At first, one would think they are losing money, why giving away for example a free audio book when they can charge for it. However, lots of people query the search engines with the word free, trying to find free stuff, maybe because they don't want to spend money on the web, maybe in certain countries they are afraid to use their credit card online. Offering free content, is a great way to receive a great number of visitors in your web site. But, if they are looking for free things, you may think its useless to have them as a visitor. That's not right ! Maybe they won't buy now, but if they sign-up to the site or a newsletter in the site, the owner of the website will have the possibility to sell him things in the future, perhaps offering some great opportunities such as a discounted items only for people in that list.

On the other hand, visitors to the site may click in some of the ads or banners the website has, perhaps also offering to download free audio books, and that would also make the website owner earn money.

From the customers point of view, what should be done ? Maybe say: "They are cheating me, I won't download nothing, they only want me to buy" That would be useless, it would be a better idea to visit the site that offers free audio books, and check if they like any of the free titles offered. Also if the website has ads, visit other sites which may also offer to download free audio books.

And who knows, maybe some time after, there is a great offer, and you will finish buying a very interesting audio book you hadn't thought about.