Anyway, if you’re reading this here on HIF and have been seeing new posts recently, then you’re clearly not suffering from the glitch. This is more for Hiffers reading this on Twitter, Facebook, the newsletter, etc.

In case you missed the first post I made, here is how you fix the problem and start getting the new freebies to show up on the site!

1. Clear your browser’s cache. It takes 15 seconds and instructions for most browsers can be found at that link.
2. Close your browser.
3. Finally, reopen your browser, go to HIF, and press CTRL+R (for Windows) or CMND+R (for Mac).

That should do it! Sorry again for the hassle.

The allusion to site updates wasn’t a farce, but I figured this piece of news deserved it’s own post to start with. Long story short, I broke the site last Friday and didn’t find out about it until yesterday. Apparently a ton of Hiffers haven’t been seeing any new posts since September 24. My bad!

To make matters worse, those of us who saw the new updates were still experiencing discrepancies across the site (comment counts were inaccurate, new posts would show up and then vanish, and I think my room’s haunted with a ghost…well, that last one really only applies to me).

I’ve fixed the code on my end, but it could take up to 72 hours to filter down to everyone. However, there are some quick and easy steps you can take to make sure you get the correct fix much sooner:

1. Clear your browser’s cache. It takes 15 seconds and instructions for most browsers can be found at that link.
2. Close your browser.
3. Finally, reopen your browser, go to HIF, and press CTRL+R (for Windows) or CMND+R (for Mac).

Those steps should take care of the problem. Again, apologizes for the trouble! I’m heading to bed, but feel free to leave any comments or questions and I’ll get to them in the morning.

EDIT: Just to be clear, this wasn’t a virus or anything malicious. I simply inadvertently put in code that told people’s browsers not to check for a new version of HIF until April 2010. For better or worse, I intend to make new posts between now and then, so I deleted that code!

Currently, links to freebie sites open in the same window. They can be set to open in a new window / tab, but that setting would then take away the option from you.

As most webmasters see it, users should have almost total control over their own surfing habits. Site shouldn’t force a link to open in a new window, but instead let users have the option. For instance, I enjoy links opening in new tabs and I do this by using the scroll wheel on my mouse. Most people don’t realize that the scroll wheel is also a button and by using it to click a link in Firefox, it’ll automatically open the link in a new tab. I don’t know if this works with IE or Chrome, but I’d suspect that it does.

There is also another method, which is to right-click on any link and select “open link in a new tab/window.” This is clearly more ineffective, but research shows it’s the most popular. *insert picture of me scratching my head.*

However, the more I think about it, the more keen I am to opening freebie links in a new tab for HIF. Most sites don’t have nearly as many links as we do, thanks to the nature of posting freebies. Chime in by voting / commenting and letting me know how you feel about it!

First off, freebies can be found below. Just start scrolling and you’ll see our latest posts. If you prefer, you can select a Category over on the sidebar and display only freebies pertaining to that subject.

In addition to the freebies, here are some of the most popular sections of the site:

Frequently Asked Questions – This short page might help answer some of your questions about freebies and how they work exactly.

Free Coupons – A roundup of all the websites where you can print out coupons for free.

Daily Newsletter – Every day at 3:00 EST, a newsletter goes out with every new post we made in the previous 24 hours.

Forums – Our community forums are a great place to hang out and learn about freebies from other people who are into free stuff.

Top Rated Freebies – Occasionally we put together massive lists of freebies that you can find. For instance, we have an ongoing list of stores and restaurants that give away free birthday food. Another good example is our wiki page of every museum in the country that offers free admission!

Stay In Touch – And last, but not least, we offer a gazillion different ways to follow our recent postings. Want to follow our RSS feed? Addicted to Twitter? Ignore basic hygiene by spending too much time to Facebook? We feel your pain.

• Our RSS Feed
• Follow us on Twitter
• Chat with us on Facebook
• Does anybody still use Myspace?

