As a small business owner and marketing coach, I'm always looking for ways to market my business and my clients' businesses that don't cost a lot of money. Why? Because we simply don't have a lot of money to spend on marketing.

There are many ways to start getting the word out about your products and services - that's all marketing is after all - getting the word out to the people you think would be interested. The people you would love to have as clients.

And yes, there are many ways to get the word out for free, or very little cost.

One of my favorites is Ezine Publishing.

What's an Ezine? It's an electronic newsletter you write and distribute via email.

Here are 10 steps to help you use Ezine Publishing to market your small business:

(1) Ask yourself, "What am I am expert in?" or "What do I know a lot about?"

(2) Research other businesses in your same area of expertise to see if they are publishing an ezine. Subscribe to all the ezines you find in your same area of expertise.

(3) Find a unique spin or approach that no one else is using and that you feel your ideal clients would be interested in. For example, will you publish a quick weekly tip, recaps on industry news and happenings or how-to articles?

(4) Decide if you want to publish a text ezine (looks like a normal email) or an html ezine (includes graphics and color).

(5) Find an email marketing/list management program to help you publish your ezine and automatically manage your list of subscribers. There are free and paid services you can use. You'll find a few options at the 10stepmarketing Helpful Links Page

(6) Put an opt-in box for your free ezine on every page of your website. Include a reason why someone would want to subscribe to your ezine - give it a little promotion.

(7) Offer a free gift to anyone who chooses to subscribe. This could be a Special Report, a small e-book or any other no-cost item you create, and gives them more reason to subscribe.

(8) Decide how often you're going to publish. Weekly? Biweekly? Monthly?

(9) Schedule a regular time to write and publish your ezine each week, or month.

(10) Get your ezine listed in ezine directories on the web to help you generate subscribers. Search for "ezine directories" on Google to find places to submit your ezine.

An ezine gives you the opportunity to build a list of people who are interested in your expertise and what you have to offer. It also gives you a captive, targeted audience to market your products and services to. And it can be done for free, or for very little cost.

(C) Copyright 2006 Debbie LaChusa, 10stepmarketing