Is it really "free"?

You know what really ticks me off? Someone sends you an email that looks interesting, and offers you a "free" report. From the title you think "That sounds like it might be useful - probably not, but you never know." So I click on the link and, lo and behold, there is a short video on the landing page that tells me ABSOLUTELY NOTHING except to direct me to enter my email address to receive the report.

Now, I wasn't born yesterday, and have actually fallen for enough of these to know that over the next few days or weeks, I am going to get inundated with "follow-up" messages promoting other "useful" stuff that they know I will need and want.

I am sorry, but that does not meet my definition of "free". If what you are offering me is so great, I should be beating a path back to your site, and not have to be enticed back with "follow-up" messages. If your offering is not what I need at the moment, I DO NOT WANT TO BE PESTERED! Don't act like the salesperson we all dread: the ones that stick to you like gum on the bottom of your shoe the minute you walk in the store.

If you truly have a free offer, great! Give it to me (without expecting anything in return, including my email address) and go away. If you have what I need I will be back. Keep pestering me and I definitely will not be back.

By the way, I just "discovered" trashmail.net, a free service that lets you create disposable email addresses. It seems to be based in Germany and seems like a great idea for just these kinds of "free" offers. Unfortunately, I went to sign up and haven't received my confirmation email yet, so I can not report on their effectiveness, but I definitely like the idea.