And that should do it! Of course, if you still have no idea what’s going on here, feel free to contact me and ask away with your questions.

The freebie isn’t free. There’s shipping. Or a minimum purchase. Or an “identification check” via your credit card. Or any number of other strings that are attached to freebies which make them not worth our while. This doesn’t mean I won’t post something that isn’t 100% free, but it is the first bar that an offer generally has to cross in order for me to even consider it on the site.

The freebie stinks. Seriously, who wants a DVD for vacationing in Montana just because it’s free? Anybody even remotely interested in that would have already Googled for it instead of waiting for a freebie site to post it.

I can’t confirm the freebie isn’t spam. This tends to be the case when a bunch of other freebie sites post a freebie while I hold off on it. Sometimes the freebie ends up being legit and people send in “see, I told you so!” messages. But these situations are the exception to the norm and I’m willing to sacrifice posting them in order to make sure the spam is kept out too.

The freebie is only available locally. It’s great that your locally owned and operated batting cages or auditorium is giving away free tickets, but I can’t post the offers if it’ll only benefit 0.001% of Hiffers out there. If I posted each local offer I discovered, I’d never sleep. These are better suited for the forums, not the main page of the site. The added benefit of posting them there is that anybody can add a freebie, meaning far more local offers are bound to show up.

There are only a few samples available. I won’t even consider posting any freebie with a supply that’s under 1,000. Anything under 10,000 depends on outside factors, like when it first became available and how many other freebie sites I’ve seen it on. Companies are notorious for leaving up their submission forms well after they’ve run out of supplies. It’s not uncommon for me to find an offer that has, say, 25,000 samples, only for me to later dig up a press release that shows the offer was released in 2007. There’s no way that freebie is showing up and so why waste our collective time in posting it?

There are other uncommon reasons why I won’t post something, but you get the gist.

If you happen to know of an offer that I missed though, please feel free to comment on that post and fill me in! It’s been a few months since I’ve gone through those comments, so I’ll be doing that later this afternoon.

Seeing as how I get dozens of the same e-mails every day with pretty much the same questions, I’ve decided to answer as many of them as possible during the first show. So if you have any particular questions you’d like answered, send them in and chances are I’ll probably cover them.

We might go down intermittently throughout the rest of the day as I try and squash any new bugs that are found. If that happens, you can find all of today’s posts over on our backup blog that I created last night. Or was it technically this morning? Whatever, it’s nap time!

The good news is that with the new server, the site should experience fewer downtimes and load a bit faster. So…woohoo!

You may remember that a while back I put out a call for additional writers. Well what you may not know is that I’ve since found the writers I was looking for and they’ve joined the crew! I’ll let them introduce themselves as they start posting, but long story short we’ve got two people working on finding the best coupons available and two more hunting down deals and steals. Throw in the freebies and reviews that we already post and there’s not much we’re leaving out in the way of saving you money.

I’m also moving HIF to a new server as we’re pretty much causing our current box to melt. The only reason I bring this up is to say that our downtime should be significantly reduced during times of peak traffic. About time, right?

And finally, you’re probably sitting there wondering what’s up with the $400+ in prizes I alluded to earlier. Well starting tomorrow I’ll be giving away gift cards and cold hard cash for five days straight. Why? Because it’s been a while since I’ve done so, that’s why!

It’ll be super easy to enter into the contests as well. Each morning I’ll provide instructions on how to enter and then that evening I’ll pick a winner. Rinse, wash, and repeat until I’ve given everything away.

The first prize tomorrow will be a $50 Walmart giftcard, so be sure to check out the site in the morning and spread the word!

You may remember that a while back I put out a call for additional writers. Well what you may not know is that I’ve since found the writers I was looking for and they’ve joined the crew! I’ll let them introduce themselves as they start posting, but long story short we’ve got two people working on finding the best coupons available and two more hunting down deals and steals. Throw in the freebies and reviews that we already post and there’s not much we’re leaving out in the way of saving you money.

