400 Products later....

Today marks the end of the Freebie-Man quest. A quest which spanned two years and asked the simple question "Can anyone get just about anything for free?".

The answer was a resounding yes, with over 400 products (worth £5000 / $8000) gained simply by asking nicely. From a kitchen sink to my entire Christmas for two years I proved that nice people can get something for nothing. Over time this strategy evolved in to the principle of a unique offer, a way of asking for something for free in return for your help of some kind which became a four step plan for anyone to get just about anything for free.

This plan was broken down through my first and only book, which took readers on the comical journey of my quest to get 100 products for free whilst teaching them how I did it along the way. Despite appearances on BBC News, Radio 5 Live, USA Today, ABC News and the Times the book was self published and destined for obscurity, shifting a measly twenty or so copies.

So to celebrate the closing of this chapter the complete book is now available for free as a pdf by clicking here. It's the least I can do for those who have read my ramblings for 2 years, and a great place for those to start who are new to the world of free stuff. If you like it pass it on; it makes sense for a book about free stuff to be free and available to everyone so the more people who read it the better.

As for me, this site will evolve in to my new project over the next month. The Freebie-Man project will be archived and available until the end of time and my next project will begin. Yes it will be another daft experiment, but at the same time you'll learn a lot of useful stuff you didn't know.

In the meantime drop me an email on mikeiswicked@hotmail.com. I'm still available to discuss the book or the concept of getting something for nothing.

Thanks for reading,
Mike Essex aka Freebie-Man

Reclaiming twitter from celebrities

Can a normal bloke (i.e me) get more followers on twitter than a celebrity? It seems like an impossible mission but there's a very good reason for seeing if something like this is possible. You can help too by following me.

When I joined twitter, celebrities and 'normals' (as we are known) were on an equal footing. We could send them messages, they would reply and intelligent discussions were had by all. Stephen Fry being one of the best for twitter etiquette and always following back and sending nice messages to all he can.

Then a change happened. Celebrities caught wind of the tool as a way to blast messages to people all at once. They joined in their waves, parked their accounts, and let people folow them without offering any follows in return. Ashton Kutcher being one of the worst offenders by following less than 100 people despite his million followers.

Some celebrities even refused to even ackowledge any replies, posting only bland posts about their brand. Oprah only writes about her show or products she wants to promote, heck for months her account has thousands of followers and not a single message.

Then came the ghost accounts. People paid to post on behalf of celebrities. If you read BritneySpears you aren't really talking to her, just a public relations writer pretending to be her. Fair enough have PR people tell us what you're up to, but pretending to be you? Things have gone too far.

So I set upon a quest. To even the score and prove that whatever celebrities can do, we the public can do better.

I setup a new account MoreThanCelebs to show that a normal bloke can achieve the same twitter response as a celebrity. Of course I have no platform to broadcast myself and no established name to reply on so a million followers for me will be harder to achieve but that's the aim.

So if you want to even the score between celebrities and the public on twitter, and more importantly get them talking to us in the right way follow MoreThanCelebs, drop me an @ and spread the word. More updates to come as things snowball.

P.S Stephen Fry keep up the good work.