Some things are free.  Advice is often one of those things.  But the fact of the matter is most advice is given when it is not wanted.  Consider: anything a parent says to a teenager.

Then, when we want advice, we don't ask our parents who are more than willing to give us more than we can handle, we ask a professional and pay them large sums of money.  So advice is no longer free.  Funny how that is.  Maybe we have to pay for things just to add value to them.  Like pet rocks.  They were only cool when you had to pay money for them.  Now if you have a "free" pet rock, you are a nutter.

(I'll be a dad someday--with *shudder* teenagers of my own.  I got to figure out how to make my advice valuable without making it rarer than good advice.  But then there is my grandmother from Taiwan.  She has been a mother and now a grandmother and has probably tried to give a lot of tips in her day.  Her take on advice? "Shut your mouth and open your wallet."  Seems like she has given up on giving advice.)

But hey, sometimes free advice can be useful.  And it can even be good at the same time.  Stephen Handel, an attorney from Texas said this about some of the free advice on our firm's website:

"I “stumbled upon” your firm’s Web site, and after reading the Doing Business in China section, I felt compelled to express my sentiments of “bravo” and well done. Having first lived and worked in Beijing in 1976,while negotiating a technology transfer agreement with CNTIC on behalf of my U.S.-based client, I found your tips and cross-cultural guidance to be on point and of significant value. Your Doing Business section should be required reading for anyone thinking of trading with or investing in China.

Sincerely,

Stephen E. Handel

Attorney at Law

808 Travis Suite 905

Houston, Texas 77002-5710, USA

Tel. 01-713-224-5011, Fax. 01-713-224-5018, Cell. 01-713-256-4562"

But then, Stephen went looking for knowledge and he got what he wanted.  Make advice available to those who want it?  It seems desire is enough to make something free valuable.  Only give advice when it is wanted?  Novel idea.  There is a lot of good stuff on our website and everything that is posted on it is free.  Have a look.