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One of the most difficult things about running a home business is advertising it without overspending. Fortunately, if you know where to look, there is plenty out there. One source is Ebay; just search on "wahm ad" (see below) or other relevant search term. Many websites offer very affordable or free advertising, either on their website or in their newsletter.
Don't neglect your link exchanges when you do advertising. This option is generally free, and if you find good partners and lots of them (I have seen recommendations for 1000+), you can get significant traffic from this alone. Just make sure that on your site and any sites you link with you limit the number of links to a page to about 50 and that they are grouped by category to keep them relevant and easy to use. See my Resource page if you want to exchange links with me.
Write Articles and send them to editors - Many options here. One is of course to do the research on your own, finding editors to send your articles to and so forth. If that's a little too time consuming for you, there are products which have done the work for you already. For general Internet Marketing, work at home, etc. articles, I recommend the Ezine Editors List. For more general articles, try the Directory of Ezines. Finally, and particularly if you have an ezine of your own, try Ezine Announcer. It not only submits your ezine to directories with minimal effort on your part, but articles and ads as well. You'll have to decide how much help you want with this, but these resources can save you a great deal of valuable time.
Simpler yet is to use Article Marketer. I submit articles regularly, so I paid for the lifetime submissions. I used to use iSnare, another excellent service, but decided that it made more sense to pay once than to pay over and over, even though it's a lot of money for the lifetime service. Both services do an excellent job.
2 Bucks an Ad - Not quite what it sounds like, because you have to buy groups, but the price per newsletter is actually under $2 an ad, more like $1, but you'll spend about $10 for one ad group. The one disadvantage is that most of the newsletters have a LOT of ads in them. Even so, some people find them effective enough to do repeatedly.
Internet Income Secrets - Not an advertising opportunity, but a way to learn how to market online.
Mommy's Helper - Free advertising opportunities.
TBA Deals - A range of prices and advertising opportunities.
The Mom Pack - Moms helping each other advertise. Exchange flyers and other filler material.
Mommy's Work at Home Place - Free and paid listings available
Co-op Ad Network - This one's an interesting concept. You place 1-5 ads for other sites, randomly rotated by weight, into all of your pages, other sites in the network do the same for you. You get back about as many links as you give, and some people have been having great results with this one. As it's free, it's most certainly affordable. No adult or offensive sites allowed, and you can choose individual directories or your entire site to run the ads, so long as they are on every page within your selection. Sites are checked regularly to confirm that they are indeed running ads, so no one can cheat the system by signing up, getting verified and then dropping the links.
Finally, remember to use your URL in your signature line on all discussion boards if allowed, and don't forget pay per click options. It's one of the few advertising opportunities where you only pay for actual visitors, but it can add up fast.
Nine Inexpensive Ways to Advertise Your Web Site
Advertising your website doesn't have to cost a fortune.
Search Engines
If you do business online, you need to understand the search engines at least a little bit.
How to Ask For the Order - and Get It
Using the right words will greatly improve your odds of making the sale. Don't be shy about telling your potential customers to buy your product.
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