There are lots of ways to get "free" stuff on element14, although none of them are free of effort and none of them are guaranteed to work. Here is a little explanation of the ways I am familiar with to get free stuff on element14 along with the typical strings attached:
- Periodically there are promotional "free" giveaways of new products. These are easy to apply for, but you need to be a member and you need to write an application. Sometimes the application requires you to specify why you want the product or what you would use it for. Sometimes you need to provide a bit more justification of why you need the product - like a mini proposal. Generally, these promotions operate like a lottery and the less work that is required to write the application the less likely you are to win. And of course the more popular the product is the less likely you are to win. Sometimes there are eligibility criteria such as you have to be a teacher and use the product for educational purposes or you may need to consent to use of your material in promotional activities.
- Sometimes there are free giveaways of swag or even products to members who participate on the forum. This is more likely to happen to you if you participate more actively. If you participate enough to become a top member, it happens even more. This isn't a predictable thing, but it is great when it happens.
- Sometimes there will be a mini contest with an associated giveaway. It could be as simple as explaining what you would use a particular product for, or answering questions in a quiz correctly, or identifying some obscure picture. Sometimes the quiz has general technical questions, and sometimes they are related to the sponsor of the giveaway. Sometimes there is a choice of products to win in these contests.
- Sometimes there is a contest associated with a particular product, company or event that has a product or swag as a prize. For example the may be a contest for Arduino Day, or Pi Day or May 4th. The difficulty of winning is usually proportional to how desirable the prize is or how much it is worth. Sometime the prizes are quite expensive and sometimes they are just swag.
- Usually there are project contests associated with specific holidays or celebrations, such as Halloween or Christmas. These are usually run like Project14 and require you to build a project that wins over competing projects, where the project theme is related to the particular event.. There may be specific products as prizes or there may be discretionary shopping cart prizes.
- The prizes for Project14 contests are usually discretionary shopping carts. The themes for Project 14 contests are chosen member votes and judged by volunteer members. This is one of the higher probability methods of winning free stuff, but it does take some work. These Project14 contests have the most freedom to use whatever components the designer wishes and come with very few strings, including no obligations to even complete the project.
- Road test equipment is routinely offered to members in exchange for publishing a blog about the road test experience. The difficulty in winning one of these is that you have to write a road test proposal that is more compelling than competing proposals, and you have to demonstrate credibility regarding completion of the road test. (Such as having previously published blogs)
- Design challenges are bigger projects that can offer larger prizes, but may involve much more work. They involve incorporating some kit supplied by a sponsor in a project and creating multiple blogs. First you have to win the kit by generating a winning application (project idea/proposal), then you have to complete the project and write a bunch of blogs that are better than competitor blogs, The kit can also be quite expensive in some cases.
- If you want to participate in more defined project compensation, you can become a publisher on Element14 Presents. You need to sign up for the program and generate proposals that includes costs and compensation. Once the proposal is accepted, you have a contract with known compensation and supplied kit.
- Webinars on the forum may provide draw prizes to attendees.
For those who put in the effort, there is a lot of potential free stuff to be had. There is usually a learning curve to figure out how much effort is required to win each type of contest, but a lot can be learned by looking at how previous contest entries worked. The winning probability will increase as you gain experience and credibility. It also pays off to check the site regularly for give-away activity. Generally it is not a way to make a good wage, but it is a great way to partially defray costs while having fun making things, learning about technology, acquiring skills, and learning how to create good proposals and interesting blogs.
All these methods of obtaining free stuff add to the fun and help to make this the best forum on the net.
I have certainly benefitted enormously from these programs, including outfitting my lab with a pretty complete suite of instrumentation that I would not otherwise have been able to afford.
How have you benefitted from these programs and have I missed any methods?
