I’m starting with order of importance here—the things that are going to do more for you for time investment. That’s thing about advertising—it either takes time OR money OR both. And if you don’t have money, be prepared to spend time.

1.YOU MUST WRITE. I know you know something about your business. Maybe there’s a little something you could teach me about what you know? That’s what writing articles is all about. It’s just sharing your knowledge FOR FREE with others who are interested in that same subject. In exchange, you get to have a “resource box” and byline. Your resource box tells others about your business and has links to your website and email. You don’t have to write a sales letter of an article—your resource box does “selling” for you. There are plenty of articles online that tell HOW to write an article—but basic formula I follow is an intro paragraph, followed by “x” number of bulleted points to back up my intro, followed by a summary paragraph. Once you have your articles written, submit them to article directories. The main four I use are: www.ideamarketers.com, www.goarticles.com, www.fresh-articles.com, and www.valuablecontent.com. I know there are others. Just do a search with terms “submit my article.”

2.YOU MUST OPTIMIZE AND SUBMIT. Again, there are tons of articles on optimizing your webpages for search engine submission. The basic premise is to fill your site with keyword rich content, full meta tags and then submit your site once a month to search engines. I have found a great and free website service: www.submitexpress.com which only submits your site to actual directories and engines, not all those free for all link pages.

3.YOU MUST GET OTHERS TO LINK TO YOU. And not just anybody—the websites that link to yours have to have something to do with your website. It takes time to research similar yet different sites, email webmaster and request a link exchange. (Writing articles and submitting them solves this problem too.) If time is an issue, at very least, do a search for “_____ directories.” The “____” of course is topic of your website. For example if you had a website about Old English Sheepdogs, you might search for “Old English Sheepdog Directories.” The first five actual directories in search results are ones you want to exchange links with—they have highest rankings and this means something for you in making your rankings better.

4.YOU MUST WRITE A PRESS RELEASE. Is your website brand spanking new—or have you done something really cool like donate a portion of your sales to a local charity? Write about it and send it to your local paper. Be sure and put your web address somewhere—either in release if release regards site, or in resource box if it’s a secondary issue. If your message has a more global impact, consider sending out a larger press release online. Do a search for “submit press release” and you’ll find a bunch of places to submit your PR for free. One site is www.free-press-release.com/submit/.

5.YOU MUST WRITE AN E-BOOK. After you have taken time to write a slew of articles, it shouldn’t take much to combine them in some sort of congruent fashion, put a spin on it and compile it into one PDF document. Give it away for free. There are several sources (directories) that offer to list free e-books. It will get downloaded and passed around—a “viral marketing” scheme. One such site is www.free-ebooks.net/submit.html.

Most professionals don’t because they’re afraid. Afraid they’ll hurt their client relationships. Afraid they won’t cultivate any new business. Or afraid they’ll appear cheap or salesy.

It’s an imagined psychological line in sand you’re afraid of crossing with people. It’s in a concept I teach called "D.V.”, or Damage Verge. You’re frightened that by bringing up word “referrals” you’ll push your clients, cross that line, and create damage.

Let me give you an example.

Of 5,200 investment and insurance professionals surveyed earlier this year by my firm Strategic Impact!, an overwhelming 79 percent said they rely on referrals as their primary source of new business. Eighty-three percent of those professionals had at least 100 clients. Yet median number of referrals they received from their clients over a 12-month period was just 6 to 12! That means that, on average, only about 10% of their clients were generating referrals. That’s horrible! And being passive causes it.

If clients are your best source of new business then figure indicates a tremendous problem. The question is why? My answer is Damage Verge: A psychological barrier where you imagine worst possible thing will happen if you ask a client for a referral.

Before you can even think about how to bring subject up, your brain kicks into warp speed and says, "I can't ask them for a referral; they might get mad at me. . . feel upset. . . be uncomfortable. . . [insert your excuse here]. . . or worst yet, they'll just say, 'No!'"

What I'm referring to is nothing more than your conscious mind gets into act, and you wrongly start envisioning that worst-case scenario coming to life. You see yourself offending someone, being presumptuous, asking wrong way, feeling embarrassed, and finally ruining a prized relationship.

Four ways to break through