Internet Business Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses

They say an expert is someone who can do it all, knows it all, and can teach it all.

You can become an expert without knowing it all, as long as you know how to write.

Every industry, yours included, has a publication of some sort. Usually this publication is a magazine or newspaper. Sometimes it will only be online, sometimes it is both online and in print.

You can quickly become an “expert” in your field by offering to write articles for this publication at no charge to them.

Why would you write an article for free? Exposure.

There are two ways you will generate exposure and hopefully more business.

1. Author bio
After every article is a short “Author Box” that tells about the author. An example bio would say,

“Brandon Hopkins owns and operates Vooed.com from the comfort of his own bed. He writes business marketing articles whenever lightening or hunger strikes, whicher comes first. He can be contacted through his websites and is available for business marketing speaking engagements.”

With this bio you get to put your title, the company you work for, and how you can be contacted. Free advertising and free exposure.

2. Negotiate for free advertising
Many magazines and newspapers have unfilled advertising space a couple days before they go to print. This becomes a problem because they can’t just have white space in the corner of a page.

Some daily newspapers fill this unsold advertising space with lines like, “Advertise here for as little as $5 a day.”

This unsold advertising space is better given away that left blank. Editors know that. Encourage them that you don’t want any pay, you would just like a business card sized advertisement anywhere in the publication…mention that it could be used as a filler anywhere they needed it.

You may not get the free advertising, but it can’t hurt to ask, and you will definitely get the author bio. Feel free to say the nicest things you can think of, and have a clear way to contact you.