Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Small Business Advertising On A Shoestring Budget

By Christy Lyons


You started a small business and want to expand it, but don't have much money to spend on your advertising needs. What you don't know is that you can promote and advertise your business with practically no money involved.

You can use the almost unlimited capacity of the internet to send your message to people in all the nooks and corners of the world. You can use the internet to advertise your business by following the guidelines below:

Introduce your products and services through press releases. Press releases can be used to promote an event or to launch a new product. There are websites in the internet that serves as platforms for promotions and advertisements. Some allow you to post them free, while others have upgrade releases that cost a fraction of what traditional advertisements would cost.

Enlist in a message board group. This seems like a small way to advertise, but it's really not. There are sites that allow a link to your website in your profile signature. People who visit the forum are curious and will check out the link to see what it is that you're offering. These visitors will have contact with others who may have a need or can use you products or services. When you join a message forum, choose one that is related to your business interest, as there are people who visit the site that may want or need what you have to offer. Find out about the forum's list of rules and guidelines and limitations.

Start a blog - or even a podcast! If you market your blog or podcast well, people will return time and time again to see what's new with your business. They'll send other people from their own blogs and pass on the links to their friends.

Take advantage of social networking sites. In social sites like Squidoo and MySpace, you will be joining people with similar or like business interest with whom you can socialize. You can put yourself in a position to promote your website by building links with other websites which will increase your product's popularity. There are popular websites like Squidoo that allow the showing of pages on any subject of interest, and specialized websites with particular contents like the environment or the schools.

Promote your products in articles. If you have articles with keywords of your website in several linked sites, your website will pop up more often and attract more traffic. Using keywords in the articles can help the search engines find them and funnel more customers through to your offer. It's not hard to find numerous free ways to promote your small business - even if it's an offline venture that you own. Every business needs a home on the 'net, and the Internet can help you develop a loyal following in any demographic.




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