Offering a free service or content is a great way to build backlinks to your website. Link popularity is a hugely important factor in SERP rankings so offering free content should definately help build your brand. You may also want to have some of your content syndicated through article submissions (making sure to include a backlink to your site). I would only do this while your site is new to get backlinks and then only post these articles to your site after you have built some traffic. Posting helpful comments in forums is another great way to build your reputation and contact list. If you are going to offer free content make sure it's original. If you are going to offer a free service, again try to make it original or at least put your own twist on it. Having looked at your website you are going to want to install a template on your blog. This is a great way to personalize your site and brand yourself and should not be overlooked. Pretty much everyone out there knows what the default wordpress installation looks like so you are shooting yourself in the foot in the credibility department by not changing it IMO.
"Free" is one of those words that must set off a whole bunch of little lights in our brains. It can work well for you, it can also backfire on you. Depends what you're doing. It might give you that edge over a competitor, it might just attract cheapskates.
I like how your signature says "Download your free 32 page Pay-Per-Click Guide." I'm assuming it's giving you an edge?