One of the most important things to know about advertising (regardless of how much money you have) is that you need to be advertising your product or service to the people who want or need your product or service.



That just sounds too obvious right? Well, not everyone thinks about this. A lot of people just listen to the sales rep from their local newspaper or radio, but unfortunately this isn't always the best solution. The sales rep is only interested in selling one product - their own.

It's highly unlikely you'll get an unbiased opinion from a sales rep selling one product. The best solution is to find council from a marketing consultant or an advertising agency.

But this costs money! Sure. It also costs money to get your car repaired - but you wouldn't do that yourself would you? Some might... And some can.

Most of us can't AND most of us shouldn't!

An incredible 80% of businesses fail in the first 5 years of starting. This shows that even though most people think they know everything they need to know, they actually don't know much at all about getting new clients.

And in their desperation to try anything new, many might have copied their competitor ads thinking their competitors have the answers - all the while their competitors were probably doing the same thing, or maybe listening to their local sales rep.

Where and how you spend your advertising or marketing dollars could make the difference between staying in business or closing down and losing everything you own.

Sound dramatic? Sure! With an 80% fatality rate, you need to have both eyes open! So where do you start? If you can't afford professional help all is not lost. Thanks to the internet, there are a lot of things you CAN do quickly and easily on your own.

Here are 10 different, inexpensive ways to promote your online business.

1.Write an eBook on something that is relevant to your business and distribute it for free. By distributing a free product with your brand in it you will garner the trust of those interested in your product thus bringing you free targeted traffic to your business.

2.Create an affiliate program - By creating an affiliate program you get the masses to help you promote your product for free. The promotion is free and you only pay them when they make sales. As the saying goes, it's better getting 50% of something than 100% of nothing.

3.Join related directories - Find the most relevant directories and submit your business to them

4.Create a joint venture with complementary businesses. For example; if you run a house cleaning business you should JV with gardeners or other sites that are directly related or complementary to your business.

5.Create a newsletter - By creating a newsletter and capturing some leads you will develop a loyal following that would be willing to buy from you in the future.

6.Write some articles - Write some articles or get some articles written on your topic and get them submitted to popular article directories. Articles include links back to your site. This helps you build a reputation and improves your chances of being considered an expert in your field.

7.Issue a press release - Create a press release about your business. You can easily reach people and even news organizations by issuing a press release.

8.Add your business to classified ads - Find related classified ads sections and add your business to them. (Do not spam!)

9.Find a related forum and offer your expertise. Find a popular forum related to your product and promote it there. Be sure to add some value to the forum before you start just adding your link everywhere. If you don't add value you will be considered a spammer and all of your hard work will go down the tubes.

10.Go viral - Give away something or create something that people will want to share with others. By giving away something you will easily and quickly earn recognition and build a loyal base.

Most of the ideas above will cost you absolutely nothing except a little time. So here's a challenge for you. Read through the list again and choose just ONE idea that you can action today.

Go ahead. Do it now. You'll be glad you did!

And as soon as you can afford it, have a chat with a local marketing or advertising professional. Most of them won't charge you for the first visit.

Good luck with your next campaign!