College Money

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One of the perils of marketing your business is the complete lack of funds but the immediate need to get your brand out there. If you’re on a shoestring budget it’s even more difficult because you can’t go the traditional way of advertising, like how big companies do it. Nevertheless, the beauty of being born in this day and age means there are a lot more resources available to us. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that we should maximize this opportunity called the Internet. The power is indeed at the tips of our fingers: in cyberspace, there are millions of people willing to listen, who will come flocking to you if you only know how to use it right.

So to those who are asking, “Where can I advertise my business for free?“, here are some ideas:

1. Your own blog or website. Build a website with a nice design and great content. Showcase your business and create a blog where you can discuss the brand and the products in detail. Having your own website is similar to claiming your own space in the world wide web, where you are free to do what you want, and you can receive new visitors.
2. Blog directories. Think of it as the yellow pages for blogs. Blog directories help in driving more traffic to your site – if you use the right keywords and tags, more people will be able to find you. See: 20 Essential Blog Directories to Submit Your Blog To.
3. Forums and message boards. Interact with a lot of people, join threads and express your opinion in topics you are interested in. Better yet, find forums that are business-centric or are related to your business. Network with other entrepreneurs. And most importantly, put a signature to all of your posts. This signature should consist of a link that refers to your website.
4. Your social media accounts. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace – these are great places to advertise your business for free. Put a link to your website in the links or bio section. Talk about your products when you can. Complete your profile, write interesting things not only about your business but yourself as well, and connect with others.
5. Other people’s blogs. Find people who are willing to do a link exchange, meaning, you’ll link back to their blog if they link to yours, too. You can either put a section for links in a sidebar, or you can link to them in specific posts that you write. Linking to other people means your blog post will appear in their site, too, and hopefully the audience from that site will come to yours.
6. Search engines. If you submit your blog to search engines, you will have a higher chance to appear in first page of results whenever people use some keywords to search for something. Of course, there are those who really pay to make their site the #1 result that appears – but if you know some SEO tactics, then you wouldn’t have to pay a single cent! Just make sure that you always use the proper keywords in your blog.
7. Answer sites like Yahoo Answers. Answer questions that you are an expert in, or are related to your business, then link back to your website  as your resource.
8. Social bookmarking sites like Digg, Technorati, StumbleUpon, Reddit, etc. They work in similar to blog directories.
9. Press release directories. Announce and share details about your new business. Include contact information. Submit your press release to free directories.
10. Mailing lists. There are a lot of mailing lists for different interests – sign up under a topic that is related to your business, or, better yet, create your own mailing list where people can subscribe to. Keep the subscribers updated by sending fresh content.

Where Can I Advertise My Business for Free?5.051