Free is almost never the best option

You might know about my e-book by now, the one called “Why We Suck At Internet Marketing”. You can find it at marketingflop.com, but no need to rush over just yet. The e-book is still being developed as I am writing this. I am twisting and turning my head, and new content are added every single day.

I have decided that I am going to share some of my views, that might or might not become part of the e-book. If I will be adding the content to the e-book, it won’t be in the e-book the way that I am writing it here. I am using one way of writing in this blog, and a completely different way of writing in the e-book. But some of the topics might be similar, at least, they will be about Internet marketing mistakes. That’s all I know at the moment.

Now, what I believe to be a marketing mistake is thinking that free is the way to start out marketing your product. Remember; free is almost never the best option.

You should have a budget, it doesn’t need to be a whole lot. You just need to realize that, maybe investing money in a more efficient tool could really help your marketing.

I am not saying that free should not be an option, I am actually saying the opposite, that paying for something should be considered an option.

I have talked to a lot of people, and (it seems that) most of them are trying to promote whatever they are promoting by using free methods of advertising. They are spending many hours a day with their free methods of advertising, instead of considering to pay for tools or marketing methods that might help them do what they are trying to accomplish in a more efficient way.

Let me give you an example of a very easy way to promote your business:

Contact a graphical designer (there are a lot of really good ones), and pay for a banner to be made. It might not cost you more than $30 (it all depends on the size and who you contact). Now, you have yourself a unique and professional banner, find a blog with content similar to your company, ask the owner if you could advertise using the banner you just bought. It might cost you about $50 a month or more (depending on the traffic to the blog).

Now, using a banner advertisement can really help your business. If you have the right banner and using the right blog, you’ll get a lot of clickthroughs to your website. This will save you a lot of time…

Take a look at my brand new sales page at marketingflop.com and read all about the various marketing mistakes.