The Internet ushered in a new culture of free information. Some people simply enjoy providing information to other people and are either not interested in making money or they see their free information as a way to create other income streams. In order for an enterprise to provide valuable content and be able to sustain their efforts, the enterprise must earn an income somehow.

For authors, one tactic we can use is giving away free copies of our books, either hard copy books or ebooks. Ebooks are more popular as freebies as they do not cost anything to reproduce. The idea with freebies is that we will create a grass-roots awareness for our books. But so far, a proven model has not emerged that this strategy works.

Free content has its value if used strategically. For example, many people give away free newsletters, short ebooks or CDs as a way to build their list. These authors then put their lists of contacts in an autoresponder and prompt their customer base to buy other products. This is one way to start building your platform.

I personally think this culture of free on the Internet will evolve into more pay-for-content models. If you want to read more about free content on the internet, you might want to read this article, for free of course . . .