Are you a Neil Gaiman fan? Well of course you are. Get a FREE Neil Gaiman Short Story and 50% Off First Three Months of Membership at Audible!

• Click here to get 50% off your first three months @ Audible.com

To get the FREE short story you just need to get an Audible account. If you use the link above, you the first three months of membership for only $7.49.month. That’s 50% off! You can cancel at any or keep your subscription. I highly suggest that if you aren’t going to keep it, to just get on the Audible Lite account which is $10/year and lets you take advantage of all the freebies and sales throughout the year.

• Click here to get your FREE Neil Gaiman short story @ Audible.com

Neil Gaiman is a living legend. He’s written tons of books and short stories and has been dong some awesome work with Audible. Audible has something called Neil Gaiman Presents which is a series of books handpicked by Neil and turned into audio books which he produces. But that’s not why we’re here. He is giving away a FREE short story called Cold Colors. I’ve only listened to five minutes of it but it is quite engrossing so far. I just want to know more about the world! Why? Well, Mr. Gaiman has a new book called The Ocean at the End of the Lane coming out on June 18th. This FREE short story has a preview to his new book so it’s a way to promote it. Regardless, you get a FREE short story out of it and you don’t have to listen to the preview if you don’t want to.

(Expires: Unknown)

What could be better than starting a new book series? Starting it for under $5 at Audible.com!

• Click here to get 50% off your first three months @ Audible.com

First things first. If you aren’t already an Audible.com member, you should be. You can get a 50% discount on your first three months! You get 50% off a gold membership which gets you one credit a month. One credit is generally good for one book but a small handful of the longer books are two credits. You can cancel your account after the third month (or before) if you don’t want to pay full price for the membership. Whatever books you get in your 50% off period is yours to keep! If you don’t want the full priced monthly subscription I HIGHLY suggest you get put on the Audible light plan, which is $10 per year. That way you still get access to all of the awesome member-only sales!

You’ll be getting a gold membership which is normally $14.95 but your 50% discount gets you three months at $7.49/month!

There are over 200 books available in this sale from all genres including Fantasy, Mystery and Thriller and Fiction, among others. All the books in this sale are first in a series and are only $4.95. At this price it’s cheap enough that you can buy a couple and even if you don’t really dig them, you’re not out tons of money.

What is your favourite series? Let me know in the comments below!

(Expires: 20th May 2013)

A sale like this comes but twice a year, kids. This is the Audible Semi-Annual Sale and it’s awesome!

•  Click here to shop the Semi-Annual Sale @ Audible.com

First things first, if you want this deal you have to be a member. Not a member yet? It’s simple to join and they offer a 50% discount for your first three months as a member! Once you’re done the three months you can either stay on a plan where you get one or two credits per month or you can go an a yearly “Audible Lite” plan where you pay $10/year and get no credits. The lite plan gives you access to all the great deals that Audible has throughout the year, like this one! The books you get are yours to keep forever though, even if you cancel your subscription.

This sale has tons of books from pretty much every genre. Want romance? How about Whispering Rock for $9? That’s a savings of $14.95 off of the original price of $23.95.

Not romantic? Just a bitter lump sitting in your mom’s basement? I suggest some great fantasy novels. Perhaps something like Soulless: An Alexia Tarabotti Novel. Yours for only $9.80 ($14.15 off the regular $23.95 price).

Not a fan of fantasy? How about reality? History maybe? The Swerve: How the World Became Modern for $9.80 should suffice. Normally $20.95, you’re saving $12.15!

There is something for everyone here so make sure you check this sale out!

(Expires: 26th April 2013, 11:59PM ET)

I know Valentine’s Day is over but Audible still loves you! Pick one of six free audio books!

You win on selection and you win on price with Audible.com! That’s why it’s win-win. I, however, say it’s win-win-win. The third “win” is because you have the privilege of being an Audible member. And you best count yourself lucky for it!

