Assuming all other bills are covered; web hosting, list
building, affiliate programs, your own ezine, etc., you only
have $150 a month to spend specifically on advertising. What are
the best ways to stretch that dollar to its fullest potential?
Glad you asked.
You will find article after article endlessly covering six free
ways (except for one) to advertise. They include: Submitting
articles to directories, submitting your ezine (which you need
to have) to directories, exchanging links, posting in forums,
announcement lists, and pay per clicks. This is not another one
of those articles. To read one, go here -
http://www.cerebuswebmaster.com/onsite/newsletter/issue4.html
(Scroll down to "A Crash Course in Website Promotion").
Some of these ideas listed below are free, while some require an
investment. With a limited monthly budget (and even without
one), research before you spend anything, to make sure your
money will be doing exactly what you want it to. Keep track of
all expenses in real time, and when the funds run out, stop
until next month.
The best way to compensate for lack of money is a lot of time.
Think of time as your reserves. Since you do not a have a lot of
money to spend, you need lots of time to research, plan, and
execute. Until you have made enough money to use other forms of
promotion, time is your greatest asset.
Free Ads There are numerous websites that have free advertising
(of course, they want you to upgrade for a fee, but the free
version works just fine), and each has their own way to
advertise to others. Most of them use some sort of credit
system. Five are listed here. www.trafficswarm.com
www.BannersgoMLM.com www.MyViralAds.com
www.dont-touch-my-ads.com www.web-dawg.com
Paid Ads The problem with the free advertising sites is that
they promise visibility, but not necessarily traffic to your
site. At www.trafficaccount.com, you pay between $1.99 and $3.99
per one thousand visitors.
Classifieds If classifieds are more your forte,
www.qualitybooks.com enad.htm lists the best websites to place
your classifieds for free. However, usually they are not as
popular as the paid ad sites. If you are going to spend money at
a classified site, do your homework before you pay. Many
free-for-alls are only visited by people placing ads and not
seeking them. When researching, find out how many hits it gets,
make sure your ad stays on the page and will not be pushed off
when other ads come in, and that there is some worth to the site
and not just inundated with ads. Visitors quickly leave websites
with nothing offer. You can always post classifieds offline,
too. Some newspapers will not charge for the ad if the item you
are selling is under $100.
Signatures Including signatures in everything is an often
over-looked tool to promote your website to your network of
friends and contacts. On every e-mail you send, forum you post
in, sheet you fax, or article you write, at the very least
always include your business name and website, and maybe a
promotional tagline. Giving your address and phone numbers makes
you look more legitimate to potential customers. The trust
factor between business owners and consumers can make or break
your online business.
Writing and Branding eBooks Depending on your business, this may
take some adapting to fit your personal business mold, but many
people have made a lot of money by writing an ebook that
promotes the heck out of your service, and giving it away to as
many people as possible. Befriend other online capitalists that
can promote and your book to their list. Submit your ebook to
websites with free ebook directories. You could also find ebooks
with subjects or information that is very close to your niche or
product. Read them, and if you can find a way that your product
would benefit the reader of that book, pitch your product to the
author, and if he agrees to include your product in an updated
version of the book, split the profits of the traffic that came
through the book.
Walk-Thru Tool If designing your business model or even
promoting your business lacks structure and coherence, the
Marketing Dashboard ($59.95) at www.Getitgoing.com organizes
everything for you. From your marketing vision to your profit
plan, stats tracking and task organizing, it keeps your business
plan focused.
Web Toolbar This is more for the traffic you have already
achieved. Give away a web toolbar (which can be made at
www.webtoolbars.com) that is tailor-made to promote your
business. It allows you to inform anyone that downloads the
toolbar of updates to your website, new products you have to
sell, forum topics, etc. This will keep people from forgetting
about your website and makes them much more likely to visit
again. The Basic is $5 and the Pro is $45.
Advertising Offline Many online entrepreneurs forget that
advertising offline can be just as powerful as online. Never
miss an opportunity to plug your business. You never know who
you might bump in to. Definitely invest in some business cards.
You can also purchase magnetic signs to place on your car,
fliers to pass out at high traffic areas (be it people or cars),
rubber stamps for all your letters. The possibilities are
endless. You can buy all of these products at www.iprint.com .
As you can see, there are still many avenues to promote your
site very cheaply. Most of these are free, and none of the above
have residual costs. As your business slowly makes more money,
you can eventually start placing well-tested ads in extremely
high-traffic sites. Until then, use these ways to get your feet
off the ground.
About the author:
Brian Roe publishes Profitable Net Marketing, an innovative &
informative newsletter full of helpful hints, opportunities, and
time saving tools to help support YOUR home business.To
subscribe for free, check out
http://www.profitablenetmarketing.com
