Thousands of items have been given away for free in order to drive traffic to sites all over the internet. The concept is straight forward. Give away something of value, and people will take the time to get to know you. As people get to know you, they will begin to trust you and to buy from you. People must trust you to buy from you, and net statistics say that a person has to hear from you seven times before they buy your products.
Most products being given away right now are informational packages.
There is nothing wrong with that. It is the easiest and cheapest thing to create. All it really costs is time. Informational products are useful in that they allow you to let your potential customers to get to know you really well. Good concept, in theory.