Publisher Offers Free Online Business Book

HarperCollins makes the contents of a popular book free as it tests out a web-based advertising supported model.

Book publisher HarperCollins today dipped their toe into the Internet waters as they unveiled that they were making the full text of a business book available online for free, on an ad supported basis. The book, “Go It Alone! The Secret to Building a Successful Business on Your Own”, is available at author Bruce Judson’s website.

The posting of the entire contents of this book online for free, said HarperCollins, tests a new advertising based business model the company looks to be considering. Each page of the book’s text will be indexed for search engines and accompanied by contextual ads served by major search companies. Additionally, the site will include a link to an online bookseller where consumers can buy a copy of the book.

“Our goal is to develop new digital products based on our books while creating new revenue streams for our authors,” said Brian Murray, Group President of HarperCollins Publishers, in a statement. “We chose to offer “Go It Alone!” because Bruce Judson is a leader in Internet marketing and contextual advertising, and his book on entrepreneurship and outsourcing is a topic that will be of particular interest to the online community.”