Assuming all other bills are covered; web hosting, list building, affiliate programs, your own ezine, etc., you only have $150 a month to spend specifically on advertising. What are
best ways to stretch that dollar to its fullest potential? Glad you asked.You will find article after article endlessly covering six free ways (except for one) to advertise. They include: Submitting articles to directories, submitting your ezine (which you need to have) to directories, exchanging links, posting in forums, announcement lists, and pay per clicks. This is not another one of those articles. To read one, go here - http://www.cerebuswebmaster.com/onsite/newsletter/issue4.html (Scroll down to "A Crash Course in Website Promotion").
Some of 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 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 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. www.trafficswarm.com www.BannersgoMLM.com www.MyViralAds.com www.dont-touch-my-ads.com www.web-dawg.com
Paid Ads The problem with 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 enad.htm lists best websites to place your classifieds for free. However, usually they are not as popular as 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 page and will not be pushed off when other ads come in, and that there is some worth to 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 ad if 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 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.
