We all have one thing in common whether we are crafters, small business owners or Direct Sales Representatives.  We need customers. Whether your business is operating with a million dollar advertising budget or no advertising budget at all, there are ways to advertise your business without spending a dime.           

1. Link or Banner Exchanges – Basically with this option, you are having someone put a link or banner for your site on their webpage and you are in turn doing the same for them. This means that visitors to their website will see your link and hopefully be interested enough to take a look at what you have to offer.  People who visit your website will see their link and have the choice to visit their site. Be careful who you exchange links with.  Make sure you don’t exchange links with a business that competes with yours or one that may offend your customers.  Since I’m a jewelry business, I don’t exchange links with other sites that offer jewelry.  I also make it a point not to exchange links with gambling sites, pornography sites, etc.
   
   
2. Blogs – A blog or weblog is a sort of personal diary organized by date.  Many businesses use blogs as a running commentary of what they are doing in their business, new product announcements, specials and coupon offers. Blogs are free to create and use. Make sure they are updated regularly so people stop back and visit them frequently.  I recommend http://www.blogger.com.  It’s very easy to use and comes with free templates to make the creation process a breeze.  You can see what types of things I use my blog for here: http://moonlightcreationsjewelry.blogspot.com/
   
   
3. Signature Lines – Just about everyone sends out emails.  Are you taking full advantage of the free advertising available in your own emails?  Go to your mail options feature and add in your business name, website link and any other information you think will be helpful into your signature line. You can add a special, a brief description of your business, your phone number, etc. Think of how many emails/posts you make a day and how many people will see this information and possibly click the link to your website. As an example, this is what I have as my signature line.

Moonlight Creations Jewelry
Affordable Handmade Beaded Jewelry
http://moonlight-creations-jewelry.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Moonlight_Creations_Jewelry/
Holiday Mail Train - Personalized children's letters
http://holiday-mail-train.com

My eBay auctions: http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/ellenlafleche
My half.com: http://stores.half.com/ellenlafleche

Not all email providers offer the same number of lines so you will have to play with yours to get the most information you can get into your signature line.

4. Newsletters – What better way to get customers back to your site than to offer a free newsletter?  Your newsletter can be a very simple email once a month that reminds people what you offer and tells them about any sales or specials you have going that month.  I recommend sending out your newsletter once a month.  If you send it out too frequently, people get annoyed and unsubscribe.  If you don’t send it out often enough, they forget who you are.  You can create a free newsletter list by starting a Yahoo Group for your business.  When you create the group, make sure you set it up so that you are the only one who can post to it otherwise you run the risk of too much chatter and a loss of customers.  You can create your own newsletter group by going to: http://groups.yahoo.com/. You can see what I’ve done with my newsletter group by going here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Moonlight_Creations_Jewelry/ .  Creating a Yahoo Group for your newsletter also gives you the option of adding photos to their photo section, files, databases and polls.  These are great features you can use to showcase your products or find out what your customers want.
   
   
5. Contests – You can offer a free contest on your site to entice people to visit and sign up for your newsletter.  Be careful with contests.  They are likely to attract people who are only interested in winning your prize and have no intention of purchasing your products. If you do choose to offer a contest, I’d recommend making the contest prize drawing quarterly.  This means you have three opportunities to reach your customers before you actually give something away. I’d also recommend asking your members to answer a question related to your website or product line as a condition of entering your contest.  Don’t make the question too difficult but make it something that requires them to visit your site and take a look at what you have to offer.
   
   
6. Advertising Swaps – Once you offer a newsletter, you can swap advertising with other people who have ads in their newsletter as well.  This means that all of their customers will learn about you and your site and all of your customers will learn about them. Again, be careful whom you offer this option to.  Don’t offer it to your competitors or people your customers may find objectionable. I regularly offer free ads in my newsletter to other WAHMs who will place my ad in their newsletter.
   
   
7. Business Cards – OK business cards aren’t totally free since you have to print them but most of us already have business cards.  If not you can go to Vista Print and get business cards for less than $7.  You can put business cards on local bulletin boards, slip them inside of bills or other correspondence you mail, leave them between the pages of library books you return, put them inside video cases of videos you rent, and leave them in doctor’s offices or other waiting rooms. You can attach a lollipop to them & hand them out for Halloween. Carry a stack with you in your purse at all times so that when you need them, you have them.
   
   
8. Barter – This is my favorite option.  I regularly barter my jewelry for advertising and business printing.  If you type in barter or trading into the Yahoo Groups search function, you will find many groups to join where you can trade what you have for what you want.  You can view an article I’ve written on bartering here: http://moonlight-creations-jewelry.com/index_barter.htm
   
   
9. Write Articles – For those of you who enjoy and are good at writing, offer to write an article on a topic you know a lot about.  Once you’ve written the article, you can make it available to others free of charge with the condition that they include your byline at the end of the article. You can write an article about almost anything but make sure it’s an article that your target market will want to read about.  If you offer cloth diapers, maybe you could write an article about breast-feeding.  If you sell scented candles, you can write an article about aromatherapy. Once you have the article written, you can post it on your site along with your byline (name, business url) and a statement that says the article is free for anyone who wants to use it as long as your byline stays intact. Or if you don’t want to put it on your website or can’t, visit other sites and forums and see which ones are looking for articles.  Once you find one that you feel your article fits well with, email the owner and ask if they are interested.

Ellen LaFleche-Christian
Moonlight Creations Jewelry
http://moonlight-creations-jewelry.com
The Holiday Mail Train
http://holiday-mail-train.com