Looking for Cheap Methods to Advertise

Try putting it out on craigslist.

www.craigslist.org

Many services offered for no cost.

J

L.,

I feel your pain! I might have some suggestions for you but it would help to know what kind of business you're in. Is it goods or services-oriented? Are you doing any networking? Have you had a free consultation with a marketing consultant to determine which venues of marketing are best for your kind of business? Do you know who your niche market is and how to reach them?

All of these questions would determine the options you could choose. There are so many ways to "market" yourself, not just through purchased ads in magazines, etc.

Hope this helps. I'll check back and follow up if you respond.

Best of luck!

Hi L.,
You've responded to me before (thanks!). I'm the one with 15 month old twin boys and I'm 8 mos. pregnant with another boy. I also run a business from home. Seems like we have alot in common!

As for advertising, maybe if you tell me a little more about what you do, I could help better. I've been in networking groups and done various things to advertise but my company has many stipulations when it comes to ads. Anyway, I'd love to chat more and tell you what's worked for me, etc.

Hi L.,
I see that you're in Dearborn also,I belong to a yahoo group called Western Wayne Cafe. They allow you to post your business at the first of every month. You will have to join of course but it's a start to advertising.

When I started my own business I had a friend who was into marketing run Press Releases. They are free. We chose local papers and we were able to get a colunist interested in doing an article.
Best of Luck

Hi L.,
I read your request and thought, I could give you maybe an idea. You could put a kind of a sign on your car (something like a vehicle wrap).
My husband is a graphic designer and designs those kind of vehicle wraps. The good thing about it is you can attach the sign (without glue) to the side of your car and remove very easily which is good if you have a lease car.
I don't know if this would be a cheap advertisment, but a very effective one. To give you an example, my husband charges $65 per hour for the designing part (average time for the design of a small sign is between 2 and 3 hours).
If you are inerested, I could give you the name of the company that does those signs.
Odly enough, the economy is down, but people invest more in advertising and my husband is pretty occupied with his job.

You can advertise on Mamasource for one. But look online for information about business bartering. There are a lot of groups like that out there, and it seems it would be great for a small, home-based business owner.
Here is just one of many: www.bbu.com
Good luck,
L.

Have you thought about putting a bumper sticker on your car or dropping off your biz cards at flea markets/st. joan fair?

MySpace. I know it gets a bad wrap but there are legitimate businesses that have MySpace pages and others look there for networking. It is perfectly acceptable to direct people to your MySpace in leiu of a website which does incur a cost. Also try www.blogger.com. Create a free accoun and blog, it looks like a website and you can direct people there as well. Hope this helps

What type of business is it? My sister owns a salon and I help out with all her advertising (I have a BBA in Marketing). I'm currently a stay at home mom, but I'd be willing to help if I knew what kind of business it was :)
There's always flyers that you can deliver to people's houses (good exercise too) and you can even put them in other businesses upon their approval.

My email address is ____@____.com if you want to email me.

Good luck :)
J.

Have your business cards printed at VistaPrint.com - they can be free or very cheap. Give you cards to EVERYONE! Networking and word-of-mouth/referrals will probably be your most effective form of advertising for a small business.

Also have a great website. I think that's one of the greatest tools for advertising these days. Make sure it looks professional. Try to find a friend or art/design student to help you with the design if you don't know how to make one. Post a flyer on college campus's in the art/tech departments or list your inquiry on craigslist (or even here!!) and you can probably get a pretty cheap rate. Put your web address on everything - business cards, letterhead, in the signature area of your e-mails, return address stickers, everywhere!

Don't waste your money on radio or tv advertising! It's expensive and hard to track if it's effective.

The type of business you have may matter, but what about a church paper (the last page of our church paper is all advertising), or your local/city newspaper? I don't know about pricing, but I would imagine it is significantly less expensive than the Free Press/News. And in my city, the Birm./Bloomfield Eagle has become quite a well-read paper. There are also the free mags/papers you pick up when you walk out of certain grocery stores (Whole Foods has a bunch that I see a lot of people pick up).

Hello L.;

I too, understand the burdens of debt and advertising! I suggest researching all available resources on the internet/ dropping of flyer's and the car magnet sounds great, too! Referrals from your friends is the best form as 'word of mouth' is the best form of advertising you can ever have. (and the cheapest... unless you reward those with a free service or discounted service as I do.)