For someone who had just got started in Internet Marketing giving away something free doesn't sound like good business. Shouldn't you be selling that information you're giving them? I suppose you could, but there might not be as many takers.

I'm sure you've seen sites like this before, they've got a form for you to get a "free course" or something from... While you may or may not be interested in what the site is actually selling, the biggest thing here is to see the use of a "free course". Did you know it takes most people several times of seeing something before they decide to buy or not? It's around six or seven times. That means a prospective customer to your site may not buy anything at all, and that they may not buy anything from them even if they visit the site a few more times in the future. The free stuff here, has the purpose to keeping themselves in the visitor's mind. He's bound to get some return visitors this way.

It's a very good way to leave an impression in the visitor's mind your site long after they've left. Since very few people are impulsive buyers it'll get you another chance to try to promote your product to them long after they've left your site.

Plus, everyone likes free stuff.