In one sense, SEO is free of cost advertising because once it is built into your site, you do not have to spend a dime and you will receive hits from the search engines. As long as you implement site optimization when your site is under construction by your web developer, you will not incur further cost for this method of increasing traffic. Further, the content needs to be optimized at the outset as well and this will allow better search engine rankings for your site. Once both these aspects are built in, you would not be required to spend more on SEO for a while.
Affiliate marketing:
Many people consider affiliate marketing a source of free of cost online advertising. This is partially true because under an affiliate marketing scheme, you do not need to pay anything for your site to be advertised on another site until a visitor clicks on the ad and buys something from you. The other retailer will then receive a pre-decided commission amount from you but nothing in case the sale is not completed. This allows you to select which sites to be featured on and also ensures that you never pay unless there is a sale from your online business.
Articles in E-magazines:
A number of e-magazines also feature articles that may mention your site’s name. This is usually the case once you are a little more established but can happen even before that. If you can build links with writers doing research on your type of business, they can mention you subtly in subscription based magazines online. This is great free of cost advertising for your site.
Forums:
One popular method is to encourage your previous customers to join online forums that discuss products or services like the ones your site sells. They can relate their working experience with your site and can help to drive traffic to your online business. They can think of it as a review that they are leaving for your good work and this is equally likely to show up in search engines as other types of content. It is a great word of mouth, free of cost method of advertising for you as long as you have satisfied customers.
Pay per click:
Another form of low cost marketing is pay per click which allows you to list on portals and sites, some of which are directories, and it is their job to get good search engine rankings. You pay nothing until a visitor clicks on your site link. This means that you pay a small amount per visitor. This can be useful initially to drive the right traffic to your website. In a way, this type of advertising is also considered free of cost, because you need to pay only when you have secured traffic to your site.
