If you are trying to get a business off the ground, one of the biggest decisions is how much money should I spend on advertising? This is a very important choice as it is usually the difference in making your business successful or having it fail.
The scare factor of course is that if you don't get the word out about what you are selling, you are pretty much doomed to failure. You can only imagine how many great inventions are sitting in people's basements because it wasn't marketed right. We see businesses go down each and every day and you have to wonder was it bad business or lack of advertising?
The first way you are going to save money on advertising is by making use of all the free advertising that is available on the internet. There are many different avenues that you can take and you should be exploiting them all. Not one of them will cost you a penny out of your pocket and will require you to do nothing more than spend a few hours a week on your computer.
There are tons of sites out there that want you to post your ads for free with no strings attached. They make their money in advertising for other people and you can take advantage of that and get your ad posted for free! Doing a search on some of the more popular engines will give you a great idea where to start placing your ads.
Social networks offer a unique opportunity for free advertising. They offer you two possibilities in developing your own page and usually also have their own classified sections. If you are not familiar with these networks, you may think that they are for hooking up and socializing, that is far from the truth. People spend hours on these sites reading about anything and everything. If you are selling wine and Jane Doe does a random search, she just may come across your site and you will have found some new business.
The final thing you can take advantage of for free advertising on the internet is to develop your own webpage. Now I know you are thinking that this is a very expensive undertaking, but it doesn't have to be. True, eventually you are going to have to put out some cash and have to have a real site up, but in the meantime you can use a blog. You just need to get something on the web.
From there, you need to start going to forums and other bloggers to do link exchanges. This will enable everyone to send people to each others sites and it won't cost anyone a penny out of their pocket. In this case, you may actually want to diversify and make buddies with people who have sites that are totally different from yours as you want to hit as wide an audience as you can. You might be selling product x and someone is on a poker site and it hits them in the face when they sign on and check their forum. All of a sudden they remember that they are out of x and click on your link and make a purchase.
You can use the same principle off of the net and do it with local businesses in your community. Go talk to your local merchants and work out deals to advertise each others businesses for free amongst yourself. People that buy hardware have to eat and vice versa. There is nothing wrong with a flyer by the register in either establishment promoting each other. You will be surprised at the amount of extra traffic your store sees by doing something as simple as that. - 15359
The scare factor of course is that if you don't get the word out about what you are selling, you are pretty much doomed to failure. You can only imagine how many great inventions are sitting in people's basements because it wasn't marketed right. We see businesses go down each and every day and you have to wonder was it bad business or lack of advertising?
The first way you are going to save money on advertising is by making use of all the free advertising that is available on the internet. There are many different avenues that you can take and you should be exploiting them all. Not one of them will cost you a penny out of your pocket and will require you to do nothing more than spend a few hours a week on your computer.
There are tons of sites out there that want you to post your ads for free with no strings attached. They make their money in advertising for other people and you can take advantage of that and get your ad posted for free! Doing a search on some of the more popular engines will give you a great idea where to start placing your ads.
Social networks offer a unique opportunity for free advertising. They offer you two possibilities in developing your own page and usually also have their own classified sections. If you are not familiar with these networks, you may think that they are for hooking up and socializing, that is far from the truth. People spend hours on these sites reading about anything and everything. If you are selling wine and Jane Doe does a random search, she just may come across your site and you will have found some new business.
The final thing you can take advantage of for free advertising on the internet is to develop your own webpage. Now I know you are thinking that this is a very expensive undertaking, but it doesn't have to be. True, eventually you are going to have to put out some cash and have to have a real site up, but in the meantime you can use a blog. You just need to get something on the web.
From there, you need to start going to forums and other bloggers to do link exchanges. This will enable everyone to send people to each others sites and it won't cost anyone a penny out of their pocket. In this case, you may actually want to diversify and make buddies with people who have sites that are totally different from yours as you want to hit as wide an audience as you can. You might be selling product x and someone is on a poker site and it hits them in the face when they sign on and check their forum. All of a sudden they remember that they are out of x and click on your link and make a purchase.
You can use the same principle off of the net and do it with local businesses in your community. Go talk to your local merchants and work out deals to advertise each others businesses for free amongst yourself. People that buy hardware have to eat and vice versa. There is nothing wrong with a flyer by the register in either establishment promoting each other. You will be surprised at the amount of extra traffic your store sees by doing something as simple as that. - 15359
About the Author:
Alex Wu runs a free advertising website that lets people post their ads, build profiles, and connect. He hopes to create an active environment for businesses place their free ads.
