Can you say FREE?
You may want to think twice about giving anything away for free on your web site. A client who offered a free item on their web site for viewers of their television show learned the hard way! As a local Michigan television show there was a manageable amount of requests for the free item from their viewers after the airing of each episode. Imagine the surprise when hundreds of emails poured in requesting the free item! When thousands upon thousands of requests came in it was an obvious clue something was up. A few inquiries later and the answer was discovered. All of the emails were coming from a web site that did web searches for the word FREE. Upon discovering any free items available on the web, this web site posted the web site name and link and all of their members began jumping onto the client’s site placing orders.
If you are giving away items that are costly and you are offering only to specific visitors there are a few solutions to avoid an onslaught of bogus requests.
1. Make the word FREE a graphic instead of text. Searches will not discover a graphic that is not identified.
2. Create a password protected area that responds only to correct password entries.
If any other solutions develop please let us know! It would be great if you could add to our blog and help everyone.