Are you addicted to freebies?

Are you too addicted to freebies? Is your computer full of freebies you downloaded? Have you ever opened them? When you see that magical word "freebies" is your instant reaction to click?

I have a confession: I'm addicted to freebies

Yesterday while I was clicking on a button to get some freebie, I realized something, I don't really need that thing nor do I want to be on the subscriber list for that blog.

It was something about freelancing and how to become one. Thank God there was a description of what you get in that freebie so I just exited the page because I didn't need it.

I was a freelancer and I knew all that, it would be one more unnecessary subscription and download on my computer.

Today I checked my Misc folder and ended up in shock. I have around 3 GB of freebies just sitting there on my computer. And what's even worse, I've cleaned it up a month ago.

At least half of the files were deleted in that spring computer cleaning haul. I left only things that I might need. Guess what? In the last month, since the cleaning haul, I've opened maybe 10 files, 10 files out of 2000.

I made a promise to myself, no more signing up for an unnecessary email list just to get freebies. I wonder how long will I last.

How it all started?

About a year and a half ago I was job hunting while occasionally freelancing and looking for ways to earn some money online until a get an office job.

That's when I started researching blogging and everything connected to it. I wanted to have as much info as possible before deciding whether to start one or not.

My favorite research website was Pinterest and most of the pins have that magic word in them.

It was when I became addicted to freebies. I needed more and more and more. I was subscribing to everything with words blog and a freebie in it.

Naturally, I didn't read 90% of all those downloaded freebies. The other 10% I've opened, but at least 5% wasn't as useful as it said on the Pin.

What I've learned about blogging and freebies?

I didn't just subscribe to dozens of email lists, I even joined several Facebook groups for bloggers. I wanted to learn as much as I could before investing in blogging.

One piece of information I couldn't find at that time was how much does starting a blog actually cost. No matter how cheap it is still an investment. So besides researching basic blogging stuff I also looked at the financial side of blogging.

What all those freebies failed to tell me is that you need from 75$ to 250$ for basic stuff and around 400$ if you go for optional things as well. That's a lot of money if you are only occasionally having income streams and bills to pay. I wrote more on the blog cost subject in this post.

Even after I didn't really get all the information I needed, I continued to subscribe to blogs. I probably became even more addicted to freebies, hoping that one of them will get my questions answered. To be honest, it didn't, it made my question list even longer.

What I did learn is that most of the freebies are essentially the same, just in a different design. All the blog post checklists are the same, some are longer but not saying anything new. All the "start a blog in 5 steps" are the same.

This text is a part of a blog post I've pubished in my first few months of blogging.