Unfortunately, 4 out of 5 small business fail within their first year because there are so many things to focus on, including a business plan, a place of operation, hiring help, building a client base and marketing, just to name a few. Marketing can be very expensive, especially if you are using billboards, TV and magazines. But, have you thought about the power of internet marketing? Internet marketing is free, or relatively inexpensive and much more effective.

What happens when you are watching your favorite TV show and it comes time for a commercial? If you're like most people, you use this time to go to the refrigerator; when you're listening to the radio, you change stations; postcards and sale ads received in the mail usually end up in the trash. TV, radio and direct mail are 3 very expensive and ineffective marketing tools. What makes internet marketing the better choice?

Internet marketing reaches out to the people who are actually looking for you; therefore, it is much more effective. Let's say you have just opened up a scrapbook supply store. One would Google search ?scrapbooking supplies,? followed by the city and state where they live, to see what the search engines find. Wouldn't it be great if you were at the top of the Google page? You can be, very easily, and it is virtually free to accomplish! Let's get started.

Press Releases

A press release is a newsworthy media report announcing something about you or your business. You have just purchased or leased the empty building on the corner. Business owners in the area have been complaining about this run-down, empty building where kids have been hanging out. This is newsworthy! So write a press informing the public that you have resolved this issue. This is a great way to create your own credibility and announce your new business.

The headline could read ?Scrapbooking Supply Store Opens in City, State; Where will the Troubled Kids Hang out Now?? The heading is very important; it must grab the reader's attention and contain keywords that people will enter into a search engine when they are looking for you. You will need to be creative here because if your heading sounds like a classified ad your press release might be rejected. A press release must be newsworthy; it cannot sound like an advertisement, but with creativity, it can be a great marketing tool.

A well written press release introduces you at the beginning, contains newsworthy information in the following paragraphs and does not sound like pure advertisement. Of course you get to put a hyperlink to your website somewhere in the press release and provide your contact information at the end.

Articles

You can always write articles about scrapbooking or whatever is appropriate for your business. Articles show that you are an expert in your field; they should be interesting and educational to grab the attention of your reader. Start with a title, like, ?10 Great Tips for the Creative Scrapbooker.? Begin with an introduction paragraph, a body that contains lots of fun scrapbooking tips, and a summary to recap the important points of information from your article.

The resource box is at the end of your article. This is the ?about the author? part where you mention yourself, a little something about your accomplishments, and a hyperlink to your website.

Classifieds

There are many free classified sites on the internet where you can advertise your business. Internet classifieds are not like the small ads that you see in the newspaper. They can be much longer; you can actually copy/past your press release or article to the classified template. Change the heading to read something like ?Quality Scrapbooking Tools and Supplies ? City, State?. Be sure to include all your contact information and a hyperlink to your website.

Social Blogging

A blog is simply a weblog, or an online journal. Social blogging is not only fun, but it is a great marketing tool. Look at how popular MySpace is for teenagers. MySpace is also used by business owners. FaceBook is another social blogging site. ActiveRain is a great site for real estate people and it is a more mature, business-like, social blog than MySpace.

Internet marketing has quickly grown as the most effective marketing and advertising tool available to small businesses and large corporations. You can find virtually anything by searching the internet. It is free to advertise on the internet and show your business to the consumers who are looking for you, rather than annoy those who are not. Online marketing is a great way to advertise on a shoe-string when you are opening a new business.

This article was written by Mark Maupin, a college instructor who teaches internet marketing and search engine optimization classes. Mark has been hired by many national franchises to do their internet marketing and he has been very successful at getting them to the top of a Google search. To get Mark's FREE CD of market proven strategies that he uses every day to generate traffic to his website and his business go to http://www.imtruegrit.com