There are many advertising methods to get youself or your business noticed online. They include SEO for search engines, pay per click (PPC) advertising, advertising co-ops and joint ventures, posting forums and boards that cater to your target market, press releases, and article writing.

Off-line advertising and marketing is ignored by many online marketers. However, there are many ways to advertise off-line that is free or costs very little. I want to let you know about three of them.

1 – Business Cards

Business cards are a requirement for anyone who is serious about their business. They’re a superb method of getting the attention of prospects and keeping the attention of customers. Just hand them out to anyone you think will benefit from what you’re offering. Additionally, leave a card behind whenever you visit a club, bar, or restaurant. There is one salesman who says putting one in each bathroom stall generates leads.

If you are just starting out in business you might consider printing your own business cards at home.

2 – Brochures and Flyers

You can easily create brochures and flyers with today’s desktop publishing and computer technology. Simply post flyers (with permission, of course) at businesses and other location where you think your potential customers will see them. Or hand out brochures to the people you meet throughout your day.

A lot of bars and restaurants will let you post a flyer in their places as well.

Grocery stores too. Many have cork boards near the front door for just this purpose. With hundreds of people walking by every day.

3 – Advertising With You Car

Yes, that’s right! Your car is a great vehicle for advertising. Place magnetic signs on the sides of your car with you company name and web address on it. It’s like a big business card on the side of your car.

In this way you and your business will be exposed to a large number of people whether you’re driving, parked, or stuck in traffic. These magnetic signs aren’t very expensive either. Check with a local sign maker to learn the cost.

You need to find your niche so you can concentrate. Once you figure out your specialty you can begin to promote it the right people. Are you in an affiliate program to make money? Do you own your own web site to direct traffic to your affiliate site? Are you selling something from a brick and mortar store or mall? There is so much to promote and your seeking results from your target market.

Planning Your Time

One way to keep an advertising schedule is with a daily calendar like a Day-Timer, Franklin-Covey Planners, or one of the others on them market. Simply outline the ads you want to post to internet classified site, forums, and blogs.

A little time managementcan go a long way. Just being organized will put you ahead of the competition.

Block out time in your daily calendar to each task scheduling the most important at a time when you have the most energy, for me that’s early in the day.

Take regular breaks to rest and evaluate how your doing, then adjust as needed. Regular breaks are also important to allow you mind to recharge so you can stay on task. Consider the pomodoro method of staying very focused for 25 minutesat a time.

Simplify Your Email Usage

If you have more than one email address using a program like Thunderbird is a great time save because the Thunderbird client allows you to collect your email from all sources at once.

You must advertise to your niche once you have found it. Find forums in your niche and be part of the conversation. Since you can’t blatantly post ads in a forum be sure to include your site’s URL and an tag line in your signature. When others read your post they can follow the link to your site.

Find a Mentor

Mentors can help by stimulating the learning process. The right mentor will help you go further by learning from them, making the learning curve shorter than if you were to learn on your own. Listen while working with other to learn what they are doing in their own promotions that you can translate into your promotions.

Advertising

Use every possible channel to promote yourself or your business. You can use traffic exchanges like Traffic Zap to earn banner view credits. There are also blog exchanges where you gain traffic to your site by viewing other blogs. Or a banner rotator where you post one banner to be cycled into view with other banners.

Don’t leave anything to chance. You can learn what promotions work the best by using an ad tracker. Then drop the least effective ads and replace them with new creative content.

More Advertising

You have to get the word out. So advertise some more. The largest companies and organizations place their logos and advertisements for millions of dollars. You can start with free advertising until you’re making money then move on to paid advertising. Keep records to learn which advertisements are working.

Resources

• Day Planners

• Franklin-Covey Planners
• Day Runner
• Day-Timer

Time Management

Pomodoro Technique

Mentoring

Internet Advertising

The Prize Is Always Right

Giving away a prize as an incentive to sell a product or solicit a donation is a time-tested marketing ploy that never fails. The only problem is that the market has become oblivious to sweepstakes.

Promoters are giving away the same old prizes time and time again. Without adding anything exciting to the sweepstakes, you might as well offer $10 million or your efforts (or your product or charitable cause) are likely to be ignored.

In this age of mega-million lotteries, the type or value of prizes offered speak the language of the market. If your product is just as good as that of your competition, or if your charity is just as worthy as any other that seeks donations, then you’d better spike your campaign with a sweepstakes that is unique as can be.

THE PRIZE

A few years ago, a church in Daly City, a bedroom community west of San Francisco was planning a fund raising campaign that involved selling “raffle” tickets to the congregation.

The plan was to sell the tickets for around $5 each, and for which one lucky ticket holder could win the grand prize of a brand new Toyota Tercel.

To say the least, the idea was worn out and unimaginative. A friend coordinating the project decided the raffle could be improved, and consulted me on what the fund raising committee can do to make the sweepstakes more attractive.

My suggestion was to give a different prize. Why not give away a business – a store!!!

VIDEO STORE PRIZE

We went to a new strip mall that was being constructed and leased a storefront for $1,100 a month.

Next we ordered signs and shelves and an initial inventory of 1,200 used video tapes for which we spent a total of $15,000.

For under $20,000, we were able to put together the basic framework of an operational video store. We hanged a banner outside that says “You can win this store. Call for info”.

$200 A TICKET

Because the church wanted to raise $25,000, we decided to sell 250 tickets at $200 each – for a total of $50.000.

Out of this amount, $20,000 will pay for the grand prize, $25,000 goes to the church and $5,000 for my friend for organizing the project which lasted for 6 weeks.

To achieve the same results, and using instead an $8,000 car as a prize, it would require the church to 8,000 tickets at $5 each, a much more difficult fund-raiser by comparison.