YELLOW PAGES
- Submit your free listing in the Yellow Pages who are probably one of the most recognized names in the industry. They have several different levels of advertising available but the basic listing is FREE.
GOOGLE MAPS
- List you business and display your advertising on Google Maps. Highly recommended.
TRUE LOCAL
- List your business for FREE on True Local which is a useful Australian Business Directory whose results sometimes appear in searches. This professional marketing company also phones you directly to confirm your listing. You have an option to upgrade your account to a paid and larger listing but for most purposes the regular free listing is all you’ll need.
HOT FROG
- Another useful website where you can list your Australian business FREE is hotfrog. It only takes a few minutes to set up your advertisement and choose your keywords. You business details go public as soon as your email address has been confirmed. These listings placed on hot frog are often seen very high in searches. Highly recommended.
GOOGLE LOCAL
- Create an account on Google LocaL. Enter your company name, address, phone number and website. Verify the information with a post-a-card, SMS or telephone call. At the same time you can bring new customers into your business by using the free Google coupon tool that puts your advertisement on relevant local searches.
MAKE USEFUL COMMENTS ON BLOGS AND FORUMS
- It’s amazing how much business can be generated by adding value to people in your local community. I regularly contribute useful material to other business forums like flying solo small business forum and webmaster blogs. There’s no need to self promote, in fact self promotion is often frowned upon and your comments may even be deleted. Just contribute to discussions by giving relevant and useful information and many people will become curious by your generosity and follow the link back to your website
SOUTH GIPPSLAND INFORMATION WEBSITE
- If you live in South Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, you can freely advertise your business, products, services, events, functions and any location relevant news or articles as many times as you like at the South Gippsland Information Website.
YAHOO LOCAL BUSINESS DIRECTORY
- Display your products, create press releases and articles and build your own free mini website with Yahoo Local Business Directory. People searching for your business or industry can generally find your free listing quite easily.
YAHOO REVIEWS
- An important segment of the Yahoo Local listings are the reviews. Ask your good customers to write reviews for you on Yahoo local. Businesses with higher ratings apparently get preferential listings.
YAHOO ANSWERS
- Have you ever searched for something and found it on ‘yahoo answers‘? I have. Here’s an idea. If you check out what questions remain unanswered (or open) and they relate to your business, you can answer them and leave a link back to the source…which could be your own website. Answers that get rated as the best (it’s pretty easy) get high preference in searches and could create extra traffic for years to come.
LINKWIZZ
- Write your own business advertisement with Linkwizz - Australian Business Directory. They also have other tiers of advertising available, but as yet I’m unsure how effective it is.
BLOGS
- Start A Blog with Wordpress, LiveJournal or Blogger and use the Freely available Blog Promotion Tools. Talk about topics on your new blog that relate to your business and help other people find out more about your industry. Websites like Technorati and mybloglog can help you gain exposure, visitors, readers, and subscribers, but it does need to be maintained with quality and interesting content.
- Start a facebook page and find other people from your local area and others in your industry. Share your success stories or ask for advice. Join groups that interest you and contribute to the conversations. Some people use facebook to network, some just for friendship. I’m not yet sure about its’ effectiveness for promotion, but if it’s a place you enjoy to hang out, your time and effort could well be rewarded.
SQUIDOO
- Create a lens at Squidoo that talks about the stuff you sell, then create another one for each product and link them all together. Make a lens for your blog or website. For some other really creative ideas go to 49 Ideas For Awesome Lenses.
- Join LinkedIn and invite some people you know to join you. Make new connections with people you don’t know through introductions or writing answers to peoples question on the new Questions & Answers page and be genuinely helpful.
FLYERS ON LOCAL NOTICEBOARDS
- Putting up some flyers on noticeboards in your local area only costs some time and effort. Instead of doing a blatant business promotion like most people, offer to teach a free class on your chosen field of expertise, offer a free quote or run a competition. Find creative ways to get attention that are just slightly different to the ‘norm’.
TEACH A CLASS AT YOUR LOCAL COMMUNITY CENTER
- Most of our local community houses are looking for tutors willing to teach about any subject that other people might be interested in learning. Besides being a paid job, it is an excellent way for other people to realise your level of expertise, and they will often tell their friends.