• Click here to get a FREE 30 day trial and a FREE book (and appreciation) @ Audible.com

As is usual with Audible, you need a membership to get access to this sale. If you use the link above you will get one FREE audiobook, a free 30 day trial and access to this sale. Here is a little tip from Bargainmoose to you. If you don’t want to pay the monthly fee to get credits to put towards books, you don’t have to. You can ask them to be put on an Audible Light account which is only $10/year and you get no monthly credits for books. Normally you pay $14.95 for one credit a month or $22.95 for two credits ($11.47 each). One credit equals one book with a few exceptions. This sale, which comes around at least two times a year, if not more, gives you a book for $4.99. So if you are a bit put off by having a monthly price, you could just wait for this sale, or another equally awesome one, and stock up. If you were to take this sale and buy six books instead of getting six months of a one book a month subscription, you will save $60!

•  Click here to check out the Win-Win sale @ Audible.com

This link brings you to the sale. There are books from every category including Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Mystery, Non Fiction and, just in time for Valentine’s Day, Romance! They also have an editors picks section, which is nice. The people who work at Audible are really passionate about books and audiobooks and I think their choices reflect that.

(Expires: 18th February 2013, 11:59PM ET)

What is the freemium model? Well, freemium is a monetization plan in which a product is offered for free but provides opportunities to make purchases related to the product. The most common form of this is with games (particularly mobile apps) that have in-game purchases. So what about the freemium model warrants an entire article? I’m going to give you some tips on how not to get burned by the freemium model. You can sink serious money into these products and it’s important to understand how it works before you get sucked in. Here are a few tips to keep in mind while using a freemium product.

Do you NEED to make a purchase to use the product properly?

Most of my experience with this model is in games so I’m going to use games for my examples. There is a game called My Country for Android that I had the unfortunate job of reviewing in another life. It is actually a really fun game and is free. The developers make their money off of in-game micro-transactions. The problem is that, at a certain point, you cannot advance the game without making purchases. Technically you can, but it would take weeks of playing just to get one item you need. If the product you are using requires, or effectively requires, you to make a purchase in order to advance or have fun, ditch it.

Is it starting a Cycle?

This is probably the most important thing to keep in mind  I’ve been playing a game called Plague Inc. (awesome game) as of late. It is set up in a way such that any purchase you make, unlocks the full game. Essentially what they have done is given you a game for free and said “IF you like it, pay us a dollar to get more or it.” A game like My Country wouldn’t be too bad if they asked for $1 to unlock some mechanism that would allow you to get the needed items easily. Instead you buy an item then another and another and another. There is effectively no end to the game.

Be careful who you buy from

There are companies out there that are notorious for making amazing games that effectively require you to make purchases. Glu Mobile is great at this. I should pause here and mention that this is not a bad thing. I have a huge amount of respect for Glu and the people there. From a money saving perspective, they are a nightmare. They make high quality, very addictive games and make money from in-game purchases. Sure, you never HAVE to make a purchase to advance but you either need to play the game flawlessly or endlessly to progress. Glu, whose tag line is “The Leader in 3D Freemium Mobile Gaming”, is not the only company who does this. If you start playing a game from a company who does this, make a note. This way you can avoid these games in the future.

I know I only used examples of mobile games but the freemium model is everywhere as of late. There is actually a book called “FREE: The Future of a Radical Price” that is available on Amazon.ca and talks about the freemium model. As it turns out, the book FREE is available for FREE at Audible.com. Even more interesting is that you can only get your FREE copy of FREE if you sign up for a FREE 30-day trial @ Audible.com.

What freemium stuff have you run in to? Are you ok with freemium or does it turn you off of a product? Let me know below.

I came up with this idea when I started to get depressed that Online Christmas shopping is pretty much over. I do almost all my Christmas shopping online and I love it, but every Christmas Eve I get an itch and I need to head out to Wal-Mart and buy a bunch of toys and odds and ends for my son and wife. It’s a sickness, I’m in treatment. I have an elf beat me with a sack of candy canes while I skin a reindeer with a knife made of coal. It’s a process. What? Where am I? How’d I get here…?

Doesn’t matter. What I’m trying to say is that I love shopping online, but when it comes to last minute shopping, it kind of stinks. At this point in the year you can’t get it delivered for a reasonable price unless you find some sort of deal offering free expedited shipping. So what’s an online shopper to do? How do you get a present without paying “bricks and mortar” prices or insane shipping costs.

Buy online gift cards, of course! Online gift cards is kind of a confusing term because you can use most physical gift cards online, but I am referring specifically to gift cards that you can send and receive online. So where do you get these online gift cards? Well, I thought you could get them everywhere but, as it turns out, you can’t. There are a bunch of stores that don’t offer these or at least don’t have them anywhere that I can find them easily.