I’m also moving HIF to a new server as we’re pretty much causing our current box to melt. The only reason I bring this up is to say that our downtime should be significantly reduced during times of peak traffic. About time, right?

And finally, you’re probably sitting there wondering what’s up with the $400+ in prizes I alluded to earlier. Well starting tomorrow I’ll be giving away gift cards and cold hard cash for five days straight. Why? Because it’s been a while since I’ve done so, that’s why!

It’ll be super easy to enter into the contests as well. Each morning I’ll provide instructions on how to enter and then that evening I’ll pick a winner. Rinse, wash, and repeat until I’ve given everything away.

The first prize tomorrow will be a $50 Walmart giftcard, so be sure to check out the site in the morning and spread the word!

Thus, I’m looking for one, maybe two, new writers for the following positions with horrible names that I just came up with.

Coupon Hunter: Basically you’d be in charge of something similar to my Weekly Coupon Posts, only with more coupons and the ability to make good on the namesake by posting a batch at least once a week.

Deal Master: What I’m looking for here is somebody who is really into the buyer rewards programs that Walgreens, CVS, and other stores make available. Many of them have weekly specials that, when paired with free coupons, make it easy to get stuff for pennies on the dollar if not for free. Check out this post from Deal Seeking Mom for an example of what I’m talking about.

Think you might be interested? Click below for the few basic requirements, benefits, and more info!

• Obviously, you need to know how to find coupons on-line. Being a member of multiple coupon sites and message boards is a huge plus. People who send me links to their profiles on said sites/boards are an even bigger plus.
• Basic writing skills (that means, correct spelling, punctuation, grammar, the usual.)
• Be interesting! You don’t have to have the same stupidity dry wit as me, but you need to be able to take a deal/coupon post and be able to pepper it with funny/interesting/humorous anecdotes.
• People who send in a sample post or two that best reflects how they would write on HIF will of course get noticed first. hint, hint

So now you know what I’m looking for, but you’re wondering what’s in it for you. Well, that’s pretty easy.

• This will be a paid position. But let me stress one thing – if you’re in this just for the money, don’t waste your time. I don’t even make a living off of HIF, this is simply a hobby and thus good for a little WAM (walking around money).
• Your own HIF e-mail address if you want one. (ex: sally@heyitsfree.net)
• You can write as little or as much as you want each month.
• A custom user tag over on the Forums. You’ll be the envy of everybody there.
• The ability to tell your friends and family that you work (hey, you’re actually getting paid!) for a one of the coolest websites on the net! Heck, update your resume for all I care! I promise I give good references.

This would be the perfect job for stay-at-home moms, college students, people who goof off on the computer at work – in essence, anybody who has a little free time every day! I haven’t decided how many people I’ll be hiring now since it’ll depend on how many applicants I get, how much people think they can write, etc. But every application will be looked over and responded to by me personally.

Enough of my rambling. If you’re interested, send me your application and good luck!

Now you can easily follow along with the updates here on HIF while you pretend to work or procrastinate in school! I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few popular sites though, so if you use one in particular and think HIF should have a presence, let me know.

So I have a quick favor to ask. If you’ve recently read, heard, or seen Hey, It’s Free! in a news segment then please let me know. You can either leave a comment here or contact me privately and just say “I read about HIF in The Springfield Shopper” or “I saw HIF on KBBL last night.”

Consider such a kind act as your eternal freebie to me in exchange for all the wholesome goodness I try and provide every day Thanks!

For starters, the winner for the free $25 gift certificate has been selected. Hey, I’m a man of my word, I’m just not too punctual. Anyway, Random.org gave me comment #12, which was Bellesouth. So congrats to her and thanks again to everybody who chimed in with a thought or suggestion as well as Free Samples Direct for sponsoring this giveaway!

