Free College Textbooks – Freeload Press


college textbooks for freeThis little find comes courtesy of the savviest young one you’re likely to meet. With the cost of college textbooks now costing approximately $900 a year, finding ways to save on them is a top priority for a lot of students. A company called Freeload Press has come up with a innovative way to slash the cost of college textbooks down to $0.00. Before you download the textbook, you fill out a short survey and then advertisements within the textbooks pay for the cost. The publishers still get paid and you get your textbook at no cost.

While the current selection of textbooks is limited, they are hoping to rapidly expand in the next year. It seems to me to be a viable way to distribute college textbooks that that will appeal to a lot of students who are paying their way through school and trying to save money where ever they can. it would seem to me that these textbooks could even produce more money for the publishers than merely selling them depending on how they incorporated the ads. certainly a website to keep an eye on and one to pass to any family or friends that have children that will soon be entering college.


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August 22nd, 2006
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Comment Number:
1
Written by:
Gigi
Posted on:
August 22, 2006 at 8:32 am

I’ve found the best website for text book buying is: http://www.bestwebbuys.com/books/

They do a nice job of finding and comparing online book sellers. The best thing to do is find the ISBN number of the textbook and search that way.

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
Phil
Posted on:
August 22, 2006 at 10:07 am

This is an interesting concept. I probably would have tried it while I was in school. It would have saved me significant amounts of cash. The main selling point would be the ease of getting a hardcopy of the book to use. Sometimes you need the text with you in class and do not have access to a computer. Also, I usually cannot read more than a page or two on a computer monitor before I go crazy. I still like paper!

I saw in their FAQ section that they offer some kind of print service, but did not give too many details.

Still – innovative idea. I’m impressed.

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
Retireyoung
Posted on:
August 22, 2006 at 7:12 pm

Sounds like a great idea. The worst thing for me about buying text books at university was when the lecturer never even referred to them and were pretty much useless other than providing some background reading.

They are also out of date by the following year, especially in technology areas.

Comment Number:
4
Written by:
Aydin
Posted on:
August 24, 2006 at 1:33 am

As a student, I dont really think this is a good idea. I personally rather buy books with no ads on half.com. Although I haven’t seen any textbooks with ads, but I imagine studying a biochemistry textbook with Victoria Secret ads must be very difficult.

Comment Number:
5
Written by:
Mark Montgomery
Posted on:
September 6, 2006 at 8:26 am

In enjoyed this post, and wrote a similar one myself at http://www.textbookevaluator.com.

From a financial point of view, sites like Freeloader are going to help students. But from an educational point of view, “caveat emptor” is a helpful phrase, even for someone in personal finance. While some books may be fantastic, others should have gone the way of the dodo, rather than to have been dredged up by the wonders of infinite storage space for bits and bytes.

Thanks for staying abreast of the textbook industry!

Mark Montgomery

Comment Number:
6
Written by:
used vans girl
Posted on:
July 2, 2007 at 7:07 am

As a recent graduate I think it’s an excellent idea so what if there are advertisements in the book its certainly not going to affect my grades and that’s all that matters.

Comment Number:
7
Written by:
Nishan Subedi
Posted on:
December 25, 2007 at 7:03 pm

This may be great if it works.

Comment Number:
8
Written by:
praveen
Posted on:
August 6, 2008 at 1:22 pm

i was just in need of college books because they are very costly i found this site

Comment Number:
9
Written by:
praveen
Posted on:
August 6, 2008 at 1:25 pm

i just need books to come up in my life.thank you

Comment Number:
10
Written by:
Diane Jenkins
Posted on:
September 8, 2008 at 2:07 pm

I had to return a lot of my books to the college bookstore, got cash back for em. I did keep a few though.

Comment Number:
11
Written by:
Randi Wagner
Posted on:
September 10, 2008 at 11:05 am

Great site. Thanks. I’m so psyched about seeing True Blod.