Free Business Advertising, Listings, and Classifieds

There are over 10,000 open call centre vacancies in the UK at the moment and i’m mildy curious to see where everyone is advertising!? Particularly for free? Most classifieds sites like Gumtree, Craigslist, Vivastreet etc. have made the switch to paid job advertising in the last 3-5 years. Where are all these free sites? How do site like this have 88 call centre jobs in Liverpool?

Answers on a postcard please!

Recent trends in the classifieds space have shown more and more sites migrating from a free to pay to post job model. Gumtree, Criaglist, Vivastreet to name a few. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be taking a look at the classifieds job space and trying to forecast what the future holds. Next week, we’ll have a spot light on London Jobs site Adzuna – Is aggregation the way forward?

Given that I live in London, i thought i’d put a quick blog post up listing the best places to advertise for free in our nations capital.

Online advertising and brand building can be a particularly daunting prospect for SME’s in London. I’ve seen hairdressers, plumbers, electricians, accountants, lawyers and more scrambling around the internet (and offline) buying ineffective advertising at ridiculous prices. What many of these businesses don’t know, is that there are 100’s (maybe even 1000s) of sites in London offering free advertising to small to medium sized businesses. Here are my top 3 tips:

Gumtree.com

Gumtree London used to be completely free, but now they charge a small fee in certain categories like Jobs, Financial Services etc. Many of the services categories are still free though and ads for your business are relatively quick and painless to get live. What are the benefits? – Good search engine rankings, a massive captive audience (I’ve known tradesmen to get 10+ leads from every ad they post on the site) and your ad will stay on the site for 90 days + so you don’t have to worry about resubmitting your ad every day. If you haven’t tried it already, i’d definitely give it a shot (try Craiglist, Freeads, Vivastreet, Adoos etc. too after Gumtree)

Local Review Sites

Qype is the biggest of the local review sites in London, but it’s definitely worth listing your business on 5-10 of the big local review sites in London which are specific to your industry. They rank well in Google, have big communities and have been proven to help business grow their brands online and drive customers.

Visitlondon.com

Visitlondon has one of the largest audiences of overseas visitors to the UK on the web. They are desperate to get fresh, interesting and good value businesses and services onto the site and regularly feature businesses (for free) on their blog. All you have to do is drop them an email and you’ll probably get a response. Local government sites and tourist boards are desperate to shout about great businesses in London – shoot them an email, tell them what you do and you’ll be amazed how many actually get back to you.

I have created a new forum on teh site for any specific queries you may have about my posts, or just to begin talking about any of the topics I have covered, or ones you would like to know more about. In addition, I will reply for your specific requests concerning your buisness to help you.
SImply login and ask away!

To find the link you can click on the forum or in the sidebar.

See you Soon

For my first post here, I want to talk about online advertising, and why it’s so important. Online advertising can be one of the most effective ways of promoting your business to potential new customers, but it can also be one of the most overwhelming. The internet is such a big and noisy place that it can be tricky to know where to start. Bombarded by such a wide choice of ways and places to advertise their business online, a lot of business owners get intimidated and steer clear of online advertising altogether, simply because they can’t confidently choose the best to way to promote their business online.

I completely understand how overwhelming trying to make sense of all the options can be. Luckily, you’ve got me to advise you on which ones will deliver genuine results and make your business more successful, and which ones are a waste of time!

First of all, let’s look at why having an online presence is so important for your business. You might think that relying on more traditional marketing channels like direct mail or print advertising is enough to keep you ahead of your competitors. But with more and more people spending so much time online, web presence is essential for your business to succeed.

According to the latest statistics by Nielsen Online, there are now just under 49million internet users in the UK, which equates to about 80% of the population. That’s a lot of potential customers you could reach by putting your brand online, and much more scope than most other marketing channels.

The average internet user spends around 30 hours a week online. If you can target your online advertising to the websites and online communities used by your business’ target audience, that means that in those 30 hours each week, they’ll see your brand name over and over again. And the more visible your business is, the more likely those users will remember you and keep you in mind for the future.

Done right, online advertising can remind past and current customers of why they should stay loyal to you, whilst also showcasing your business to a massive number of potential new customers at the same time. Communicating effectively with this audience will help develop and maintain customer loyalty, meaning an increased likelihood of repeat business in future.

Best of all, numerous studies have shown that online advertising can result in the highest return on investment when compared with expensive traditional channels like print advertising. You’ll have much more editorial control, and have access to useful data reports so you can track your success, and then use this valuable information to get an idea of what your target audience does and doesn’t respond to.

So, it can seem complicated, but knowing where to start is half the battle and I’ll be chatting about that more over my next few posts.  With a few handy hints to give you that all-important market advantage over your competitors, online advertising will really boost your business, and you’ll soon see the results!

Hopefully this was a helpful introduction, but I’m always keen for feedback so if you have any comments or questions please just post them below and I’ll reply as soon as I can. Thanks!

Welcome to my site,

First, I think I need to explain who I am, what the purpose of this site is, and why I have created it…

My mum always said to me not speak to strangers, and I’m sure you were told the same thing. So to cross this barrier, my name is Dan. I’m a Londoner who has two children and a lovely wife. I guess I am the perfect stereotype!

I’ve been working for 15 years in advertising. My company supports many businesses and my target is, put simply, to increase their customers. After so many years in the industry I can safely say that advertising is the best way to promote your business, but as changes occurred I moved into newer media options. I was forced to change my career as the internet evolved, and affected my industry, so I understand first-hand how overwhelming it all can be.

I know it seems strange to offer free listings for businesses, coming form an advertising background it took me a while to understand the concept, however I have had the fortune to be taught how to promote others on line, and that is why I decided to launch this site.

Basically what I would like to do is help my readers look at all the option for online advertising, and weed out the good from the bad!

It was my son that initially came to me, confused by all the online activity directed at him when he launched his own restaurant. I know not everyone has a Dad in advertising or can afford to hire people to represent them. So this site is a personal project for me, it isn’t about making money (although I can expect enough for a couple of free coffees a month from Google Adwords!) it is in fact about educating people in a confusing market. You can expect to see articles about online advertising, good and bad offers and why I have classed them this way, as well as ways to maximise your online presence with minimal costs.

This is my first article on line. I would appreciate any feedback (including what you would like to have explained) and would like to thank you for your time, and hope to see you here again soon!

Dan