moving a project forward.
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