I sat down the other day at my local Starbucks with a new acquaintance and had an amazing conversation about developing future products that maximize the potential of viral expansion and grassroots groundswell.

One of the strategies that a lot of people use is the “Strategy of Free.” The problem though is that most people don’t leverage this nearly as effective as they’d like to.

You see, giving something away for free only guarantees attention, not necessarily a return.

Thus, the challenge is to make sure that when you give something away for free that you do so in such a way that moves people to commit to something more. Creating a pathway of experience, extremely low barriers of adoption, and super-simple-signups are just a few ways to make “free” work for you.

Have them do something other than just receive. Have them “push” for that cheese.

Of course, whatever you’re giving away needs to be pretty decent as well.

[Image from Vidiot]