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Who in their right mind turns down something that’s free? You’re thinking, nobody. Right? Not so fast.

The answer depends on what is being offered for free. You may stand in line for a free iPad or maybe a free laptop, even if you already have one, you could gift it to someone. You may love using a site like Twitter free of charge, but you may be a little skeptical about a dating site that is free.

Small-business events are one of those things that should not be free.

Admittedly, I have a personal vendetta when a women in my office hosted a FREE lunch and networking event. 1000 invites went out, no RSVP but an assumption that at least 10-20 people would show up; yet not a single person came. She had space available for 60 people (in case someone showed up with a  fleet of friends). Imagine her disappointment, because she could have had the room set up to look smaller.

Needless to say, she will think twice before offering an event of any type again.

So why is it that people like free, except when it comes to events? Here are my four reasons.

1. “What’s The Catch?” Once you host a free event, people always ask themselves that question. They call up a friend and say, “The event’s free … but …” and they both spend some time envisioning the potential scheme. While you’re hosting a free event because you’re trying to gain some trust: Instead, you could end up with the opposite.

2. There is no sense of urgency. When did you last feel some urgency toward something that was offered for free? People appear less likely to register for free events and, when they do, the percentage of no-shows is higher than that of paid events. In one of its online discussions, a small-business event host from Biz Nik admits that the average no-show rate for free events was 20 percent compared with 1 percent to 2 percent for paid events.

3. Value is questioned. Most free items are offered so that a potential client gets to know you better. You want them to test the waters. While some people may appreciate this when it comes to informational products, they may not value this when they’re forced to give up time to sit at an event. Some may even start wondering whether something is wrong with you or your business because you’re willing give up your time for free.

4. Attendees may not be real prospects. Let’s face it, people will pay for what they deem important. People who only attend an event when it’s free usually will not pay for a coach, expert, consultant or advisor, either. Most of the time, this group is sure it can do better on its own. These people are there for one thing only — free information — leaving you with a headache and no hopes of ever earning their business.

Out of more than 700 industries, research firm IBISWorld has identified the six small-business types most likely to do best next year.

How will your industry do? Take a look at the top-performers report. It shows that with the recession ebbing, some industries will profit by helping consumers pull out of the downturn, while others are already building on recovery.

1. E-commerce and online auctions — The top performer with more than 11 percent projected revenue growth, e-commerce will simply keep gaining on brick-and-mortar retail next year. Is the downturn making us drive less and shop online more? Not clear, but America’s love for shopping with a click will not abate next year.

2. Real estate appraisal – With the housing markets firming up and fears about buying in a still-dropping market lessen, there’ll be more demand for appraisers. Still-low interest rates should help drive more home sales next year, helping appraisers see nearly 9 percent revenue growth.

3. Environmental consulting — New laws and growing consumer interest in going green will help environmental consultants see 7.5 percent revenue growth in 2011. I’ve been researching green supply-chain issues recently, and one driver is big retailers demanding green operating principles from their vendors — which in turn drives those vendors to look to their own suppliers for greener practices. Upshot: Lots of companies that need to cut their carbon output, and need experts to help them figure out how to do it cost-effectively.

4. Debt collection agencies — This has been a busy industry the past three years, and next year it should keep growing revenue — IBISWorld says more than 4 percent. The theory: as unemployment eases (finally!) and the housing market recovers, debtors will be able to pay back more of what they owe, improving margins for collection agencies.

5. Advertising agencies — Many companies are looking to jump on any hint of economic upswing, and are finally adding to their marketing budgets. The forecast is for 3.5 percent revenue growth. Expect agencies with a specialty in online and social-media advertising to take the lion’s share of the upswing.

6. Job training and career counseling — This one also mines the downturn, to the tune of 3.4 percent growth. Helping the unemployed retrain for new careers will still be big business next year.

The holidays are a time of hope and joy. They’re also a time when my email inbox fills with an avalanche of small-business predictions, best-practice tips, and success-strategy recommendations. Here’s a collection of some of the more interesting forecasts for small businesses in 2011:

1. Financial savvy: More companies will use direct deposit to save money and help the environment, according to the Pay It Green Survey 2010. Calculate how much you could save by switching to direct deposit with this calculator.

2. Venture capital and IPO markets: This year saw a big thaw in the public markets — the volume of IPOs more than doubled, PricewaterhouseCoopers reported. The value of fourth-quarter IPOs this year is more than we saw in the same period of 2007. This should translate into more venture capitalists seeing payouts…which means more venture capitalists with money to reinvest next year.

3. Leadership success skills: Humor will be a secret weapon of smart CEOs next year, says Francie Dalton, host of the new blog talk radio show Overcoming Business Nightmares. Enough with the gloom already!

4. Management: From Business Innovation for Dummies author Alex Hiam: Maybe while you’re on vacation in the next couple weeks, take time away from your business to think about it. Then: Implement something by mid-year.

5. Tax smarts: Companies that take advantage of tax breaks expiring this year will have more growth capital for 2011, notes Brandon Edwards, president of the Tax Credit Company.

6. Next-generation marketing: New high-tech methods of reaching customers will be hot next year, including smartphone-readable QR codes, says Melanie Attia, product manager for email-marketing firm Campaigner. If your business doesn’t have a Facebook fan page, she says, 2011 is the year to take the plunge.

7. Cloud, here I come: More small-business functions will be done on free, cloud-based platforms, predicts Bob Egan of research house The Sepharim Group (at least until you get too big and have to pay for an upgraded version).

