10 Ways to Succeed With an E-Business

7. Sponsorship: You want to generate buzz for your site. One way to do this is to donate your services or product at a charity auction. Charity auctions publicize their events and list what is being offered at the events to prospective attendees. Usually, charities mail to a minimum of a few thousand people to attract a strong audience to their event.

8. Partnerships: Some media outlets are willing to provide free advertising for a percentage of the sales of a product, if they believe it has high sales potential. One large regional newspaper, for example, provided free advertising to a Web site selling antiques.

9. Network Marketing: Another way to generate buzz is to offer individuals who are looking for second sources of income the ability to promote your Web site for a percentage of each sale. This is similar to companies allowing you to link to their sites, except this audience may not have a Web site. However, they would be glad to hand out brochures and talk about your product or service. The information these individuals would need to sell for you could be posted on your site and they could download your presentation materials as they need them.

10. Newspaper Flyers: Many newspapers will allow you to stuff flyers, otherwise known as inserts, into their papers. If you have a site that serves regional customers, this is a good way to go because inserts are highly successful. I love looking at inserts.

Don't despair. If you don't have bags of money to spend promoting your site, just be creative.