PART 2: Promote Your Business Inexpensivly

Scratch scratch the pens makes the paper speak...

Writing articles on topics related to your business expertise is an excellent business promotion technique.

Articles can provide free advertising and build positive word-of-mouth. If you're a realtor, for instance, you could write a piece on preparing your home to be shown. If you're a Web site designer, you might write a piece about assessing Web site usability. The more specific your topic, the better.

Write a short biographical note, or "blurb" about you and your business to go with the article. As the goal is to promote your business. Realistically, you may have to send it to a publication that accepts unsolicited work from unknown authors Magazines generally have a long lead time, so I would focus my first efforts on the 'Net.

There are an astronomical number of e-zines and sites with newsletters that are hungry for content. One place to look for e-zines to send articles to is The Internet's Best E-Zine Directories. E-zines also provide excellent advertising value; the trick is to find the right e-zine for your target audience.

Freelance writing sites also provide a great deal of information on all kinds of publications that might publish your efforts. Make your research easier by starting with a great site that provides all kinds of lists and information on markets such as About Freelance Writers, or FreelanceWriting.com.

Newspapers are also excellent places to place your business promotion article, as they too have a much shorter lead-time than magazines, and are always looking for material. Try contacting the Business editor of your local paper and pitching your article.

Then again you could always start a Blog to get your thoughts out to the world that way. The "important part" is to be consistent and get a new post out at least once a week if not more. Your blog is an important tool and there are lots of was to leverage the content.

One of the best ways is to use it at a knowledge archive. This way when people ask you questions in an e-mail or even in a networking situation you can say you will e-mail them back saying that you have written about it in your blog couple of month ago and here is the link. This is also a great excuse to ask for there business card and have a good reason to contact them the next day.

Remember to enjoy the writing and research for writing proses and soon it will become part of your weekly Fun-things-to-do-list.