Very simple request. Its just very time consuming, if you dont mind
getting paid for an hour or two of boring Google'ing, then this job's
for you.
What I am looking for?
For a list of specific site links that have an order form on them to
request/order a free brochure/information package about any kind of
travel, cruise, vacation, etc offer. Site must be able to mail to my
address which is in United States. No e-mail/phone/fax offers
whatsoever.
How many do I need?
As many as possible, I definately will give a nice tip if you surprize
me with a large list. Plus, the price is pretty fair for such an easy
task.
How should the list be presented?
A listing of the sites would be rather fine, if you really have the
time on your hands, then include a small two-three word description
(like "Arizona Travel Brochure" or "Many Brochures for Europe
Cruises"). I'd still have to go through each one of them manually
later, just the task of finding them through Google is overwhelming.
Touchups:
Please no e-mail/fax/phone offers, only mail in. Please only direct
links to the pages with the sign-up form, or if its like a "choose
which" package link, then thats fine. Please include as many as
possible, I will reward you for your hard work. |
Request for Question Clarification by
aceresearcher-ga
on
05 Jun 2004 10:51 PDT
Greetings, Ryan!
I've been able to figure out some ways to access lists of **huge**
quantities of such request forms for you. However, here's the
situation:
Many of these sites specify that e-mail address is required, but they
also request your physical name and address. In addition, many (if not
most) also provide a free text area for comments or additional
information.
Here's what I can do for you: I can spend my time on your question
coming up with a small list of forms which do not request e-mail
address, OR --
I can post links to large lists of such forms (I'm talking many
thousands), on which you can do the the following:
- Enter Ihavenoemailaddress@nodomain.com in the blank for email
- Enter 999-999-999 (or 123-456-7890) in the blank for telephone
- Enter your address in the blanks for address, city, state and zip
- In the Comments box, if one exists, specify:
"I have no e-mail address and may only be
contacted by snail mail. Please send your
information to the address given above. Thanks."
These companies ***WANT*** your money. I can guarantee you that the
large majority of them will send you information via snail mail.
Now, here are my personal recommendations for you:
1) This is what I'd do:
Set up a throwaway e-mail address at
Hotmail
http://www.hotmail.com OR
Yahoo
http://www.yahoo.com
Withhold your telephone and address, or if they require it, give them
phony telephone and address information, and here's why:
Whatever Address you give these companies, it will be ruined forever.
Unless you've rented an anonymous P.O. Box which you intend to discard
when you're done with this exercise, this Address is going to be
inundated for eternity with ***ALL*** kinds of junk mail, not just the
kind that you are seeking.
Many of these companies make extra money on the side by selling their
mailing lists to all kinds of other companies. It's a HUGE business in
the United States.
Furthermore, if the address you give them has ever been linked with
your phone number during a time that it was unlisted (or perhaps even
if it has always been unlisted -- I'm sure that you have given it out
to certain companies with which you've done business), they ***are
going to be able to find out your phone number anyway***.
I know this, because I used to be an Applications Systems
Programmer/Analyst for a company that purchased demographic
information from all different types of companies and used
sophisticated "matching" software to compile extremely detailed
consumer profiles containing:
Name (and Maiden Name, if applicable)
Last 3 addresses and phone numbers,
possibly including cell phone number(s)
Your birthdate and age
Your social security number
Your driver's license number
All the magazines to which you've ever subscribed
Companies with which you have credit cards
(and possibly the actual credit card numbers)
Companies from which you've purchased things
(and what you purchased from them)
The names, sexes, and birthdates of any children you have
Your hobbies and interests (ever return one of those surveys
in exchange for a bunch of coupons and free samples???)
and a bunch more information about you which you can't even imagine.
So, if you do the snail mail thing, you are definitely going to want
to get a "throwaway" Post Office Box.
2) Are you really sure that you want access to lists of thousands and
thousands such forms??? It would take a roomful of monkeys on
keyboards an eternity to submit requests for brochures on all of these
forms.