So, I’m going to list some of the stores that offer online gift cards. This list isn’t by any means complete and it only encompass electronics, video games, audio books and other things that interest me personally. I want you, the public, to tell me where you are getting your online gift cards this year. Let’s create an awesome resource right here in the comments of this article.

Here is my small list:

• FutureShop.ca
• BestBuy.ca
• Audible.com
• Amazon.ca
• GameStop.ca
• NewEgg.ca
• Staples.ca

Again, these are just a few of the stores that I like so please leave us your favorite(s).

(Expires: Never)

Audible appreciates its members. What does that mean to all you non-members? Well, it means Audible doesn’t appreciate you and neither do I! So what do you have to do to regain my appreciation? Why, get a FREE membership, two free books and 40% off a-la-cart books.

•  Click here to get a FREE 30 day trial and a FREE book (and appreciation) @ Audible.com

Click on the link above to get a FREE 30 day trial and a free credit. Most books are only one credit but a small few are two credits. Regardless, there are tens of thousands of books that you can get with your FREE credit. After your trial is up, you can get a monthly plan for one or two credits or, if you don’t like the idea of paying monthly, you can get a yearly “light” account for $10 a month. Getting the light account means you can take part in the tons of great members-only deals that Audible offers!

• Click here to get Legion by Brandon Sanderson for FREE @ Audible.com

What? A free book by the amazing Brandon Sanderson, author of the Mistborn books and the author chosen to complete the prolific epic fantasy series The Wheel of Time? Well, don’t mind if I do. This is one of the rare times that Audible has a deal that doesn’t require a membership so have at it! Legion is an amazing short story/novella that really makes me wish there was a lot more to it! Fantastic.

• Click here to shop and save up to 40% off storewide @ Audible.com

And of course the main event is the Members Appreciation Sale. Up to 40% off the world’s best audio entertainment. They now have over 100,000 titles including books, newspapers, radio recordings and more. These aren’t your grade three books-on-tape, read by professor Werner Von Snooty Bottom. These are amazing performances that make the book come alive! If you aren’t an Audible member, you are seriously missing out!

(Expires: 21st December 2012, 11:59PM ET)

Audible could raise your children better than you could. Why? Because they’re giving away a free Sherlock Holmes Christmas story.

• Click here for a FREE trial and a FREE book @ Audible.com

This is the first link you need. It gets you a free trial and one free credit (most books are one credit, some are two) for the best source of Audio entertainment around. After your trial you can get a monthly one or two credit subscription or you can go on a $10/year “light” account so you can get all these great deals (like their annual Christmas gift!) without the monthly commitment. I think you’ll want the monthly though. It’s quite awesome.

• Click here to get your Christmas gift @ Audible.com

This is a 45 minute short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and is one of his many Sherlock Holmes short stories. Here is Audible’s little blurb on their holiday gift to us.

The season of gift-giving is here, and this year we’ve got something special for our members: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Yuletide whodunit “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle”. In this holiday-themed short story, Sherlock Holmes and his trusty sidekick, Dr. Watson, follow the trail of a lost hat and a Christmas goose through the streets of London and into a rapidly expanding mystery. And, since a great story calls for a great voice, we’ve brought in Emmy Award nominee Alan Cumming (TV’s The Good Wife), a past Audie Award winner for Best Male Narrator and one of our very favorite narrators. We enjoyed it, and we hope you will too. Happy listening and happy holidays!

(Expires: Unknown)

Today’s daily deal at Audible has class! It’s the winner of the 2012 National Book Award for best fiction book.

• Click here to sign up for a FREE trial and FREE credit @ Audible.com

•  Click here to get The Round House @ Audible.com

The book is normally$14.95. You save $7 so only end up paying $7.95.

I think the award kind of speaks for itself on this book. I haven’t read it nor have I read any of the authors other stuff so I don’t want to pass judgement on it myself. The pros seem to like it I know not everyone will be in agreement with the award of course but that’s just how awards are. I know that I personally don’t agree with the Oscars constant shunning of Meat Loaf, one of the best actors of our time. Anywho, here is part of the publishers description of the book:

One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface as Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband, Bazil, and 13-year-old son, Joe. In one day, Joe’s life is irrevocably transformed. He tries to heal his mother, but she will not leave her bed and slips into an abyss of solitude. Increasingly alone, Joe finds himself thrust prematurely into an adult world for which he is ill prepared.

