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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

LINKEDIN – 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’.