To read this article in its original format, or to comment, GO HERE.

Cheap marketing ideas are essential when you are first starting out selling products online in your own store. But you may have trouble thinking about ways that you can effectively promote your business on a limited budget. After all, you don't have the bank roll like large scale corporations do, so you can immediatley cancel your ideas for a Super Bowl TV ad!

However, every small business CAN engage in successful cheap marketing, I mean "cost effective" marketing opportunities.

Learn the PR Basics for Cheap Marketing

Let's explore PR Basics...

PR = Public Relations

Public Relations helps consumers understand your company & products and creates an image of your company to the outside world. This is a very popular marketing tool for small businesses, because it's generally a lot cheaper than other marketing opportunities. (If you do it yourself.)

Typical PR Practices:

-Press Releases: These are news stories that you write (or hire someone to write for you), that you send to industry publications, local newspapers and other media outlets to publish on your behalf. It's essentially free marketing or VERY LOW cost marketing. Many small businesses utilize sites like http://www.PRweb.com to help distribute their Press Releases. Always remember, that Press Releases need to be 1. Educational and 2. Do not blatantly advertise your business. They need to be news-worthy!

Yes, this may seem very old school.. sending your articles or press releases to your local paper. But keep in mind, that a large group of people don't use the internet for news or to randomly search and a small ad or a press release in your paper will get them interested!

-Event Sponsorships: Participating in, or sponsoring a charity event in your area will help you gain exposure to a large audience. This will also help provide an image-boost by helping your community or a cause. You can also help sponsor industry related events for your niche and depending on the level of your sponsorship, it will determine the level of advertisement your company gets. Do you have kid's that are in school? School fundraisers and events are always reaching out to local businesses to help sponsor their events, so this is a great opportunity to get your URL out there in the public eye at a low cost.

Articles Help in Many Ways...

-Articles: Article writing and distribution is like Press Releases in a way. They need to be informative and educational in manner with a side mention of your business. Again, many article sites that pick up articles for distribution, aren't looking for blatant advertisements. They want educational material for their readers.

So for example, do you have an online store that sells scented soy candles? Write an article about the differences between wax candles and soy candles and mention your company URL. You could also write about how scented candles can effect your mood, or overall home atmosphere. Do you have a site that sells Bird Houses? Write articles about how different shaped bird houses effect the type of bird that will use that bird house.. or write articles on how to attract different birds to your bird house and the list can go on and on and on... Make sure to have a blog or an article database on your site. Tag each article with it's own unique keywords associated with your site for an SEO boost!

Articles will also help you with any newsletters you might want to do, give you ideas for social media marketing and ads!