(Expires: 6th December 2012, 8:59AM ET)

Audible is the best thing ever. I would gladly prank call the mother or anyone who tried to tell me otherwise. in fact, Audible is so awesome that they are having a daily deal every day from now until December 23rd!

• Click here to sign up for a FREE trial and FREE credit @ Audible.com

If you already have a subscription to Audible.com, ignore the link above and this paragraph and get right to the deals. Everyone else, listen up. You’ve been bamboozled by the book industry. They’ve been making you use your eyes, like a SUCKER, for years. Audible loves you so they want to you have all your books crammed directly into your ear holes by the best readers in the business. These aren’t your 1973 books on tape, kids, these are seriously awesome. Keep in mind that I am telling you this as a published author who does not have an audio version of his book out. I am, with a smile on my face, canibalizing the industry that allows me to make money off of books. That’s how much I love Audible.com.

Once you use that link up there to sign up, you can get yourself put on a “light” account for $10 a year. That lets you enjoy all their sales without paying monthly. If you dig it though, you can sign for a monthly subscription of one or two credits a month. Most books are one credit, some are two.

•  Click here to check out todays daily deals @ Audible.com

That link is the link to today’s daily deals and these are the five books you can get for $5 each:

• State of Wonder: A Novel - Was $23.95 – Save $18.95 – Now $5
• Divergent - Was $16.95 – Save $11.95 – Now $5
• Medium Raw - Was $21.95 – Save $16.95 - Now $5
• The Fallen Angel - Was $23.95 – Save $18.95 - Now $5
• Fahrenheit 451 - Was $16.95 – Save $11.95 – Now $5

So those are some pretty awesome books there. A good cross section of stuff too which is one of the best things about Audible and most f their sales. They realize that I’m a big fantasy nerd so a story about a southern gentleman who rescues a baby from an orphanage run by a horrid Nebraskan woman in 1922, isn’t going to appeal to me. Something for everyone.

I find it hard to comment on individual books because it’s such a personal thing but I’m going to point out Fahrenheit 451.  It’s an awesome book that I would highly suggest everyone read.

(Expires: Unknown)

If you were to tell me that there is something better than Audible, I would punch you straight in the face for telling me such a filthy lie! Unless, of course, you were telling me about a deal going on in which you could purchase 4 books and get $10 in credit at Audible. You should probably lead with that fact lest ye be face-punched.

• Click here to get your FREE Audiobook and 30 day trial @ Audible.com

By now you should know how much I love Audible but I still felt the need to threaten you, the people who ostensibly keep the lights on at Bargainmoose, with physical harm. I’ll make it up to you though. To get this $10 credit you need to be an Audible member. How do you become an Audible member? Woah, hold on there cowboy! Let’s get you some freebies before you go buying Audible accounts like a crazy millionaire. With the link above, you can get a FREE credit from Audible (a few books are two credits, most are one) and most importantly, you get to take part in this great deal! Don’t worry about being locked in or anything, you can cancel at anytime or get a $10/year Audible Light account so you can get in on all the sales they have throughout the year!

• Click here to get your $10 credit @ Audible.com

The versatility of this sale is fantastic. You can shop with your credits (like the free one you just got by signing up) or you can just buy them outright with your credit card. If you want you can shop for a friend. Gift purchases count! You can even mix and match. Buy one for your friend, use your free credit and then buy two more for yourself!

I recently wrote about a sale at Audible (expires on 20th November 2012 at NOON ET) that would provide a great opportunity to get some of the four books you need for super cheap! The deal actually says that you can earn up to $20 but it never says how. I’m guessing you just buy four books twice (that’s eight books for the math deficient among the Moosers) but I am not 100% sure.

(Expires: 30th November 2012. 11:59PM ET)

The most wonderful time of the year? Christmas? No. Hanukkah? Nope. Kwanzaa? Sorry, no. Ramadan? Wrong! It’s semi-annual sale time at Audible!

