How To Advertise On A Budget.

First and foremost make sure that you know your budget and stick to it. Here are some important do's and don'ts to help you stick with your budget.

• Never spend more than 50% of your budget on one marketing solution.
• Do not spend more on marketing than you will receive in commission from that sale.
• Use a mix of low-cost and zero-cost methods to average down your cost if you do go over budget.
• There is a cost to convenience. Turn-key solutions will always cost you more per lead/sale. Use at your discretion and based on your personal situation.

 
Here is a list of some examples that will help you in the ways of free/low-cost marketing techniques.

• Facebook Profile - Facebook gets approximately the same amount of traffic as google. Facebook is an excellent place to network with others and begin building your on personal and business brand.
• Facebook Page - A facebook page is different to a facebook profile because you are only able to have one profile, but with the facebook pages you can have as many as you please - all linked to your profile. A facebook page is a business page that shows up in search engine results where your profile do not. This provides a great place to build your business brand.
• Myspace - Myspace is the largest social network site in the world. There are millions and millions of unique visitors on myspace every month. Myspace is a community where people can share things about themselves like hobbies, family and business. Your myspace page will be far more effective the more personal you are. People are wanting to connect with you not receive a sales pitch.
• Press Releases - A press release is an excellent way to position yourself as a leader and add instant credibility to your business. A press release is a news story that you can submit on many sites on the Internet, such as www.free-press-release.com Press releases announce a specific event like the launch of a new business and can bring very high quality prospects to your site.
• Article Marketing - Article marketing is an easy, low-cost way of bringing high quality visitors to your website. You can establish yourself as an authority in the industry. This is also a great way to build trust with your audience through the articles you write. You can use specific keywords in your articles so that they appear in search engine results like google.
• Squidoo - Squidoo is a "content-sharing" website or "lens" as they call it, where you can share content about any topic you wish. Squidoo is great because a lens is easy to setup, edit and can be an excellent source of quality traffic. Google loves Squidoo lenses and likes to rank them on the top 10 search results. "How To" lenses are a great way to position yourself as a leader.
• Blogging - A blog is like a website that you can edit and add your own content whenever you wish. Blogs can be about life, personal life, business or a mixture of all. Some benefits to blogging are: 
  • easy to publish - all you need to know is how to type
  • easy to find - your audience can easily find your content
  • social - they are a great way to build your online presence 
  • viral - your blog posts can be virally distributed
  • easy linking - blogs are easy to link to and from

• Video Marketing - Youtube is a free website where you can post videos. Your videos can be about you, business or anything you can think of your options are endless. Youtube marketing can 
  • Get you high volumes of traffic quickly
  • Be an effective self branding tool
  • Help you position yourself as a leader/expert
  • Increase website conversions
  • Target specific keywords

        70% of Youtube viewers are educated which is a great audience, also 71% are employed - 15% of them students.

• Forum Marketing - Forum Marketing is a cheap, easy way to establish yourself as an authority online. All you have to do to be effective is participate and add value to conversations that you are interested in. When participating in forums make sure you give valuable content or insight. Do not pitch your business in your forum discussions as it is seen as spam and may result in your account being frozen. Remember the more valuable the insight the more inclined people will be to work with you

 
These are just a few of the low-cost methods of online marketing, we are not even taking into consideration things like Google Adwords, postcards, banner advertising, EBay or Offline methods. The list of ways to market are endless but these should help you to get out there, building both your online presence and business brand.