Wouldn't you rather have a selected list of forms to request brochures
and catalogs that very closely match what you are seeking, so that you
don't have to sort through all the other crap that you are going to
receive?
I'm willing to go whichever way you desire on this...
Just let me know.
Regards,
aceresearcher
|
Clarification of Question by
ryananderson-ga
on
05 Jun 2004 11:03 PDT
Hello aceresearcher-ga!
Thank you for answering my request
1) I do not mind submitting my email/phone to any request form as long
as they will ALSO mail their brochures to me through snail mail. I've
set up a free email acccount with Yahoo!Mail just for that!
2) I do not mind receiving the "junk" mail, which isnt junk to me at
all. I've set up a separate account to receive and sort all the
incoming mail, which is separate from my own. Thus I DO want this mail
to come in.
3) I am aware of how addresses are re-sold, and how cross-linking
works, and I assure you that my private life will be untouched, as
long as my boss does not contact each and one of those companies
himself and provide them with my living address.
4) I would like a listing of DIRECT LINK forms (not to just sites)
where I can simply enter my mailing address and receive the brochures.
Forums would be nice but they are not automatic and take time. The
"thousands" of links is fine with me.
Thank you once more for taking my question into consideration and I
hope I've answered your questions clearly.
|
Request for Question Clarification by
aceresearcher-ga
on
05 Jun 2004 11:20 PDT
Okay, to make sure you are not disappointed:
I can **either** provide you with extremely large lists:
1) These lists may contain some links that do not go directly to the
online submittal form, but the vast majority of them will.
2) These forms may or may not require that you enter an e-mail
address, and a small number of them may not allow entry of a snail
mail address.
3) Unless you give me more restrictive parameters, these lists will
contain thousands of links that connect to forms to request catalogs
and brochures for anything related to cruises, vacations, travel, and
holidays.
Or I can provide you with a small list of links:
1) Which will all go directly to an on-line form which does not insist
that you provide an e-mail address (or, if you wish, I can include
only those which don't request an e-mail address, since there is no
guarantee that you will be able to get these companies to send you a
hardcopy if they have your e-mail address as well -- this may severely
limit the size of the list).
2) Which will all provide for entry of a snail mail address.
3) Unless you give me more restrictive parameters, this list will
contain links that connect to forms to request catalogs and brochures
for anything related to cruises, vacations, travel, and holidays.
4) This list will consist of roughly 3 hours of work, as Google
Answers Researchers receive 75% of the posted fee for a Question (if
you desire additional hours, you have the option to raise the listing
fee appropriately).
Please let me know which option you prefer.
Thanks,
ace
|
Clarification of Question by
ryananderson-ga
on
05 Jun 2004 11:35 PDT
hello again, aceresearcher-ga,
I would like to receive both separately, the second because of
convenience, and the first simply as a backup,
but,
I would also want to increase the List Price of this Question to
$125.00 for your extra time. How do I do such a thing? I've not seen a
link/button for that? I will also leave an extra tip at the end
aswell.
Thank you
|
Request for Question Clarification by
aceresearcher-ga
on
05 Jun 2004 11:45 PDT
Ryan,
That would be quite acceptable to me. I believe that to change your
listing fee, you click the button marked "Edit Question Parameters".
Because of the increased fee, it will likely take me a few days to
prepare what I feel would be a quality Answer for you (once in awhile,
I do have to surgically detach myself from the computer to do things
like eat, sleep, buy groceries, vacuum, and do laundry, all of which
are on the agenda for today). Is that acceptable to you?
If you'd prefer, as an alternative to get you started, I could post as
an Answer the Search lists of thousands of links in a relatively short
period of time, and add the smaller, human-edited list later.
Just let me know which way you'd prefer to go on this.
