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Story #1 - How I Got My BigFreebies!
Story #2 - Travel the World for FREE!
Story #3 - Paradise for FREE!

Story #1 - How I Got My BigFreebies!
David Caplan

My own Freebie stories that helped me get involved in this area. The first “BigFreebie” that I obtained was a scholarship to complete my schooling. When I was going to law school, one of my professors asked why I looked so tired most of the time. I told him that I was working at an all night job to put myself thru school, and he offered me a scholarship to help cover tuition. It was as easy as that, and I had no idea that I could get it.

Later when I started my own financial publication business, and later my trading and brokerage business, I had no capital, so I started it by "bootstrapping it" out of my house, using much of the same advice that I have given in the "Business Freebies" section of BigFreebies.com under "How to Start a Business for Free". I used the same techniques for starting several other business.

When my businesses required a lot of traveling, I became an expert in getting free and heavily discounted air travel. For example, I often had to go from LA to Chicago on business on the spur of the moment. The fare we were quoted for this was usually over $1,000. I was able to actually get 2 complete trips for under $300!

Over the past several months, I have personally received BigFreebies worth over $1,000+! The free stuff I’ve received includes walkie-talkies, clock-radio, legal advice, binoculars, business supplies and much more! I have received excellent free advice from experts ranging from lawyers, doctors and computer experts to solve problems that would have cost me thousands of dollars, plus untold time and inconvenience. Everything from fixing stubborn computer crashes to business and corporation problems have been answered for me for FREE!

Story #2 - Travel the World for FREE!
Alana Butler

People told me I was lucky, but anyone who's willing to do a little research can travel almost anywhere for free. I thought about this as I boarded a plane bound for London's Heathrow airport. I was going to stay in England for six months and planned to visit France, Amsterdam, and Scotland-all for free. I was an unemployed college student with a yearning for travel. I would often pick up travel brochures for European destinations and exotic islands only to gaze at them for hours, never believing that I would be able to visit any of those places.

One day I saw an advertisement on campus for BUNAC, which stands for British Universities North America Club. The poster read " Working Adventures Worldwide." From the sound of that, I was already sold. I called the telephone number and was given the address of my local BUNAC office. There are offices throughout the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Africa, and Australia. I visited the office and was given an application and deadline information. While browsing through their pamphlets and newsletters, I found out about several U.K. based organizations which offer volunteers free lodging and airfare. While BUNAC was targeted towards students, there were many more overseas agencies which placed volunteers in areas such as community development, health and nutrition, agriculture and education.

The application process is the same as finding a regular job. You have to include a resume which lists your work experience, education, hobbies and any languages spoken. You also have to include three personal references. Depending on the volunteer organization you submit an application for, the wait period can be anywhere from three to six months. The reason for this is that some programs have a limited number of placements per year while others have limited operating budgets. Volunteers are placed according to qualifications, the languages spoken, and the applicant's indication of where they would like to work. Finally, I was called for a panel interview. Though it might feel like a lot of grilling for a volunteer position, they try to find a match between an applicants skills and interests with the placement opportunity. Another thing that they look for are the references. For students, it's helpful to have letters of recommendation from professors or previous employers. For others, standard personal references should include at least one letter from a former employer.

A few weeks later, I was in London, England volunteering for a national cancer care agency. The organization paid for my airline ticket and accommodations . Most of the volunteer organizations have some type of allocated housing for volunteers and also provide a modest living allowance. You can't expect too much, but be prepared for shared accommodation wherever you go. I shared a large flat with four other international students in the residence halls of London's Kings College. It was summer and the residence halls were rented out to everyone from backpackers to senior citizens. Any idea that I was simply a vacationing tourist was quickly dispelled.

Volunteering overseas means that you have to work hard to "earn your keep." I was up at seven each morning and was done work by five or six in the evening. Part of the agreement is that you fulfill a certain number of hours per day. This can range between 8 to 12 hours, depending on where you are placed and the type of work involved. Both the college and the organization sponsored free or very inexpensive coach tours to Scotland, Wales, and Northern England. There were occasionally coach tours to France and Amsterdam. After my placement was over, I was filled with warm memories and was thankful that I had pushed myself to look into traveling for free instead of simply dreaming about It!

Story #3 - Paradise for Free (,,,and I even got paid for it!)
Karla Jacobs

Most people save for years to afford a trip to just one of the 21 tropical islands I've been paid to visit. Am I lucky? Yes. I was in the right place at the right time. But it could happen to you, too. I wasn't the world's greatest photographer, or a writer with any travel credits to my name. But those were the skills, photography and writing, that the publisher of an dive travel book was seeking when I met him by chance at a cocktail party in Sausalito, California. He was hand-picking five teams of writers and photographers to cover every island in the Caribbean and there was one last spot to fill a writer who could speak French.

Just to see what I could do with a camera he handed me a roll of Fujichrome 200 and told me to shoot whatever interested me over the next week, process the film and turn in all 36 images. I was also told to bring a portfolio of my writing samples. Of course I wanted the job. Wanted it so badly I could taste the salt air. It paid $2000 for five weeks work, and all accommodations, food, car rentals and diving were going to be provided by the tourist boards of the islands themselves with the cooperation of the hotels, restaurant and dive shops which were to be featured in the book.

I hauled my camera around for the next week, snapping a wedding outside a church, some interesting characters in Chinatown, a few beach scenes. And when he saw the work he hired me on the spot, saying my photographs were on a par with the photographer he was teaming me up with. He told me we were leaving in 14 days, so 1 should get my affairs in order and sign up for a scuba certification course.

The five weeks ended too soon, but the results were satisfying. Upon our return the publisher was so impressed with my work that he made me Senior Editor and put me on salary. The following year he sent us, as the only team that had survived the ordeal and was willing to go again, to Puerto Rico, the Turks and Caicos and Grenada. The year after that we were sent to Australia, Papua New Guinea, Figi, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.

These trips, hectic and sometimes chaotic as they often were, live vividly in my memory. I'll never forget the diving, the people, the cultures, the beaches, or the challenge of this way of travel.

How can you use this experience to finance foreign travel of your own? Don't wait for a chance encounter. Take the initiative and approach publishers in an organized fashion. Asses your skills, write up a resume, gather samples of your work an search all the possible revenue sources you cams Find out everything you can about every travel publication you can locate. Send queries to your list of target publications on a regular basis, so your name will come to mind when the need for freelancers arises.