Business owners and entrepreneurs know that success breeds success. When you surround yourself by successful people and do what they do, you increase your chances of being successful. What are the successful business owners doing today to market themselves? If you ask them, the majority will say they are using the internet.

The internet is a powerful marketing tool that is free to use for posting classified ads. Remember the small classifieds from the newspaper? These cost money and they are no longer an effective way to advertise. Newspapers are quickly losing popularity now that so much is available on the internet. You can post a one-page classified ad on the internet free; it would cost you a small fortune to do this in the newspaper.

One reason the internet is such an effective marketing tool is your ad contains a hyperlink to your website. So, when people read your classified ad, they can immediately go to your website to learn more. Yes, you can include your website in a newspaper ad, but then the reader will have to remember to visit your site when they go to their computer, if they have one. If they're reading the paper, they might not own a computer, which means they will have to remember to visit your store or office when they are out. Classifieds ads in the newspaper are often read while one is eating breakfast or having their morning coffee, just to forgotten about as the day goes by.

There are many internet classified sites where you can post free classified ads. The idea is to use sites that show up on the first page of Google when people are searching for your product or service. The hottest classified sites today are Craigslist, BackPage, Kijiji (owned by eBay) and Hoobly. Yahoo, MSN and Google are also good for posting free classified ads. You can find many more sites just by doing a Google search for ?free classifieds.?

Post as many classified ads as the site allows. Change the headings to use different keywords and market areas that you service. Make changes to the ad itself for variety and test your ads to see which ones are the most effective by offering a special discount or free gift if the customer presents the ad or mentions it when they visit your business. Ask your new clients where they heard about you and they will most likely say ?the internet.?

Successful business owners are using the internet for marketing and advertising their business. They are aware of the changes that have taken place in the market and the growing amount of competition they face to make the public aware of their existence. Direct mail and the newspaper are advertising tools from the dark ages. They do make great bon-fire starters, but there are products on the market for this as well, so they are quickly becoming obsolete. If you want to succeed in business today, you must be observant; look at what the successful people are doing and model your program after them.

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