Monday, January 28, 2008

To Pay or Not to Pay for Advertising

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When you are looking for the best way to market your home business there are tons of possibilities, but some may end up costing you more than others. Whether you want to market yourself through the internet or through the mailbox there are certainly some methods of marketing that will be more cost-effective. We`ll take a look at some of these marketing strategies and see if they could be right for your business.

If you have just begun your home business it probably isn`t reasonable to expect to advertise yourself on a local billboard. However, it is much more reasonable to post an advertisement in a local newspaper or church bulletin. Or you could print fliers or postcards at home. You could also post links to your website on certain forums online. Free advertising exists on the internet; you just need to find it. Search for certain keywords that will bring up sites for free advertising. Advertising on some of these sites could be time consuming in the beginning. But in the end, you could find some good prospects and some good customers this way.

The only way you will really find free advertising is through word-of-mouth and some online posts. Every other form of marketing has small costs that must be allowed for. To print fliers you must purchase the paper and printer cartridges. To send postcards you must purchase the cards first and then pay for shipping. To post an ad in a newspaper or bulletin you much pay for the ad space. Even online, some sites will charge you to post your ad. Depending on the return, paying for some online ads may not be so bad. Determine first how potential customers will see your ad. Will it be visible among the hundreds of other business opportunity ads? How will yours stand out among the other ads? How will they be able to contact you? What type of traffic does this site have? These are many key questions to consider.

Depending on how much you are willing to pay for advertising, your sources for marketing may be limited. However, it is important to try multiple methods of advertising before deciding on the first one that shows a return. Most importantly is to remember that if the return you are earning from an ad is not enough to pay for the cost of the ad itself, it isn`t worthwhile.
You can save yourself some money by cutting down on the advertisements that are not showing such a high return. The money you are saving can then be reallocated to marketing strategies that you know are working well. If you market online, many companies can track your ad hits and you will be able to tell how many visitors saw your ad, and that can determine if it is cost effective.

It will take some time to find the best marketing solution for your home business. Ultimately the best return may come from a combination of methods, so it is very important never to limit yourself to a single avenue for advertisement. The best solution will be the one that that brings in the most revenue at the lowest cost to you. To get an idea of which advertisements are helping you the most, take a poll from your customers of how they found you. This will really show you how to manage your advertisement costs.

By: William Drapcho


Author Resource Box

William Drapcho is owner of WilliamDrapcho.com and writes on a variety of subjects. To learn more about this topic and others William recommends visiting http://www.williamdrapcho.com/blog/ to sign up for a free newsletter on ideas for home business opportunities or go to http://www.pluginprofitsite.com/main-19493

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