How can I Advertise my Business for Free Online?

by JaneG

The internet is the most powerful tool for advertising any business and the good news is that you can get a whole lot of advertising, without spending a dime.

My problem in writing: 'How can I advertise my business for free online?' is that I don't know what business you are in. Some of the methods I will discuss work much better for some businesses than others. Additionally some of the methods can take some time to implement. You will need to keep track of the time you spend and the returns you get, then optimize your time.

A large part of this article is dedicated to some of the internet's largest sites. It makes sense, because they have the traffic that you want to advertise to.

Creating a credible web presence

Businesses tend to see clients or customers as separate individuals. When it comes to online communities it's better to think of them as an interconnected network. Individuals in the network link and communicate with each other. You want potential customers to link with you.

The first step is to create a Facebook and Twitter account. If your business sells to other businesses or professionals, you could also consider opening a LinkedIn account.

The secret to Facebook and Twitter is to post a steady stream of high quality content, that is relevant to your niche. Whenever I write a new business related article or if I find a great YouTube video or forum discussion, I share it with my subscribers. This establishes credibility, then if you recommend a product or service the chances of it converting into a sale is much higher.

To follow me on Facebook, login to your account, follow the link below, then go to the top-right part of the page and click on 'Subscribe'.

With both of these sites, when you share something all your subscribers or followers see it. It can also go viral if they retweet or reshare, what you showed them, because then everyone they are linked to also have a look at it. That makes Facebook and Twitter incredibly powerful viral advertising tools.

How can I advertise my business for free online?
Free advertising online
Free advertising online

Advertising using articles

My favorite way to attract traffic and direct it to my Facebook page, Twitter account or website is to write articles. In my opinion articles remain the best way to attract traffic, from the search engines. There are many sites that will let you post your articles, online and for free, but currently my favorite place to post is Wizzley. When you post a few articles, on a single site, it is very difficult for the search engines to tell whether they are any good. If however you have a site with thousands of unique and interesting articles the search engines can easily recognize that, they then assume that a new article you publish is worth sending traffic to. Wizzley shares the advertising profit from any page with the writer. That means writers have an incentive to deliver quality content. Also they work hard to remove junk from their site.

You will note that this article is posted on Wizzley, so I am not only recommending them, I use them myself.

One tip I will give you is to write longer articles. One 800 word article does better than 2 x 400 word ones.

Linkup with your clients
Linkup with your clients

What is your favorite free way to advertise online?

Free advertising on YouTube

The amount of people who use YouTube daily is just staggering. YouTube has no problem with you creating videos that promote your business. Basically all you need to record your first video is a decent camcorder.

To be really successful with a video you need to create something that is so good, that people share it with their friends. You are unlikely to get there, at first. But with a little practice and a lot of creativity you can really make your business.

In your videos always tell people what you want them to do and why they should do it. Also start the video description with a link, to where you want them to go. That way you get a lot more traffic.

Why online videos work

Forums

There are a great number of forums online, on just about every conceivable topic.

Say for instance: you have a business that sells pet snakes, snake food, snake environments and so on. You could Google "pet snakes forum" or "pet forums". You will find that there are many pet forums with subsections about pet snakes.

People that join pet forums and talk about their pets are not casual about snakes. They have strong opinions and care deeply about their little friends. So don't worry if you get some harsh criticism, it happens.

Once you have 10 or so posts, go to your profile and edit your Signature. If you put a link in there it will be displayed every time you post or respond to someone.

Auction sites like eBay

eBay isn't just for selling your old stuff. For the right business it can be a great advertising tool. The idea is to find someone to buy something on eBay, from you and then turn them into a repeat customer.

Use eBay to advertise your products free
Use eBay to advertise your products free

Say for instance you sell customized car parts, like speakers, radios, rims and so on. Auction some of your products on eBay. Then you include a hyperlink to your Facebook page, with the product. You could say something like: "For the highest discounts and most important articles and videos about customizing your ride, check out my Facebook page at..."

Google Maps

If you have a brick and mortar store you should list it on Google Maps. Go to http://www.google.com/local and click on "Put your business on Google Maps". I have found it to be an effective tool for getting quite a few local customers.

Email lists

Whenever the opportunity presents itself you should collect your customers' email addresses.

When the internet started to become popular there was a chain of flower shops, that tried to use an email list to increase their sales. If you ordered flowers for your marriage anniversary, they would record your email address and the date. The next year they would send you an email to remind you before hand, so you could send flowers again. They also sent out emails before dates like valentines day and mother's day. It was so profitable that many flower shops do it, today.

You can do the same with a Microsoft Excel spread sheet, later when you have a larger list you can buy software to manage the list. By doing so you are creating a valuable asset. Ask yourself: "How much is a paying customer worth over their lifetime?"

I hope you enjoyed reading How can I Advertise my Business for Free Online? Why not leave a comment, if you have something to ad.

Updated: 03/10/2012, JaneG
 
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onepagearticles on 03/29/2012

Yes I agree. Certainly a mix of commercial topics such as products or equipment together with how to do something works quite well. I am currently going through most of my videos and optimizing the titles, descriptions and tags etc as my earlier ones were just dreadfully rushed!

If I can convert my 120,000 monthly video views into extra income then it just might be worth setting up a few more related niche accounts.

JaneG on 03/28/2012

There is soo much traffic on Youtube. The trick is just converting that traffic into money, in your niche.

onepagearticles on 03/28/2012

I'm a great fan of YouTube at the moment as it is doing wonders for my drawing videos....but also the advantages to writing article niche content is just so amazing too combined with video marketing.

Great wizz

katiem2 on 03/27/2012

Good tips and ideas as they say advertise, advertise, advertise! It never hurts to do all the above!

Mladen on 03/12/2012

Some great advices you put here in this article "How can I Advertise my Business for Free Online".
Thank you for tips!

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