Advertising For Free Online: The Top 4 Ideas
By S McIntyre
There are so many different ways to advertise for free online and creativity is really in your hands as you can take some of these methods offline as well.
Here are four more effective ways to advertise for free.
Contests – I’m a huge fan of forums because of what they offer. It’s a playground full of information, resources, opinions and expertise.
| Forums owners love to have contests because it encourages interaction, motivates the members to be active participants and it brings in more members. Personally, I like contests especially when the winner receives an |
advertising prize or advertising package. By taking an advantage of these contests whether it’s a product you win or ad space either way it benefits you and it benefits me. If it’s paid advertising then it’s one way to see if this type of paid advertising works for you without having to pay out of your own pocket. Where do you find these contests? Of course, first and foremost community forums, online parties held by direct sales representatives and bloggers.
Contest Sponsor – Is when a webmaster is looking for people to contribute something for their contest. It can be a product sample, discount, or
| advertising space, e-book etc. Most likely the webmaster will be advertising their contest heavily to the public. Most likely they will list the prizes of what the winner can win along with |
your name and business.
Much like the online version this type of advertising works well offline too. You’re still donating or contributing something from your business to an event usually found in venues like charities, school, church or sport fundraising. It’s an easy way get exposure for you and your business.
Guest Author – It’s a neat way to get back links and increase traffic to your business or site by being a guest author on blogs. It may be a slow process at first, but the more you blog the more exposure you will get. In my opinion, I see blogging as a more casual approach than writing articles so if you’ve always wanted to write, but you don’t feel you have it in you then blogging is a good way to build on your writing skills.
Since we’re on the topic of blogging, leaving comments on other blogs relevant to your business will help you with back links. Keep in mind though don’t leave comments just for the sake of it. Many will see through it as a thinly veiled spam comment. You really don’t want to leave that kind of impression even if it wasn’t your intention.
Testimonies/Reviews – Have you received excellent customer support, reviewed an e-book you couldn’t put down or tried out a product that completely amazed you? Have you written a testimony or review to the company/business to let them know? It’s a good opportunity for you to allow them to place your testimony or review on their site provided you’re allowed to have a “little bit about you” blurb at the end. I can’t see a company/business turning this down. Seriously, who would say no to positive feedback? No one in their right business-like mind would.
Keep these four free advertising methods in mind the next time you’re networking online and see why contests, contest sponsors, guest author and testimonies/reviews are effective. It takes only a small portion of your time in exchange for some huge rewards.
S McIntyre owns Work At Home Space, a free work at home resource focusing on telecommuting companies, daily telecommute job leads, articles, business resources and other work at home related topics. You can also visit her blog Healthy Perspectives, featuring an array of health topics, nutrition, recipes and fitness for maintaining an overall healthy and well-balanced lifestyle.