As a small business owner your time is your most important asset. You need to make sure you're investing your efforts in tactics which grow your business or it's likely to fail. You should always be evaluating which activities are the most productive for your business.

One big time waster for many new small businesses is getting caught in the free online advertising trap. While there are great free promotional methods you can use, there are also quite a few free advertising methods that are more work than benefit.

Sure, when you're marketing on a tight budget free advertising looks attractive. But if you're not careful you'll wind up wasting all of your time on free advertising and getting back very little return. So before you jump into the free advertising game keep in mind the value of your time. Use it wisely or your business will suffer.

Here are my 5 recommendation on which free promotional methods are worth doing and which you should avoid.

1. Do Set-up Reciprocal Links / Avoid FFA Links

Taking the time to find quality, non-competing sites related to your field which are willing to link to your site in return for a link on your site is very valuable. Not only will you gain traffic from the other sites, links of this nature will help your site's listing in search engines.

Spending time with automated FFA (Free for All) Links submissions on the other hand is a waste of time. Your site is on the FFA links page and off again in the same day, making you have to repeatedly submit. What's more the amount of email you'll receive confirming your submission is enough to drive you crazy!

2. Do Submit to Major Search Engines / Avoid Automated Submissions

First invest the time in preparing your site for search engines. Add title and meta tags to your pages and closely review the content of your site for relevance. Make sure you've emphasized words or key phrases in your site's copy that describe your products / services and are likely to be searched for by potential customers?

Once your site has these basics submit it by hand to the major engines like Google, Lycos, Alta Vista, WebCrawler, etc. Don't bother with automated submission tools that send your site to every search engine under the sun. Focus on the major players to save time.

3. Do Send Out Press Releases / Avoid Free Classified Boards

Publicity is the best form of free advertising available. If you're not making an effort to generate press coverage for your business by writing and sending out press releases you're losing out on terrific promotional opportunities.

Instead of wasting time on posting free classified ads which produce minimal return, work on distributing press releases and developing contacts with people in the media.

4. Do Distribute Articles / Avoid Free Ads to Ezine and Safe Lists

You should regularly write articles and distribute them to the editors of publications which are related to your field. Having an article published in an ezine, web zine or offline newsletter is great for business. Your article positions you as an expert and gives you instant credibility with the publication's readers. Those readers will turn to you the next time they're looking for information on the product / service you discussed, providing your business with a stream of qualified prospects.

Signing-up for a multitude of ezines and Safe Lists just to get a free ad sent out to the list's subscribers is unproductive. It's likely the ad will only generate a small return due to the fact that most of the people seeing your ad signed-up just to get a free ad themselves. Not exactly ideal prospects. Plus the amount of time you waste sifting through all the email you receive from the lists you subscribed to quickly negates the benefits.

5. Do Ask for Referrals / Avoid Chat Rooms and Discussion Groups

Providing an incentive or just simply asking your customers and site visitors to tell others about your business is an extremely useful marketing tool. Word-of-mouth advertising is invaluable. Your site absolutely must have a referral script in place. You also should develop a tactic to encourage your customers to tell their friends, relative and associates about your business.

Becoming involved in multiple chat rooms, forums, and/or discussion type mailing lists, unless they are your own, often becomes addictive. In your effort to promote your business, you can get caught in the social nature of these mediums and time flies. Before you know it you've spent all day chatting and you've failed to get your other work accomplished.

What's more to be effective in promoting your business with these type of discussion tools you have to be a regular participant. Therefore, you are placed in a catch-22 situation. You need to be active to gain good exposure but if you are too active it becomes a time waster. It's tough to find a balance so you're better off staying away from joining multiple discussion groups.

If you follow these 5 free positive advertising strategies and stay away from the 5 negative methods reviewed your business will see a solid increase in traffic and exposure. For those free promotional tactics not discussed, before you utilize them be sure to evaluate their potential effectiveness vs. the time investment. Always remember your time is money.

Now for a closer look at how to take advantage of a free advertising tactic that works vs. a free advertising tool that doesn't be sure to read the rest of today's issue. Plus you don't want to miss our "Perspective" column on the importance of "Free" on the Internet.

Abbie Drew
DEMC Editor
mailto:mail@demc2.com