The internet makes available ample opportunities for businesses – not excluding small local businesses – to have free and even extremely cheap visibility.  It is very obvious that a great number of local business owners are still far behind in tapping the opportunities.

With the continuous information and communication technology advancement summoning us all to come advantageously along, many local business owners are still gluey in terms of their traditional approaches in promoting their services or products even as they desire increasing profits from their operations.

If the publishers of newspapers and yellow-pages will be candid enough, confessing that the advert opportunities the internet provides for businesses have been seriously killing their businesses will be a quick thing for them to do.

The growing possibilities of fast, easy, cheap or free online promotions have negatively affected the revenues of radio and television establishments. Simply expressed, all traditional advertising avenues are forced to experience unimaginable reduction in their revenues today. The major cause of this should not be far-fetched. It is the internet (including its mobile platform) and the business promotion potentials it has been offering.

Local customers, rather than reaching for yellow pages or stack of business cards, are searching on the internet to find the local businesses which are having online presence. With that situation, it is becoming no more an option for local business owners to adopt the use of online promotion resources.

Are you one of the local business owners who are confused because of the unrelenting “go-online” alerts coming your ways here and there? Or are you also clueless about local business marketing because you don’t seem to have a grasp of what the messages are saying and of how to go about them? I am here to tell you how quickly, simply and freely you can ensure that you claim the needed online presence for your business.

Just before we go on, I will like you to take note of the following three keypoints about taking your business onto the internet:

The Main Focus of Taking Your Local Business Online

The main focus of taking your services or products online is to have a presence that will get your local business name, products or services (or your local business brand as a whole) out there to your customers and this does not always cost a penny to get started within a short time.

Availability of Solutions for Your Local Business Needs

For every challenge or need you want to meet by using the internet, there is a ready-made solution for it somewhere there online.  The solution may be free, paid or just one requiring a self-determined donation. One good thing about this point is that you do not need to have your own website first.  Remember that I am discussing here now only the free ways to take your local business online.

Availability of Help from Local Business Marketing Coaches

Yes, there are marketing coaches who have in-depth online savvy and who are ready to help in guiding you in your efforts.  Directly, this is what I am saying; there are internet marketers or coaches who render free support to help beginners in learning new things. Though they are in business to make money but this is not usually their primary consideration.  Paying them comes up at certain points down their training or coaching or when you need specific services or products from them

I know that you are about to ask about how then will you take your business online in totally free ways.  Following are my answers to your impending question.

1.  Find Free Online Services Supporting Local Businesses

For taking your local business online, Google Places is your best tool.  This service allows you to list the details of your local business to the extent that when your customers search for services or products which you offer, your business information will appear in the list. Also many online services have alternatives. Services comparable to Google Place are also available for you to explore.

The social media are also free services available to start with in creating online presence for your local business.  Please check out the details about Google Places and similar services.

2.  Find Free Services or Resources from Helpful Coaches

Doing this is as simple as searching online about this kind of coaches. The best point to start gaining free help from these benevolent internet marketers is by asking for or subscribing for their tutorials on topics that are interesting to you within their internet marketing niches.

3.  Dedicate Your Time to Learn and to Implement the Knowledge Gained

Getting your local business online in totally free ways requires your own inputs. Dedicate all that this demands from you, especially starting from now.

Let me tell you that unlike it simply appears here, using free ways to take your local business online may require slow pace and, therefore, longer period of time than when you take along a professional internet marketer or local business marketer.   I must add the fact that to get your business online so quick, you may be required to hire a local business marketer.  This, for example, may be because of some technical reasons like optimizing your local business information to get ranked on the top of the first page of search hits.

Even with that hiring option, some level of knowledge of internet marketing and search engine optimization will be required at one time or the other from you so that you will be able to function well in maintaining your local business online presence.  I, therefore, recommend that while you start learning the free way, attempt to have a mix of the free and paid (or donation) ways to get your services, products and brand promoted on the Internet.

The time to take your local business online is now.