Free Magazines

What are the chances of getting a subscription to a major magazine like People, Rolling Stone, TV Guide, or Maxim free of charge? Aside from one major company's free magazine offer that involves a marketing promotion, the chances are slim to none.

Four websites offer free magazines subscriptions: MyCokeRewards.com,

Magazines.com, AllMags4Free, and FreebiePeople.com. Of the four websites MyCokeRewards.com, offered a (somewhat) free magazine offer.

For MyCokeRewards is a free magazine offer from Coca-Cola bottlers for a twelve-month subscription to Redbook, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, CosmoGirl, or Seventeen magazines. The only catch is a marketing promotion in which users are required to register with the MyCokeRewards website. Codes are then entered onto the website from Coke, Diet Coke, or other varieties of Coke products. When point totals reach 64 points, users can choose from a selection of participating magazines. The points from Coke products vary from 20 ounce bottles to 12-pack "Fridge Packs," plus users have to remember to save their points and to enter the codes into the website.  

The second free magazine offer comes from Magazines.com. The major drawback with this website is the fact that the site does not offer free subscriptions to mainstream magazines. A regular computer surfer has never heard of magazines such as Baseline, Print Media, B to B, and Laser Focus World. These magazines are centered more towards people who work in a specific industry rather than regular consumers looking to subscribe to a major publication. Instead, mainstream magazines are offered at a discounted subscription rate, not a free subscription.

Free magazine offers for major publications such as Maxim are possible from Freebiepeople.com, provided the consumer signs up for a specific number of offers from FreebiePeople's sponsors. These offers include sweepstakes entries, offers to refinance student loans, offers for Diabetics, and information about how to work from home. With this website's free magazine offer, you must complete the sponsor's offers before getting the magazine subscription. It is impossible to decline the offers and still get the subscriptions.

The fourth and final website, AllMags4Free, works identical to FreebiePeople's magazine offer. Users are required to complete sponsor offers before receiving their magazine choice.

In all, free magazine subscriptions were investigated using four different websites. Two sites involved mandatory sponsor offers, one site offered subscriptions to industry related websites, and the last site, Coca-Cola, required redeeming points from their products, and choosing from a limited list of choices.

 

MyCokeRewards. The Coca-Cola Company. Copyright 2006. September 21, 2006. http://mcr.us.icoke.com/content/help/about.jsp

Magazines.com. Copyright 2006. Magazines.com, Inc. September 21, 2006.
http://www.magazines.com/ncom/mag?subject=67&a fd_number=4297&ggkey=Free+Magazine;http://www. />
Allmags4free.com. "Maxim Magazine-Free Subscription." September 21, 2006. Copyright Allmags4free.com. September 21, 2006. http://www.allmags4free.com/free-magazines/18/0/74

FreebiePeople.com. "Maxim Magazine signup page. FreebiePeople.com. September 21, 2006. http://maxim.freebiepeople.com/index.cfm?mbaffid=1 674\