There are many ways to creatively and affordably promote your online business. I have tried all of following and they worked very well for me.

Joint Ventures - Participating in joint ventures with fellow publishers can be a very profitable experience. This could be anything from a group pop under window to advertising each other's ezines in your welcome letter. I also know a lot of people have had some results with signature buddies, where you would swap ads, so to speak, in each other's email sigtag. http://expertonebiz.com/articles/jvmoney.html http://www.jvmarketer.com/jvresource.html http://personalizedpartyfavor.com/freenocatch.htm

Writing Articles - Extremely effective method of building your reputation and your business. Writing articles is not hard, just stick with what you know and do not think you have to use big words to impress anyone. People are just looking for understandable articles with helpful info and useful resources. Write as if you were talking to a friend. mailto:getideas@getresponse.com mailto:yesarticles@getresponse.com http://www.ecommercebase.com/article/254

Submit your articles here: mailto:article_announce-subscribe@yahoogroups.com; mailto:articles4you2use4promotion-subscribe@yahoogroups.com; http://www.MakingProfit.com http://www.ideamarketers.com

Ad Swaps - Swapping ads, or running another publisher's ad in exchange for him/her running yours, is a very popular method of promotion. There are hundreds of thousands of ezines on net and most of publishers are willing to swap ads. When writing to a fellow publisher, be sure to include a link to a sample issue of your ezine. Introduce yourself and let them know how you know about their ezine. Tell them about your ezine and suggest a possible swap. There are publishers who will even swap solo ads which is a great opportunity! http://www.swapezineads.com/ http://www28.brinkster.com/bluesite/swap.htm http://www.linkydinky.com/swap/

Discussion Lists - Participating in discussion groups can get you established as an expert in your field as well as build your reputation as one who is there when needed. This can bring you subscribers, customers and clients. Always follow each group's guidelines for posting and treat everyone with respect and courtesy. mailto:hbj_chat-subscribe@yahoogroups.com mailto:ideasbypost-subscribe@yahoogroups.com mailto:newbies911-subscribe@topica.com mailto:Webmaster-Talk-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

There are many effective ways to promote your business free. However, let's start with a brief look at a few of less- effective methods. Although rare person might get results that justify their continued use, most people find them to be a waste of time. These include:

* Free classifieds in newsletters. Some editors offer a free ad to new subscribers in an effort to build their lists. Unfortunately, if they're getting a lot of new subscribers, they're probably also getting a lot of free ad requests -- which means your ad is likely going to get crammed alongside several others. As you can imagine, readers often ignore 'classified ad' sections such as these.

* Free classifieds on websites, or 'Free-For-All' (FFA) sites where you can post your link. Most people go to post ads, not read them. How often do YOU go to these sites to read ads? Enough said.

* Free banner or link exchanges. You know type: you place a snippet of HTML on your website, and links or banners are automatically rotated through everyone in network. These are not usually targeted enough to give good results.

* Traffic-generating programs. You join a 'network' and 'share' traffic -- on your site, typically a popup or popunder window (advertising another member's site) is displayed as your visitor enters or leaves your site. Other members display your ad in a similar way. A popular example are 'start page' or 'exit page' programs. Sure, this can give you traffic... but most important thing is, does it give you *results* -- subscriptions to your newsletter, for example, or sales? The conversion rate is typically negligible or low for these types of programs.

Now onto good stuff... here are several excellent free marketing methods that have potential to yield great results:

__Targeted Link Exchanges.

Place a link to another related site on your own, and in return, ask them to reciprocate. Do it consistently and you will eventually have a wide-ranging network of targeted, relevant sites on which you are linked.

Your 'link popularity', as it's called, is used by many of major search engines to help determine how well your site is positioned in results. Plus more links you have, more places people can find you. You essentially 'share' another site's traffic.

__Build and Use Your Own Opt-In List.

There's nothing like your own newsletter to develop a relationship with your visitors. Make it your goal to provide quality content and you'll have loyal subscribers who trust you.