• Click here to get your FREE Audiobook and 30 day trial @ Audible.com

Well maybe I was wrong in that intro but it is a close second to all those, to be sure! This is the part where I tell you how to get a FREE Audiobook and a 30 day trial. Why do you want this magical gift, you ask? Well, mainly because it’s FREE and awesome. Secondarily, you need to get an Audible account to get in on these sale prices. Lucky for you! All you have to do is click on the link above and you can get a membership and a FREE book that it yours to keep even if you cancel! This gets you a credit which will buy most books but some of the really long ones are two credits. Don’t worry about being locked in or anything, you can cancel at anytime or get the $10/year Audible Light account so you can get in on all the sales they have throughout the year!

• Click here to get cheap Schock-tober Vampire audiobooks @ Audible.com

I love semi-annual sale time. It’s just a great way to pick up some cheap books. There ate over 500+ to choose from across all genres from Sci-Fi to Romance. I’m sure you can even find a Sci-Fi/Romance crossover book. There are too many books for me to list a range of prices and discounts but some of them are approaching 50% off. there might even be some that are over 50% off. I noticed quite a few series in there as well. I, personally, love a good series. I have very few standalone books in my Audible library. It’s almost all series.

So what kind of books are you into? Do you like the long ones or are you always seeking out a quick read? What about genre? So you read anything or are you hyper-focused on one specific genre? We here at Bargainmoose think you’re pretty awesome and we’d like to get to know you better. It doesn’t hurt that you’re cute, too. Let us know in the comments below!

(Expires: 31 October 2012. 11:59PM ET)

I just downloaded this freebie, and you should too! Enjoy an absolutely free short story called Click-Clack the Rattlebag written and performed by Neil Gaiman from Audible.

• Get Click-Clack the Rattlebag: A Free Short Story Written and Performed by Neil Gaiman

This is a perfect little story for most ages, with just enough creepiness to be great for Halloween. Actually, this short story is in celebration of an event Neil Gaiman calls All Hallows Read… where he encourages people to give scary books to encourage reading.

There is a double benefit to downloading this freebie. For you, you get a free story to hear… and for others, for a limited time, each download from Audible benefits educational charities at DonorsChoose.org.

A few words from Neil:

Why tell ghost stories? Why read them or listen to them? Why take such pleasure in tales that have no purpose but, comfortably, to scare?

I don’t know. Not really. It goes way back. We have ghost stories from ancient Egypt, after all, ghost stories in the Bible, classical ghost stories from Rome (along with werewolves, cases of demonic possession, and of course, over and over, witches). We have been telling each other tales of otherness, of life beyond the grave, for a long time; stories that prickle the flesh and make the shadows deeper and, most important, remind us that we live, and that there is something special, something unique and remarkable, about the state of being alive. Happy Halloween!

Love that! So enjoy your free book from Audible, and let me know what you think!

Expiry: 31st, October 2012

BOO! Yeah, we’ve had all the cool kids of literature. Vampires, Zombie and Werewolves. Those are all fine and well but their popularity is likely fleeting. This week Audible is bringing you an old classic! Something that won’t go away: Ghost stories!

• Click here to get your FREE Audiobook and 30 day trial @ Audible.com

You need to get an Audible account to get the sale prices but luckily for you we have the hookups here at Bargainmoose. With the link above, you can get a free credit from Audible (a few books are two credits, most are one) and most importantly, you get to take part in this great sale! Don’t worry about being locked in or anything, you can cancel at anytime or get a $10/year Audible Light account so you can get in on all the sales they have throughout the year!

• Click here to get cheap Schock-tober Vampire audiobooks @ Audible.com

There are 36 books available in the Ghosts section. They are usually anywhere from $9.95 to $41.95 but this deal gets you the books for $6.95 each. That means you save anywhere from $3 on the low end all the way up to $35! Those “before” prices are the already discounted member prices so if you were to buy these without a membership  you would pay even more.

Who doesn’t like a good ghost story? If you’re doing the Halloween thing this year there is no better way to get into the mood than a good Ghost story. During Christmas people cuddle up on the couch with a mug of hot chocolate and listen to Christmas music. I think got Halloween we should start curling up with our loved ones and listen to Ghost audiobooks. Preferably while drinking the blood of the innocent. Hot chocolate will work too if you happen to be out of innocent blood.

On top of this, all of the books from the previous three weeks of Shock-tober are up and ready for you to buy so if you aren’t into Ghosts, you can try Zombies, Werewolves and Vampires!

(Expires: 31 October 2012. 11:59PM ET)