Top 10 ways to advertise your business for free

As a small business you will recognise the need to promote your business.
With a bit of creativity and some work on your part there are a number of ways to advertise your business for free.
1. Write a press release
Writing a press release is the best way to generate some free publicity. Basically most journalists do not have much time to write stories, so if you can provide them with easily written text it becomes quite easy for them to publish it. But be careful don’t presume that your story will be interesting. The fact that you sell a product is not very interesting. Interesting stories are more likely to be human interest, or about a new business opening. Look inside a publication to see what sorts of stories that they publish and write your press release like one of these.
2. Personal profiles
Add on personal profiles of yourself and your business on social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Ecademy, Friends Reunited, and Facebook. These will need to be quite subtle - avoid the hard sell. Then start building links in to other people that you know.
3. Use your car window
Make a poster and put it in the back window of your car. This could be just a simple web address for your business.
4. Add comments at the bottom of web postings.
If you do a resonable job at an answer then many sites will be quite happy to include a link back to your website.
5. Put up an advert on craigslist.
This may generate something interesting, but it may also get lost in all the crud.
6. Shop windows
If you are holding a local event many shops will be quite happy to put up a small A4 poster in their window. Many web sites have events pages that do not charge to promote an event.
7. Free directory websites.
There are a number of web sites that offer a free directory. These include
Yellow Pages
http://www.bttradespace.com/
http://www.kellysearch.co.uk/
http://www.freeindex.co.uk/
Touch local
Applegate
Blue boomerang
8. Link swapping
Link swapping has gone a bit out of fashion of late, but it can present a very useful way to get traffic to your we site. The free willy nilly swapping of links was very popular a few years ago, but in the right circumstances it can prove very popular. The best way to go about doing this is to find out who is linking in to your competitors websites and ask if they will link back to you.
To find out who is linking go to Google and type in “link:competitor.com” (changing competitor.com for the website you want to check out)
9. Start blogging
It can be a bit time consuming, but if you start a blog on your website, using software like Wordpress or Typepad
10. Generate reference material for your website
Another useful way to bring people to your website is to write useful reference material such as free how to guides.
One company that is using this to great effect is the hospital company BUPA. They wrote a number of health factsheets that they claim now have one million people a month visiting. While this has taken them quite a bit of effort to generate this it is one of the best examples of free advertising that I can think about. And much cheaper than advertising on TV.
Other ideas include
- Send in articles to magazines.
- Speak at conferences.

• billboards
  (Thanks to Anonymous)
• web page
  (Thanks to Anonymous)
• sandwich board
  (Thanks to Anonymous)
• Place a car magnet sign on your garage door. When you are gone or have your vehicle parked inside your garage, your neighbors and people driving by can see your sign.
  (Thanks to Anonymous)
• go to local networking meetings, Yes ok sometimes these cost around £10 but there a great night out and get you involved in the local business community.
  (Thanks to Adam Faulkner- Staffordshire)
• flash mob advertising, get a group of friends wearing the logo or slogan and do something noticeable in a crowded area.
  http://www.novamusic.co.uk
  (Thanks to Anonymous)
• email marketing
  (Thanks to Anonymous)
• Write articles and submit to ezines or regularly visit forums, makesure your signature has your website address.
  http://www.youindian.com
  (Thanks to Anonymous)
• Exchange Links with other websites, this will do wonders for your serps.
  http://www.ponex.co.uk
  (Thanks to Anonymous)
• DROP CARDS - get some cheap business cards printed up from somewhere like http://www.vistaprint.com - I would definately recommend them. Put a few words to describe your business or what you offer and either your phone number or your website on it, then drop wherever you go…letterboxes (in countries that this is legal), On car windscreens, or hand directly to people you think could use your services. Also leave one on the bathroom bench when you use a public one - you never know who will pick that up.
  (Thanks to Anonymous)
• Send out your web address on anything you send out of your business.
  Also sell on E-bay and then send out your web address on the invoice to that new customer.
  http://www.party-ware.co.uk/
  (Thanks to Anonymous)
• ITS SO NICE
  (Thanks to Anonymous)
• Make Use of BlueTooth
  Set your bluetooth mobile to display your website rather than your name. That way whenever you are in the vicinity of another bluetooth mobile, it will display on their handset.
  ideal income
  (Thanks to Anonymous)
• tell ppl u know about wht u do
  (Thanks to Anonymous)
• put up leaflets where your target audience lives or in the area of your target audience
  (Thanks to Anonymous)
• dont waste money on advertisement
  (Thanks to Anonymous)
• creat door-knob hangers with yor biz name
  (Thanks to Anonymous)