Next, I don’t like to brag, but I’m immensely thrilled to announce that HIF has been accepted into 9rules, a highly respected directory of cool and awesome sites. This won’t change anything here on the site, but I wanted to thank all of the loyal Hiffers who constantly read HIF, interact with me on the forums, and take the time to e-mail me with their (both good and bad!) opinions. HIF wouldn’t be what it is without y’all.

And finally, it’s time for not just one contest, but two! I mentioned back during the March Madness Contest that I’d like to do something similar for football and then promptly forgot all about that until today. Opps No worries though, as I’ve set up two leagues (one for NFL and one for NCAA) and we’re ready to go!

We’re holding the contests on Yahoo again, so if you don’t already have a free Yahoo account, you can get one here. After signing in, go to both pages and join our groups on the right side of the page!

Here’s a link to the NFL Pickems join page, our Group ID (63704), and our password (freebies).

Here’s a link to the College Pickems, our Group ID (31153), and our password (freebies).

And for the record, even if you’re reading this a few days or even a week later, you can still join and have a chance at winning! For more info, click below or go here on the forums.

Rules are quite simple. Each week you pick what team you think will win. Knowledge of football is not required, as even a monkey can pick “Team A or Team B?” At the end of the season, whoever picked the most correct games wins.

We are using the “spread” feature. Basically, before every game, gamblers in Vegas determine which team is favored to win and by how much. The “how much” is a spread. For instance, in tonight’s game between the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins, the Giants are considered the better team by 4 points. So if I pick the Giants to win, they have to win by 5 or more points for it to count as a victory for me. Thus, if I pick the Giants and they win 22-20, I’ll lose even though they won in real life. Yahoo clearly shows what the spread is and even which team most people are picking, so it’s really easy.

As for prizes, there will be the usual 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and random prize winner. In order to qualify for prizes, you must make picks in at least 15 of the 17 weeks. The NFL league will drop each player’s lowest week total and the NCAA will drop each player’s two lowest week totals (since we all missed the very first week!).

Each winner will receive a yet undetermined cash prize, but I promise it’ll be good

So I logged into my stat tracking software and proceeded to have a massive stroke. 20% of y’all are still using a browser that hasn’t been updated in almost two years. That’s 14 dog years or 90 gazillion technology years. IE6 is like a horse-and-buggy. Why ride around in that when you can drive a car? It’s slow, it makes websites look weird (like HIF!), and most importantly, it’s rarely updated. So if a new security exploit is found tomorrow, sucks for you, because Microsoft isn’t patching it anytime soon.

There are far better alternatives. There’s Internet Explorer 7, which has been out for almost two years. It’s made by Microsoft, has the same feel as IE6, and comes with far better security. At the absolute least, you should upgrade to that. Heck, IE8 is already out in beta.

Then again, I’d suggest skipping over IE entirely and going straight to Firefox. I know, it has a weird and possibly even intimidating name, but I promise it doesn’t bite. Firefox is like the filet mignon of internet browsers, while IE6 is the Slim Jim. It’s easier to use, much more secure, and all-around better. When you install it for the first time, it even has a little step-by-step tool that will bring all of your bookmarks and favorite links over into Firefox from IE.

I know some of you are forced to use crappy browsers, either by your workpalce or maybe school. But if you haven’t upgraded simply because you’re afraid, then now’s the time to do it. Before long, old browsers won’t even work as more and more websites stop coding for them.

So please, join me in allowing IE6 to die the peaceful death it deserves.

I received an e-mail yesterday mentioning that the mobile version of HIF looked and operated like it was created in 1994. I found a pretty cool service (thanks to Free Samples Direct) that creates a nice version of a website that can be read on any mobile phone, but I didn’t like the weird domain name it created.

Soooo, long story short, you can now visit http://m.heyitsfree.net or go to Heyitsfree.mobi, which will redirect you to the first link. Now, if you’re stuck in traffic or bored in class, just whip out your cell phone and go to m.heyitsfree.net and enjoy your daily dose of freebies.

Oops