Sadly, most of these type of products have hidden terms stuffed deep within their terms of service that the marketer or company hopes you never see.  Since they don't want you to see it they also try endlessly to distract you from reading it or often times keep you from even realizing it's there.  Once you sign up for one of these products you may never even get your product and worse yet you'll have anything but fun trying to keep them from charging your credit card!

How can this all be changed?  Well it can't and won't change.  Marketers and companies will continue to do this because it makes them a fortune, fast.  But, that doesn't mean you can't do something about it.  The biggest weapon against this is to protect yourself from this and read the terms of service before purchasing.  It's also wise to educate yourself with sites like the one you're at right now before ever buying a product.  But, what I want to discuss in this post isn't about what to avoid and what marketers are shady or even what companies are shady.  I want to discuss how a company can actually do a Free Trial the right way!  I call these  Zero – Fee Home Business Trials and it's the way I believe a FREE trial should be done.

#1.  A free trial should tell someone what they are getting upfront.  That's right, not hide everything within the TOS.  Whether this is done by video or text it should be honest and straight forward from the very beginning.

#2. If it's truly free you shouldn't have to put in your credit card number.  Watch out for this one if you are signing up for a free offer and it mentions that it's free and you have t put in your credit card information.  Another thing to watch out for is the $1 (almost free trial) because with those you MUST enter your credit card information which means that if you didn't read the terms of service chances are you're going to get an additional charge(s) somewhere.

#3.  You as a consumer should get ample time to actually test the product.  If the free trial only last a couple of days and you have to wait for the product chances are the company is just looking for an easy way to charge you whether you even got a chance to try it out or not.  This can also be a clue that a company thinks their product isn't very good if they offer a very short trial period and hope to simply prevent you from being able to cancel in time.  7 days and more should be an ample trial period.  If the product is physical the 7 days should begin after the product is received and not while it's being shipped.  Of course, going back to rule #2 they should have no way to "CHARGE" you since this type of offer should not ask for a credit card upfront.

#4.  You should be given the option to upgrade.  If you like the free product or free trial then you should have the option to upgrade.  Of course for the upgrade you'll need to enter your credit or debit card and then you'll be given access to the upgraded features or products.  This is the point where the company should be honored for making a product that you actually want to learn more from.

#5.  Even the upgrade should offer a money back guarantee just in case the rest of the product doesn't live up to the demo.  30 days or more should be ample to determine if this product is right for you or not.

#6.  Both sides should understand their role and both parties should be accountable unless for some reason either side breaches the agreement.  So if the merchant/company doesn't deliver on their end what they claim they will, that would be considered a breach.  Likewise, the consumer should be held accountable and held to the terms they agree to during purchase.  As a consumer you always have the option to turn down something that sounds "to good to be true" or seems the least bit dishonest.  Of course, read over the terms of service as if you' were about to make an important business investment and make sure it makes sense to you.

That's my take on the proper way to do a free trial offer as a company.  If other companies would read this and take heed on the proper way to run a zero fee home business trial  the world would be a much better place.  However, don't expect to see many companies take the "honest" rute as I described anytime soon.

Note from WorkAtHomeTruth: I asked Michael to do this post because I was impressed with how he did his free trial for Affiliate Money Revolution.

Click here if you want to see how he does his Zero-Fee Home Business Trial for Affiliate Money Revolution (NO Credit Card is Required).