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The Cost of Free Advertising

Well not every client I work with has a huge budget to spend of avdertising. This is ever more true with nontraditional startups, stay at home mom business, and web based business. Well with some thoughtful reasearch you can start your advertising with some crafty “free” advertising.

Find Out Which Free Advertising Fit Your Needs

There are numerous ways to advertise on the Internet if you have the money to spend. Lets look at some of the paid services available. PPC is popular but if you’re new or don’t have a great understanding you could spend a small fortune using this service. There are paid email services; again you could lose money if you choose the wrong service. Some unscrupulous individuals gather lists by illegal methods, pass these along to customers and suddenly you’re receiving complaints of spam. Or you pay and the list is non-existent.

So what are you supposed to do? Before deciding to spend money on advertising check into the different free advertising options. There’s almost an endless supply of options if you choose to go this route. Some work better than other’s depending on what you are selling.

I’ll discuss six methods you might find helpful.

At the top of the list is article writing such as I’m doing here. The idea is to create an interest in your product and hope the reader is tempted to click on the URL you supply in your profile box. It takes a little practice but after a while it really does get easier. You may think you need a degree in writing to become an accomplished article writer but with everything available such as spell checkers, Microsoft Word, it makes it a lot easier to transfer your thoughts and turn them into an interesting article.

What should you write about? This is the question most people are concerned about. In the beginning you’ll be better off writing about things you know about, a subject you’re even passionate about. It could be a hobby, a life experience, a movie, or the way you feel about something. Most people don’t realize it but almost everyone has at least one thing they are good at. If you’re really stuck there’s a few places to find ideas such as Clickbank, Commission Junction, and eBay. Look around until something catches your eye, do some research and write your article.

Here’s a nifty little one that not many people use. Put an ad on Craig’s List offering a free gift. An ebook or a link to free advertising or anything else you can think of. The link would lead to a download or an email capture page meaning to get the free download they would have to supply their email address to you. They receive a free gift and you’re building your list.

Build a blog- A blog is basically an online site you create and write about your interests and you can allow people to leave comments or add their own ideas on the subject. It’s also a great place to advertise. You can add links to products you sell. Here again article writing helps. Write an article; submit it to any number of article sites with a link directing them to your blog. The blog should have of course be pertinent to the article you wrote. Nobody wants to read an article about health then be directed to a blog explaining how to catch a fish in cold weather.

Traffic Exchange- A traffic exchange is a free program you can join and advertise. Each day you log into the site and view other member’s ads. In return you receive credits, the more credits you earn the more times your ad is shown to other members. The amount of success with traffic exchanges depends on the product you’re trying to sell. Remember, the other members are there for the same purpose as you. They are trying to sell you their product. It’s been my experience that web business products such as: “How to get traffic”, “The best ways to promote” and “How to save time” etc; normally get more response than trying to sell affiliate products like furniture, clothing, and other items of this nature. A couple of the more popular exchanges are “Instant Buzz” and “Traffic Swarm”

Free ad forums- You can find any number of free ad forums; simply type it in the Search address bar. Normally they limit the number of ads you can place. It could be one, two, three or more depending on the rules set down by each site. Surprisingly I’ve had a little success with this method, nothing fantastic but better than I originally thought it would be. In order to have any success you should visit free ad forums every day and post the daily limit of ads. Once again your response rate will vary depending on your product.

Social networking sites are very popular. Squidoo and Facebook, are ideal for setting up a lens to advertise your product. My space allows you to set up a rotating sales menu on your home page. Simply upload pictures and when someone clicks on any of the pictures they are taken to your sales page. All three are easy to set up and you can link back to your site. I haven’t tried selling physical products but with the variety of traffic they receive they may be the ideal sites for selling this type of product.

These are just six ways to advertise free, there are other ways and with a little research it’s not hard to find them. Persistence is the key with any type advertising especially free advertising. If you’re serious about marketing you have to spend time each day placing your ads, updating your blogs, and getting your message out there. The more you advertise the better the odds you’ll be successful.

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