The cost of setting up a business in the world of bricks and mortar is huge. You have to have money for rent, wages, stock, utilities, insurance and a whole lot more. Yet all of these cost don't stop business people the world over spending massive amounts of money and taking on debt because they know that it takes money to make money.
It's different in the Internet world. Business costs are much lower. You need to pay for a domain name and setting up your website. You can do this for a mere fraction of the cost of setting up a store. What you do need in both worlds is marketing. On the Internet, you must have a way to get traffic to your site and if you are cash strapped, it can be a challenge but if you are creative and can spend some time, you can advertise your website for free in lots of different ways.
It is much easier and possibly more effective to spend money on advertising to get traffic to your site. It will work a lot faster for you. If you're not going to spend a lot of money, then you're going to have to invest time. There are a lot of methods that will generate traffic to your site, all of them take some effort on your part in varying amounts. You need to think of your website as a business to get yourself into a proper frame of mind. Would you open a regular store and then not turn up to work? The same applies to your website. You're going to have to put in some effort and hard work to generate the traffic initially if you want to advertise your website for free.
FREE ADVERTISING IDEA 1
Forums and communities are great places to hang out. Your first step is to find out where your target group hang out, then go there and join them. Offer advice and let people know that you are an expert in your field. You can also pay attention to the questions that get asked and answer them. You can keep track of those questions and answers and use the content in other ways at a later date, such as in your ezine or an article on your own site. At the same time, you'll be creating a reputation for yourself and also building your credibility as you share your knowledge.
FREE ADVERTISING IDEA 2
Another potential source to advertise your website for free, is to find newsletters already published in your field. Offer to send articles to the publisher and include your resource box. Put a link to your own newsletter into your resource box and you'll soon have a list of your own.
FREE ADVERTISING IDEA 3
Trade links with other websites in complimentary fields. You don't have to spend anything. You can simply ask other webmasters to exchange links with you, the benefit being on both sides.
FREE ADVERTISING IDEA 4
Write articles and submit them to free article directories. Provide good content in your article and include a resource box at the bottom of your article (like this one does). Give your readers a reason to visit your site after they've read your article.
FREE ADVERTISING IDEA 5
Make your site rich in content. Search engines are looking for fresh, keyword rich content. You can write good quality content yourself. Sit down and research your field and do some research on keywords. You can find lots of resources on keywords - try Googleeasysearch.com which provides a lot related keywords and phrases you might not have considered.
Remember that most people start with a search engine to find what they are looking for and most people are looking for information. So provide it to them. Give the search engines good keyword rich content, but written for your site visitor and there is a good chance you will be found in the search results. Do the right keyword research and you can find your site in the top page ranks of the major search engines.
There are lots more ways to promote your website without spending any money, but the methods aren't really free. There is a trade-off in getting advertising your website for free. You'll be trading a lot of your time instead of your money in the beginning, until the traffic at your site really starts to flow.