(I sure hope your boss knows exactly what he's in for!!!) ;-)
ace
|
Clarification of Question by
ryananderson-ga
on
05 Jun 2004 12:12 PDT
hello,
agreed, I'd take the "thousands" list right now, and will give you as
much time as you need for the other,
also, I do not see any "Edit Question Parameters" button, and I
believe that is because you are already "holding" or "answering" my
question. If you would like for me to submit the difference of $125.00
- $40.00 in the tip (an additional tip will be included, ofcourse),
please let me know.
Otherwise, please advice me with what I should do next?
Thank you
|
Request for Question Clarification by
aceresearcher-ga
on
05 Jun 2004 12:38 PDT
Ryan,
I've released my lock. See if the system will let you "Edit Question
Parameters" now (be sure that you are logged in).
Researcher skermit-ga has developed a step-by-step illustration of the
Google Answers process here, which you may find helpful:
http://www.christopherwu.net/google_answers/answer_guide.html
ace
|
Clarification of Question by
ryananderson-ga
on
05 Jun 2004 12:45 PDT
Question Parameters changed, price set to $125.00 :)
If you have any other requests or questions, let me know, otherwise
you may proceed with answering the question by providing the first
half now (as a Question Clarification?) and then conclude the rest
after the days you need for thorough "pruning" of the lists.
Thank you.
|
Request for Question Clarification by
aceresearcher-ga
on
05 Jun 2004 19:22 PDT
Okay, here you go...
cruise OR cruises submit form free brochure OR catalog
://www.google.com/search?q=cruise+OR+cruises+submit+form+free+brochure+OR+catalog
vacation OR vacations submit form free brochure OR catalog
://www.google.com/search?q=vacation+OR+vacations+submit+form+free+brochure+OR+catalog
holiday OR holidays submit form free brochure OR catalog
://www.google.com/search?q=holiday+OR+holidays+submit+form+free+brochure+OR+catalog
travel OR tourism OR tourist OR tourists submit form free brochure OR catalog
://www.google.com/search?q=travel+OR+tourism+OR+tourist+OR+tourists+submit+form+free+brochure+OR+catalog
This could keep you busy for *quite* awhile.
Hey, whatever floats your boss's boat... ;=)
ace
|
Clarification of Question by
ryananderson-ga
on
05 Jun 2004 20:55 PDT
hello ace,
You've provided me with a link to a Google listing, I thought you'd
have some sort of a specific LIST of sites. This is pretty much the
same as if I were to go and search myself, but.. *fingers crossed* I
hope the second one would be better.
Take care
|
Request for Question Clarification by
aceresearcher-ga
on
06 Jun 2004 09:13 PDT
Yes, those lists are just a quickie to give you an idea of what's out
there. It's pretty unlikely that anyone has compiled a list of pages
which contain a submit form. Typically, they will compile a list of
the **home** pages of a bunch of sites with something in common, for
instance, "Links to sites for Caribbean Resorts" or "Links to sites
for Cruise Companies". And yes, the human--edited version will be just
that -- each one individually checked and vetted to meet your
criteria.
ace
|
Clarification of Question by
ryananderson-ga
on
06 Jun 2004 09:27 PDT
Thank you :)
I cant wait for the other part!
|
Request for Question Clarification by
aceresearcher-ga
on
16 Jun 2004 21:32 PDT
Hi, Ryan!
Due to some family things requiring a fair bit of time and energy from
me right now, Researcher tox-ga has agreed to take over the Answer
from me, if that's okay with you. If you'd be willing to work with her
so that she knows what your expectations are regarding the quantity of
links which would constitute an acceptable Answer, that will help to
ensure that both of you end up satisfied, and it would set my mind at
ease that everything is being taken care of.
Thanks,
ace
|
Request for Question Clarification by
tox-ga
on
16 Jun 2004 23:29 PDT
Hi there Ryan!
You may have already gotten an email from Google Answers that an
answer is ready for you. In fact, I do indeed have a list close to
100 sites with several of them offering *many* brochures from a single
page. It has taken a very long time to sort out the ones that mail to
a U.S. address, find the request page, but I believe you'll be quite
happy with the research results.
Best regards,
Tox-ga
|
