Some Ways to Get Free Advertising to Help Grow Your Business.

There is a saying out there that nothing is free. This is usually the case, but every now and then you can find something that is free. A college friend of mine was able to use some free advertising sources when he opened an independent bar and grill to compete with the likes of Burger King and McDonald's three years ago. At first it was tough because he did not want to spend a huge amount of his capital on advertising. He did the usual stuff like putting an ad in some local papers and the phone book.

My buddy was not really sure of what to do next because he spent a large amount of his advertising revenue already. I told him some ideas I used to help me sell some of my sports memorabilia. I was having a hard time but sold several of my Derek Jeter autographed baseballs. I also sold various coins and sports cards through some of these avenues.

Craigslist is probably the best tool that I have found for free advertising. I have no idea how the site manages to make money and stay open, but it is free. You can get on and advertise whatever you would like on there. In my friends case he advertised some bands that he had coming into play as well as various food and drink specials. You can run an add everyday just about. He got very strategic with it. What he did was use the local cities on craigslist. He did go a step further and actually put ads in cities like New York so that people planning to vacation to his areas would know about the business. He would put something in there like a discount by bringing in a copy of the craigslist advertisement.

There were also two local catalogs in the area that let a business list four ads for free and then you could have the option to buy ad space. He ended up using the four free ads and then after that he bought a couple. He usually would negotiate cheaper rates with the owner of the catalogs though. He said this really helped his business since people were always picking up those catalogs looking for discounts and free passes for Disneyworld or free passes for Universal Studios.

The last thing that he did was not really free, but it had minimal cost and the advertising was sort of free. He had some tight fitting tank top type shirts made up and would give them out free whenever he saw a group of really hot girls together. He figured that people would be looking at the girl and notices the shirt. I am not sure if he ever found a way to track the shirts effect on advertising, but he did tell me that whenever he handed a free out that it seemed like he would have a person or two in mention the shirt and ask if the girls were waitresses there, so I guess it did work.

Sources.

www.craigslist.org