Advertising Your Home Business on a Budget

By Michael J Sullivan

When you are just beginning your new home based business, one of the greatest challenges you will face is how to get customers coming to your website.

Most of us know that we will need to advertise at some point. Most people have the idea that is necessary to spend large amounts of money in order to advertise their home based business. Because of this misconception, they give up before even getting started. This is a shame. With a little creativity and some fiscal responsibility, advertising can work even with a small budget.

Before you begin your journey into the world of advertising, I would like to share some general ideas that I have learned. (Many were learned the hard way)

One of the first things that should be pointed out is that advertising does not have to be an expensive proposition. With good planning and more importantly, with effective testing, the cost can be manageable.

Testing in advertising is a critical component. If you immediately start spending your money without first testing your advertising, you will find yourself
penniless and without any sales. Most people who fail to test, and thus fail to profit,
blame their failure on the home based business they chose or the economy or any number of other reasons. Don't be one of these!

When you begin advertising your home based business, it should be done in small segments. If you were to place ads simultaneously in a number of different media you would not have any idea which ad is bringing in the profits or which ad is a total bust. That method is no better than buying lottery tickets. You need to know what works and what doesn't. Choose one media to start and follow the results closely. Tweak your ad and chart your results. Make small changes only. Keep up this process until you get the results you want.

Once you have accomplished that, you then might start to spend more money on your ad. You might expand it to other media. Again do so in a way that allows you to chart your results. Another medium may not work as well as the first one you tried.

Not all advertising has to dollar intensive. There are a number of other means that cost very little.

• Word of Mouth can be very effective. However, I know that many people are fearful of embarrassment if they fail. If you are one of these, I say congratulate yourself for having the courage to do what many don't. Go for it! There is absolutely no dollar cost for this method of advertising. Tell every person you meet or come in contact with. Send an email to every one in your contact list.

• Business cards are an absolute must. I am always receiving solicitations from Vista print offering 250 or sometimes 500 personalized cards for $1.99. That is the cost of a morning coffee. You can easily find them on the internet. Give a card to everyone you see. You can also post them on community bulletin boards in places like your local supermarkets.

• Press releases are another inexpensive avenue. These are simple to write and can be posted on the internet. There are a number of free directories for the posting as well as hints on how to structure your own press release. It is simply an announcement detailing your home based business with contact information. The cost here is virtually nothing.

• Writing articles like this one is an absolutely FREE method of advertising. With a little research you can put together 500 - 700 word articles that you can post on the internet using sources like ezinearticles.com.

Finally, remember that advertising can be a fairly complicated adventure. However, with some basic knowledge and some perseverance on your part, it will bring your business to the place you dreamed of when you first decided to start your home based business.

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