The opportunities for getting free advertising for your product or services are limited only by your own imagination and energies. There are so many proven ways of promoting your own objectives without costs that it literally boggles the mind even to thing about beginning a list of them.

One way is to write an article relative to your particular expertise and submit it to all the publications and media dealing in the dissemination of related information. In other words, become your own publicity and sales promotions writer. Get the word you, establish yourself as an expert in your field, and "tag-line" everything you write with a quick note listing your address for a catalog, dealership opportunities or more information.

Another really good way is by becoming a guest on as many of the radio and television talk shows or interview type programs as possible. Actually, this is much easier to bring about than most people realize. What you do is write a letter to the producer of these programs, then follow-up with an in-person visit and a telephone call. You initial contact should emphasize that your product or service would be of interest to the listeners or viewers of the program - perhaps save them time and money.

Other ways of getting free or very inexpensive exposure include the posting of advertising circulars on all the free bulletin boards in your area, especially the coin operated laundries, grocery stores, and barber shops. Don't discount the idea of handing our circulars to all the shoppers in busy shopping centers and mails, especially on weekends. You can also enlist the aid of the middle school students in your area to hand out your circulars door-to-door.

Some of the less unusual methods include having a promotional ad relative to your product or service printed on the front or back of your envelopes at the time you have them printed with your return address.

Be sure to check all the publications that carry the kind of advertising you need... Many mail order publications just getting started offer unusually low rates to first time advertisers - a "free of charge" insertion of your ad when you pay for run over 3- issues...special seasonal ad space at greatly reduced prices... And, there are a number of publications that will give you Per Inquiry space where all the orders come in to the publication, they take a commission from each order and then forward them on to you for fulfillment.

Many publications will give you a contract for "standby" space - meaning that you send them you ad, they hold it until they have unsold space, and then at a price that's almost always one third or less then the regular price for the space you need, they'll insert you ad. Along these lines, be sure to check in with your suburban and neighborhood newspapers.

If you send out or publish any kind of catalog or ad sheet, get in touch with all the other publishers and inquire about the possibilities of exchange advertising. They run your ad in their publication in exchange for your running an ad for them of comparable size in your publication.

At the same time, be sure to check this idea out: Many mail order operators will include a quantity of your circulars with their outgoing mail if you'll do the same with circulars of theirs.

And, don't forget the opportunities involved when you agree to print and mail someone else's non-conflicting advertising on the back of the circulars you send out. You simply get the best price from your printer on printing one-sided circulars, add a little bit for the time it would take you to fold and stuff these circulars, then a little bit more for half what your postage costs are going to be, and then offer to print & mail other people's circulars with your outgoing mail for that kind of price.

For sure, every time that you receive something in the mail or order something, have a completely self-supporting mailing piece - a number of advertising circulars that you print on the backs of your own, paid for by the people wanting you to include their circulars with your own outgoing mail - and get it out to all the people sending you their offers.

Finally, there's nothing in the world that beats the low-cost and tremendous exposure you get when you advertise a free offer. Simply run an ad offering a free report of interest to most people - a simple one page report with a "tag-line" inviting the readers to send money for more information or detailed information, with a full page advertisement for your book or product on the backside - ask for an SASE, which of course stands for self-addresses, stamped envelope, and depending on the appeal of your report and the circulation of the publication in which your ad appears, you could easily be inundated with responses.

The trick here of course, is to convert all or a big percentage of these responses into sales. This is done via the "tag-line" inviting them to send for more information, plus the full page ad on the back of the report, and the other offers you include with the complete package you send back to them. As mentioned at the beginning of this report, it's only a matter of unleashing your imagination, so have at it and the best of luck to you!