How much you do really appreciate something FREE? Do you take care of it as well as something you had to buy? Do you value that FREE item as much as item that cost you a distinct price? Are you willing to share that FREE gift? Do you show your thanks for that FREE ebook by reading it and using it? Do you delete that FREE ezine without looking through all of it?

FREE is great! I personally love anything FREE, but I have learned that somewhere that FREE item cost someone something. It could have been me, so I want to appreciate it and take care of it. If I download a FREE ebook, I read it. I personally subscribe to a LOT of ezines, but I honestly do try to read through them all.

We live in land of FREE, but many have paid a high price to keep it that way. Enjoy FREE things you get every day. Remember to send a short thank you for them if possible. Enjoy them! Use them! Share them! FREE is FUN!

What does this have to do with free? Well, when someone visits a site, especially for first time, you've got seconds to convince then to stay and look around. You have to give all of your visitors a lot of options and things to read and learn about. You must impress them, and you must do so quickly.

One way to get them to stay for a short while is to give them some free things. Of course, you can write articles (that's what I do on my site) which give valuable information. You can give them graphics, games, plug-ins for their site, free programs, coupons, or anything else that you can think of (it's probably a good idea to make sure all of this fits in with theme of your site - other than that, sky is limit).

Another reason to give out free things is to get people to come back. That's one of primary ways that Yahoo and sites like it sell advertising ... they give away free things (email, calendars, classifieds and so on) so you will continue to come back to their sites. They can predict how often people will view those ads (based upon statistical analysis), and they've got a good idea of what kind of things you are interested in based upon your actions at their site. Thus, they can sell advertisers a commodity ... you. Or rather, your eyes.

That's why free stuff will continue on internet ... it gets you there and it makes you come back again and again.