Have you ever run across a situation where you did not have the funds to properly market your products or services? Thousands of small companies are going out of business because they just did not have the money to properly market their products or services. Now there is a solution to this evil problem!

Marketing your products or services can be an expensive proposition, especially if you do not plan for it properly. To get the most out of your marketing expenditures you need to do ‘direct marketing.' That is picking the specific types of individuals, or groups, that would be your most likely customer of your products or services and marketing only to them.

Marketing this way will reduce your overall marketing costs, but that still wasn't good enough for me. One of the most effective ways to make the most profits in your business is to NOT have any marketing expenses at all!!

There are several techniques in which you can use to find inexpensive, or no-cost, marketing tools for your business. But where do you find them, you ask? Most of them can be found on the internet. It is a treasure chest of information and if you take the time to sift through it, you will find a gold mine!!

To give you an idea of how you can use the internet for sifting for your own "gold," here are the best sites from my new book, "How To Market Your Business With Little or No Money."

There is a four-step process for marketing your products or services effectively.

Step 1) Learn how to market effectively before attempting it. Here are several great web sites that will give you lots of marketing "How to" information.

http://www.marketingsource.com
http://www.marketingtips.com

This site gives you lots of FREE articles, resources, and it shows you how to develop effective press releases: http://members.aol.com/upwithus/pressrelease.htm

Step 2) Develop an effective web page and house it for FREE.

These web sites give a great start if you have NO money and NO knowledge how to develop a web page. They will give you templates to develop a web page, and after you are finished, they will even house it for FREE.

XOOM Web pages at: http://xoom.com/
Hot Yellow at: http://www.hotyellow98.com

Step 3) Find all the media resources in which to get FREE media coverage.

Now where do you send your press releases to? Both of these sites will give you ALL the contact information (Publication name, contact name, address, e-mail address, phone number and fax number) for ANY media source including foreign contacts!

http://mediafinder.com
http://www.gebbieinc.com

If you are looking for companies in specific industries, including fax numbers and e-mail addresses, go to: http://www.bigyellow.com and do a search by industry.

Step 4) Find other resources in which to market your products or services to.

Trade Show Central - Lists trade shows, conferences, event providers, venues and facilities worldwide. The database contains more than 40,000 entries. Use the search utility to find trade shows and exhibitions. Look for a specific event by entering the name of the event, the event type, the industry, date or location. http://www.tscentral.com

Looking for locations on the internet that you can place FREE classified ads:
http://www.classifiedsforfree.com

Look for locations for banner swaps of your web page at:
http://www.cbcreations.com/marketing/bannerlist.htm

If you are selling books, here are some excellent writers and publisher's resources:

Looking for book distributors to sell your books: http://www.literarymarketplace.com

If you are in the publishing business, you really need these resources:
http://www.pma-online.org
http://www.bowker.com/standards
http://www.spannet.com

Looking for newsletters to market your books through: http://www.newsletteraccess.com

Looking for publishers to publish your book: http://www.sfwa.org/prededitors/peba.htm

Learn how to send a correct manuscript to publishers:
http://www.powernet.net/~scrnplay/page21.html

As you can see, I have listed just a few of the "pieces of gold" that can be found on the Internet.

Gail Taylor Walton, Director of Acquisitions at Collins Publications stated "You made available a substantial amount of information I'd known I needed, but couldn't quickly and easily put my hands on. Of course, you also threw in many pleasant surprises, too. If your book were a man, I'd be deeply in love."

Dan Poynter, author of "The Self-Publishing Manual" stated "How to Market Your Business With Little or No Money" shows you the new way to promote your business-faster, easier and cheaper. Stephen Anderson explains to you how to find the information you need on the Web and how to use email to increase your business."

I am breaking several publishing rules by making these next statements. Because the internet changes so much so fast, I am offering FREE e-mail updates to the book to any purchaser. And as an added bonus I am giving you six additional FREE marketing books on the CD in the book.

To find out more details about this book you can go to http://www.profit-doctor.com and select "More Sales." Or contact Steve at 636-936-1099. The book can be purchased for $20. This web site includes many FREE reports for business owners.

EDITOR NOTE: Stephen Anderson, "The Profit Doctor," has been teaching business owners for 13 years and is a member of the St. Louis Publishers Association and their newsletter editor. This article can be sent to you by e-mail upon request. Review copies of the book are also available upon request.