Free Local Advertising in Colorado Springs, Colorado

For small businesses in the Colorado Springs area, advertising is a free ride. Almost that is!. There are lots of places that you can advertise for free. Of course the most advertised, free advertising site, that everyone is familiar with across the country is www.craigslist.com. There are listings for most cities in America. They are localized for your area. You can sell, buy or promote anything on this site. Promoting small business here is free but not without effort. You have to update the listing and keep specials and stuff moving along on an almost daily basis. It is free advertising with much time involved. Not the most user friendly, but still advertising.

A local free advertising spot in Colorado Springs is the Gazette Business Directory at www.co.gazette.com. You can list your business info, hours, location with a map and any short description of your services. This is a great tool for advertising at no cost. It is always posted and requires little to no adjustments to the info. With a variety of pricing, you can upgrade a little or a lot, but if you want to keep it free, it is worth the time to get the listing in. It appears to get lots of traffic. There is no way to determine how much exactly. It works best used along with other listings.

One of my favorite spots for free advertising in Colorado Springs is Merchant Circle, www.merchantcircle.com.
When I started advertising for the company I work for, my boss sort of shrugged off Merchant Circle. I had read the info on utilizing everything they offered for free. We had a tight budget and it had to work. I started the process of listing us and as time allowed, I worked on getting everything done. They offer such an extensive "FREE" program. It is unbelievable what you get with it. The following is only a partial listing of things you can do on Merchant Circle. You can post a Sale, Create an ongoing Promotion, make your own coupons, set up a newsletter, add your customer list, Create a Blog and you can post badges from Merchant Circle on your
website . These badges give you added credability and ratings. If you take the time to work on this site, it can become your best source of advertising. You can have customers post reviews of your business and move up on their ratings.The whole website is designed to optimize your advertising. In just a few short months our company has received over 1000 hits from this site.We probably get more customers locally from this site than any other free advertising that we do.

Another very efficient free site in Colorado Springs and across the country is Yelp, www.yelp.com. Yelp is very user friendly and allows many of the same perks as Merchant Circle. You can create promotions and coupons. There are networking capabilities and this can also link to your website. You get statistics of visitors and reviews from customers.Yelp provides great opportunities for exposure in Colorado Springs and the surrounding area.

In today's advertising world, it is very important to be up to date on anything that will put your name out there. The Internet is the future. It is definitely here to stay. To be competitive, you have to get on every single site that you can. The above is a partial listing of available places to advertise for free. To get more info and places to advertise, do a Google search for "free advertising on the Internet".

Places like Craigslist and Yelp are not just local sites. They localize for your area. Colorado Springs has numerous possibilities that are local. You really have to spend quality time getting them set up and keeping coupons and other info updated. That is the only part that isn't free and should be realized in the beginning. Taking the time to get listed on everything you can, will provide you much exposure and an increased customer base. If your business is as good as you advertise, you will get good results, from the time you are investing in it.

Another plus to getting listed on as many sites as possible is the "Back link" results. For every single place you are listed and connected to, you increase your ratings on the Internet. Google, Bing, Yahoo and the rest look at where you are listed, how many times you are listed and the traffic going to you. You get more free exposure by using the free exposure you have taken the time to set up and maintain.

Advertising is a different ball game in this new age of technology. Learning the ropes of advertising in this new era and utilizing every possibility, keeps your business on the map. After they get in the door, your job is too keep them. Colorado Springs is a progressive city. They are on the mark with technology. Advertising for free is easy to do here, if you are willing to work for it.