Recently we held our fourth Summer Skill Camp session for Virtual Assistants on “Leveraging the Power of Free Information Products to Attract and Win New Clients.” In today’s Web 2.0 world, a revolutionary new business model has developed that uses Free Information Products to build community, brand exposure, and lucrative results in an authentic way. This is in contrast to the old model, where free products had strings attached and were all about generating a sale.

Nowadays, Free Information Products serve to build connections, add value, grow brand influence and thought leadership in a way that can ultimately lead to new clients, all the while increasing the credibility of a business.

A July 2009 Reader’s Digest article, “Chris Anderson on the Meaning of Free,” talks about Anderson’s book Free: The Future of a Radical Price. In his book, Anderson describes how the comedy group Monty Python were frustrated by seeing low-quality pirated versions of their sketches posted on YouTube, so they created their own YouTube channel and posted their own free higher-quality versions, letting fans know that complete DVD versions of the sketches were available for purchase. Amazingly, sales of Monty Python DVDs rose by 23,000 percent.

Anderson explains:

"Free worked, and worked brilliantly … People are making lots of money charging nothing. Not nothing for everything, but nothing for enough that we have essentially created a country-sized economy around the price of $0.00."

But what form do Free Information Products take, and as a Virtual Assistant, how do you know which ones would be suitable to offer on your site?

Here are some examples of products you can offer:

•    White Papers, Special PDF Reports, eBooks

•    MP3 Audio Interview Series

•    Screencast Presentations

•    Pre-recorded Tele-Events (with Transcript)

•    Email tips series

•    Visual Slide Show Presentations

•    Online Newsletters

•    eCourses

And how do you know which ones to choose?

Think carefully about your online business and decide which of these products would provide the most value to your target audience, which ones could serve as a solution to any problems they might be having.

Once you have created your Free Information Product, be sure to position it for mass distribution through multiple social networks so that it gains as much exposure as possible and reaches your target audience through a wide variety of channels.

You’ll see that providing this valuable information for free will help establish you as a thought leader, a mentor, and ultimately build the credibility of your business, potentially leading to the addition of new ideal clients. Remember: the most valuable gift you have to offer your clients is yourself.

What do you think? Has providing Free Information products led to increased sales in your virtual business? As a Virtual Assistant or business owner, how do you maintain a balance between providing free and paid products and services?

Please share your comments below.