Students free stuff – Free student grants

Question by Swagato: Why does nonresident international students in USA pay social security and Medicare taxes?
Why does nonresident international students in USA pay social security and Medicare taxes? A major portion of these students will end up leaving USA. Hence they do not get the benefits anyway and end up paying for something they do not get value for. What gives? Is there anyway to get these refunds back if the student leaves USA for good?

Best answer:

Answer by Ralph N
that is the america way.
paying for something and get no value.

What do you think? Answer below!

Some Free Advice About Freebies

Out of all 616,500 words in the English language, one of the most powerful – if not <i>the</i> most powerful – is the word “free.”

In fact, when it comes to marketing your product or service, “free” can take on near magical proportions. 
It’s amazing how four little letters can open doors and pocketbooks the world over.

Whether you’re giving away a free newsletter, free samples, buy-one-get-one-free, or a free widget, use the word “free” in your advertising materials, and you can watch your response rates soar.

By now you may be thinking that offering something for free sounds like a smart idea.  Well, before you do, here are some guidelines:

<b>Make your free offer something of value.</b>
Never give away junk…it just ticks people off. Not only that, but then they’ll tell other people how cheesy your freebie was.  You could end up doing yourself a lot more harm than good.  Free shipping, free booklets, free pens, free service…make sure your offer is quality, desirable, and usable.

<b>Get something in return.</b>
Most freebies are made to either generate a sale, a referral, or something else of value to the company making the offer – even if it’s a simple email address or customer goodwill.  Decide what you want to get in return before you decide what you’re going to give away for free.

<b>Don’t attach strings.</b>
The freebie itself needs to be truly free – otherwise, you risk losing repeat customers.  When you attach strings to a free offer, you become suspect in the customer’s mind. Do you really think they’re going to continue doing business with you if they don’t trust you?

<b>Make the offer relative to your brand.</b>
Your free offer becomes even more powerful if it builds your brand in some way.  For instance, when people go to my website (http://www.businessburrito.com) and sign up for my weekly ezine, they receive a free, downloadable e-booklet called “11 Quick Ways to Build Business.”  Hopefully, they find it valuable – but it’s also valuable to me from a branding standpoint because it reiterates the fact that my website is about helping small businesses grow.  If you can, tie your freebie into your brand.

<b>Keep it simple.</b>
Don’t complicate your offer.  If you make it difficult, you will chase people away, and leave them with a bad taste in their mouths regarding your company.  Keep it real, and make it easy.

<b>Deliver.</b>
If you are offering a freebie that has to be sent to the customer, send it in a timely and efficient manner. Take this opportunity to dazzle your customer with efficiency.   Nothing impresses a customer more than a company that keeps its promises.

<b>Follow up.</b>
Again, we offer freebies not only to make sales, but also to build repeat business.  Don’t be shy about following up your free offer with another offer, or checking to see how they liked your free offer.

<b>Cater to the skeptic.</b>
As much as free can be a powerful consumer trigger, it can also turn some people off. So if you’re in a business where there are a lot of skeptics, experiment with offering an some alternative to free that still gives an incentive, but doesn’t scare them away…like a money-back guarantee, or a discount.

Can you think of ways that you can start putting the power of “free” to work for your small business?  Because in this day when money is tight, I believe “free” might become even more powerful than ever.

(c) Copyright 2008, BusinessBurrito.com.  All rights reserved.

More Freebies Articles

Question by pinkstitchings: Does anyone have any ideas for freebies to give away at a craft fair?
I am going to be in a craft fair selling some of my handmade items. I am wanting to put some really crafty freebies in the bags that my customers buy. Anyone got any crafty ideas or websites I can go to make some.
I cannot crochet,or knit. I can only sew or other crafty stuff like that. If anyone can help, it will really be greatful!!!

Best answer:

Answer by fishineasy
Have you ever made anything with that plastic canvas. It is so easy to work with. You get some different colored yard and cut out …..say bookmark size strips and sew the yard in and out until you cover the canvas until you have it covered. Makes a cute and inexpensive bookmark. You can cut out cross shapes and do the same and tie a ribbon on the top and it makes a nice Bible bookmarker.