8. IT spending: IDC forecasts you’ll spend more on IT next year. No, really: You will sleep now, and when you awake, you will realize your current computers and networks are hopelessly outdated.

9. Retail: Smaller stores will rule — that lower overhead will give sharp operators an edge.

10. New forecasting tools: My favorite is the Ceridian-UCLA Pulse of Commerce, a new index that tracks real-time consumption data in the form of information on trucking-shipment volume. Its most-recent report indicates we’re not out of the woods yet in terms of consumer-goods purchasing.

. Put it on a t-shirt, skateboard, or doggie sweater.

Since WikiLeaks hit the headlines, vendors have been uploading new Assange- and state-secrets-themed products daily to Zazzle.com, an e-commerce site based in San Jose, California. Products on the site, which is an open marketplace for designers and small businesses, range from the fairly traditional (buttons, T-shirts, sweatshirts) to the downright droll (dog sweaters, onesies, skateboards).

Among the 36 billion items for sale on Zazzle, those riffing on WikiLeaks are performing among the best. Michael Karns, the director of marketing for the site, says that there are at least 1,000 WikiLeaks products on the site, and they are selling fast.

“It’s just incredibly popular,” he says. And in a time when most search terms are typically reserved for Christmas-present ideas, Karns explains that WikiLeaks is giving the traditional vendors a run for their money. “Maybe people are giving WikiLeaks products as Christmas gifts.”

Most of the products online right now seem to be positive towards WikiLeaks, but from his experience, Karns notes that backlash can overtake an original trend before you can say “diplomatic cables.” Some sellers have begun to put the word “espionage” under Assange’s face in screen-printed designs, which Karns notes is becoming popular.

2. Create a rival, or just squat on e-real estate.

Domain names are 21st century real estate, says Warren Adelman, the president and chief operating officer of Go Daddy, an Arizona-based domain name service that ranked No. 8 on the 2004 Inc. 500.

It stands to reason, then, that WikiLeaks-related websites—some legitimate content hubs, some little more than an attempt to generate ad revenue from URL typos—have also been an inevitable product of recent media attention. “In the past few months, we’ve started seeing an increase in the number of domain names with the word ‘wiki’ and ‘leaks’ in them,” says Adelman. The site, which claims to register a domain name every second of every day is also hosting about 10 auctions right now for WikiLeaks-themed domains, with an average starting bid of around $5,000 each.

Jeremiah Johnston, the chief operating officer of Sedo, an open online marketplace provider for domain names with more than one million users worldwide, says his company has seen a similar spike in interest. More than 70 different WikiLeaks-themed domains have been tagged for sale on the site since the drama began to unfold, he says.

During any type of political or social event, entrepreneurs and opportunists rush to snatch up sites with urls relevant to the issue. “We always see a spike in activity,” Johnston says. Though many of these sites will probably never achieve long-term profitability, typos can be lucrative, at least in the short term.  For example, WikiLeaks.com—the actual site is a dot-org—is ranked at No. 1,370 in U.S. popularity, according to Alexa, a site that offers free website traffic metrics.

3. Build useful privacy apps.

Personal privacy topped the American political zeitgeist during the Bush-era War on Terror, and is right back there again thanks to WikiLeaks. Whisper Systems, a company founded by a developer who goes by the name Moxie Marlinspike, created two Android apps that premiered in late June, RedPhone 0.3 and TextSecure 0.5. The RedPhone application facilitates encrypted conversations between Android users. The TextSecure app offers dual-encrypted SMS messanging transmission. The apps are currently free for individuals to download and are fee-based for corporate licensing.

And after the leaking of thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables, online stealth is en vogue. Applications such as VaporStream, an e-mail system that thoroughly erases notes after they are read. Other developers are creating open-source apps to transmit larger amounts of peer-to-peer personal data. Nadim Kobeissi, a student at Concordia University in Montreal, is the creator of Cryptbin, which is essentially a drop box with “state-of-the-art encryption,” he says. “The nice thing about Cryptbin is that you can host it yourself, you can check the code. It’s a tiny, tiny program that you can host on any Web server. Small groups can set up their own Cryptbin servers, [and] they can use the current Cryptbin server which is available online [that] allows anyone with very limited computer knowledge to share private information securely.”

Although the apps from both developers were created before the onslaught of mainstream media attention surrounding WikiLeaks, they do see an opening in the market for privacy related applications. “I think maybe WikiLeaks is part of a larger shift in consciousness. For instance, if you look five years ago, no one really talked about Google in the context of privacy, and now this is something that comes up again and again and again because people are beginning to realize just how much information is being collected and just how much is being monitored,” says Marlinspike.

4. Write all about it.

You didn’t think a prominent scandal would come to pass without a big book deal or two, did you? Less than a week after the arrest of Assange, Scribe Publications has acquired the rights to Inside WikiLeaks: My Time Inside the World’s Most Dangerous Website by Daniel Domscheit-Berg, a former Assange accomplice at WikiLeaks and founder of the just-launched rival whistleblower site OpenLeaks.org.

In addition, many writers are capitalizing on the bonanza by publishing their texts online as part of Amazon.com’s self-publishing program. For $9.90, one can download titles such as Julian Assange: The Whistleblower. Traitor or Hero? along with several other similarly named titles by Heinz Duthel.

The original book on Assange, Underground Tales of Hacking, Madness, and Obsession from the Electronic Frontier, by Suelette Dreyus, while currently being available as a free download, is selling for more than $250 on Amazon in its original paperback edition.