Book Review: "Free" by Chris Anderson

by Fred Gleeck | July 15, 2009

I went to Barnes and Noble last Friday. I had just gotten back into the country and was psyched to get my hands on Chris Anderson’s new book: “FREE”.

I’m sure they broke some kind of publishing rule by selling it to me before the official release date which was the following Monday.

I got it home and then proceeded to start reading it at around 12:30 AM, right after Conan. I ended up pulling an “all-nighter.” There was so much good stuff that I couldn’t STOP reading.

This generally only happens to me with a great work of fiction. Which, I remind you, some of the people at N.S.A. (The National Speaker Assoc.) have told me they find “unnecessary reading.” WOW! Amazing, huh?

The basic premise behind the book is that with digital delivery on many things, costs will fall so low as to drive prices to ZERO.

For people like you and me who are information marketers, this is important to understand. In the NEW model that FREE preaches, you’ll have to find other ways to make money as you give much of what you create away for NOTHING.

I’ve been thinking this way for a while, so it makes complete sense to me.

People are getting MUCH more skeptical. They are leary to give anyone a dime because they been ripped off my multiple charlatans masquerading as Information Marketers. Some of these sheisters with WELL KNOWN names.

Now, the playing field has changed.

You are going to have to give people a lot of great stuff in the HOPE that they will pull out their credit card and give you some money for something else in the future.

For 5+ years I’ve been giving away 5 of my best selling ebooks for free. Why? Because I KNEW that if I could show people that I knew what the heck I was talking about, they would eventually buy something from me!

YOUR Action Point(s)?
First off, go get a copy of the book and read it for yourself. Read it carefully. Think about all the ways that the concepts apply to you and YOUR business. You’ll find PLENTY.

Then, understand that to be successful selling ANY kind of information in the future you’re going to have to give away some HIGH QUALITY material to win over a skeptical public.

Fearful you don’t have enough to give away? Then start doing more research and digging deeper into your topic. If you don’t, your competition WILL.