For many, many more patterns go to:

www.allcrafts.net/plcanvas.htm

Stitched Bookmark
Cut a full size plastic canvas in half. Cut 1½-inch strips of canvas using the grid lines. Note: Cutting right of the grid lines, the first strip will have a row of 10 squares and the remaining strips will have 9 squares. Trim off the rough edges. Cut yarn in lengths of 12-inches for easy handling.
Thread the needle with your first yarn color using the needle threader. Ask an adult for help – needles can be sharp!
Note: Alternating colors, each row will have a count of 6 squares going down and 9 squares going across. Start by counting down on the left side, 6 squares from the top and put the needle in the 6th hole starting from the back. Note: This will be the bottom of the row. Pull the yarn towards you leaving a small piece of yarn hanging through the back (tail).
Take the needle to the top (1st hole) and pull yarn through going away from you. Note: This should give you a straight up and down stitch. Continue working left to right until you have a completed row. When complete, take the needle (should be on the backside of the row) put it under the stitches about halfway down to hide the tail. Trim excess and move onto the next section. Next Rows (new yarn color); count down from your completed stitches, 5 squares to start the next color.
Note: Repeat steps 7-12 until you have 8 rows completed. There will be 3 rows left on the strip at the bottom. With scissors, trim off the bottom 3 rows. Cut a total of 10 pieces of yarn 4-inches long. Use all one color or alternate colors (5 of each). Thread the 4-inch pieces of yarn, pulling through each square at the bottom. Tie a knot with the bottom yarn being sure to even up the ends. This will create fringe at the bottom. The last 4-inch piece of yarn is to be put through the center square at the top of the bookmark.

nfd♥

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

Freebie Force Review. the Unbiased Freebie Force Review

People love love saving money. Some go to great extents by driving all over town, Sunday newspaper flyers in tow, to benefit from good deals. Frugality isn’t just about using coupons anymore. There are so many creative ways to not only save money, but in many cases, get items at no cost.

Save On Groceries
Instead of wandering aimlessly through the grocery store picking up things you may not need, make a list of items you need. Take coupons for these items. THEN, make a quick calculation of how much these groceries will cost and take that amount, in CASH with you to the grocery store. This is the best way to fend off your splurging alter ego.

When Buying An Automobile
You lose a large chunk of your initial payment in a new car once the wheels leave the lot and enter the road for the first time. We don’t even lose money on stocks that quickly. On average, domestic models lose about 50% of their resale value during the first three years of their life, while imports lose nearly 50 percent over the first four years.

This rapid loss has everything to do with marketing and little to do with the vehicle’s worth. Because of improved engineering and quality control, cars last longer than ever and their average life span is now more than ten years. So buying a 3 or 4-year-old vehicle means you are getting 70% or more of its useful life for around 50 percent of its original cost.

A used car can also save you hundreds of dollars in insurance costs. The actual savings from driving a well maintained used car can easily be over ,000 a year.

Buying Wholesale
Work your network of friends and acquaintances to find wholesale sources. People that you know such as Plumbers, and contracters have access to wholesalere. In order to take advantage of reduced prices, you may have to hire these people to get your job done, but the savings could be substantial.

Freebies. Another way to save an incredible amount of money is through freebies. There are people all over the world who miss out on free products and services simply because they did not know they could get them free. Not “junk” free, but truly valuable free things. Such as: free laptops, free vacations, free airline flight vouchers, free stays at five star hotels, and more various products and services. There are many websites, in fact thousands, that offer free things. Not everything will be of value to you, but many things will be. It takes a pretty good amount of time to find the “good stuff” because there is so much out there. But if you look long enough you’ll be quite happy. And after all, why pay for it when you can get it for free? Happy Saving!

How To Make Money From Freebie Hunters

I regularly visit marketing forums, and one of the most common things people complain about is not being able to make enough profits from their list. They complain that the vast majority of their subscribers are simply freebie hunters, and have absolutely no intention of spending any money. So how can you make money from these freebie hunters?

Well this is a problem that affects a lot of online marketers. We’re told that the money is in the list, which is absolutely true, but nevertheless it’s important to remember that most people on your list will not be buyers, unless of course you’ve built up a list of previous customers.

If you think about it, this isn’t surprising because most marketers build up their list in the first place by giving away a free report or mini-course just to get people onto their list, so straight away they are attracting freebie hunters to their list.

But even taking all this into consideration, all is not lost. It’s still perfectly possible to generate cash from these subscribers, without persuading them to dig out their credit card.

One of the best ways of doing this is by offering free and valuable content, but not in the actual email itself. Instead you want to direct them to a page of your website or blog where this content can be found and strategically place pay-per-click ads, such as Google Adsense, around the content so you earn money every time a visitor clicks on one of these ads. After all your list provides a great way of directing traffic to your sites, so why take advantage of this opportunity.

This way even if you have a list of say 1000 subscribers, with most of them apparently freebie hunters, by directing them to monetized pages of your site you only need them to click on ads to earn you money, which I’m sure you’ll agree is easier than getting these people to buy from you.

Another way of squeezing cash from a list of freebie seekers is by sending them to pay-per-lead companies. This can be very lucrative because a lot of companies will pay you generous commissions for each visitor you send who carries out a certain activity. This could be something as simple as filling out a form, signing up for a free newsletter, or downloading a free piece of software, all of which your typical freebie hunter will be more than happy to do.

So to conclude, although we would all ideally like a large email list of proven buyers that we can profit from, even a low quality list of freebie hunters can generate profits for you if you use some of the methods outlined in this article.

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