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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.
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/tenad.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.
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