Stop Paying for Advertising

2/28/2015

Here's How to Get It Totally Free

Back in the beginning days of my business, I didn't have the money to pay for advertising. Although I would read and absorb the words on every page of every single mail order publication I could get my hands on -- I only dreamed of advertising in them. My only income was a $156 per week unemployment check. The most I might have been able to afford was $5 or $10 a week -- if that.

But I knew if I didn't advertise, I wouldn't make any money and my business would fail. Besides, how could anyone place an order for anything I sold if I didn't tell them it was for sale? There simply was no two ways about it -- I had to advertise or give up my business and go back to working for someone else. Those were my only two choices.

So I would sit and think about ways that I could advertise WITHOUT spending money. And here are some I tried and put into action:

• Since no one knew me, I wrote to publishers and offered to typeset free ads for them if they would run my advertisement free. Some declined this offer but many accepted. I would send samples of my typesetting style with my letter of request and not only did I get free advertising, but I also gained new, repeat customers in the process because they liked my work.

• Also, I would create and design new products and services, write a press release about it and send it to the publishers who already knew me. Most of them would run the press release and generate orders for my company.

• Then, I began suggesting to some of my customers to start an ad sheet. I worked out a deal with them where I would design their ad sheet masthead totally free of charge if they provided me with free advertising space in every issue. This concept helped to give my company continuous monthly ad exposure totally free of cost.

I want to stop and explain this for a moment. Do you see how invaluable cash and money are by applying this concept? Compare $25 or $50 or even $100 for typesetting the original masthead to the amount of free advertising space I received every month. The payment of money to do the job is far less than the free advertising.

• After writing press releases, I moved to the field of writing articles. This again provided me with free advertising because I included a "resource box" at the top of every article I submitted to a publisher. A "resource box" is actually a free ad space that publishers print with your article to compensate you as a writer. Some writers take advantage of this space and submit a resource box that's longer than the article itself. A word of advice to writers: keep your "resource box" no more than 1/10th the size of the article you write.

• As you become more well known in business and become popular and respected, many people will see your advertisement in a publication, cut it out and run it free for you in their publication. Beginning publishers do this to add creditability to their ad sheet or publication. They feel that if someone notices that a well known company is advertising with them, the customer will be influenced to advertise with them also. There are literally 100s of beginning publishers who do this for Graphico and we are sincerely grateful that they consider us popular and respected. Thank you!

So you see -- you can really get free advertising. It just takes a little time and patience. But in the meantime, contact some of the publishers and offer to do them a free service in exchange for some ad space. And don't expect them to give you an 8-1/2" x 11" space right of the bat. Instead, be humble and satisfied with a 1" or 2" space. This doesn't hurt the publisher to provide and you'll get more positive reactions to your trade.

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