photo credit: thundersquee.com

I’ve been working through several major topics the last few months with the goal of publishing them as eBooks on the web. A couple of the topics, including personal and corporate branding strategies, inbound marketing techniques, yes’s and no’s of blogging, and social media business strategies that work, have emerged at the forefront and should be published soon.

With the publication dates drawing near, I’m finding myself at another crossroads, or will be soon. Should I publish the eBooks as free downloads? I’m talking totally free – as in, don’t even collect email addresses prior to download.

I’m thinking in my minds eye that I should, if for no other reason than to increase the posibilities of viral distribution via email, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, LinkedIn, etc.

But being of a marketing frame of mind, I’m also hearing from the other shoulder that I should think lead generation and at least collect contact info at the time of download.

What do you think? Would a contact info gate before the eBook download prevent you from stepping further?

Research from the field:

• David Meerman Scott seems to say no to collecting info in this post and this post.
• Ann Handley lays out both points of view nicely in this post.
• Susan Gunelius agrees with removing the registration gate in this post.

Did any of these change your mind?

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Related reading from my desk (or BlackBerry):

1. Slidedeck from Blogging for Business – The How’s & Why’s
2. Slidedeck for Today’s Social Media Marketing Presentation
3. New Social Media Business Card
4. New Media Conventions is Coming to Virginia Beach
5. What the heck is a JASE?