"Free" is a word that grabs peoples‘attention. In marketing, sometimes "free" is too good to be true, but in some instances, free is good. A lot of contractors want to know how to market their Contracting business on a limited budget. Well, it can be done, and here are 10 things you can do to get started with it today.

1. Write a press release on a new product or service and send it to a couple of free press release distribution sites. Follow their guidelines for submission so you don't waste your time editing and re-doing work. A few good one’s that I’ve found are PRUrgent.com, Press-Base.com, PressAbout.com, PressMethod.com, and PRLeap.com
    
2. Update your Google Maps Listing, make sure the information is accurate and easy to understand, and then have them verify your ownership via e-mail or SMS message. Letting potential clients know exactly where you are is often an overlooked aspect in marketing strategies.
    
3. Join a relevant chat forum or Blog site, and contribute to that online community. Use indirect messages for sales such as a forum signature or your forum user name. If you can leave 25 signatures on 10 different sites during the course of 2 weeks, you’ll have roughly 3,500 links waiting to be clicked.
    
4. Become active in social networking sites. Facebook is a good place to start simply because of its huge amount of members. Your potential for new customers by being active on sites like this is unlimited.
    
5. Check out your niche on Wikipedia, WikiTravel, or other wiki sites, and see if you can post up a link. Don't use obvious sales tactics or otherwise try to use the system, the editors will just delete the information. Instead, provide appropriate information and follow the rules concerning links.
   
    
6. Learn how SEO’s can get your company website optimum exposure by helping it rank high on search engines such as Google. The right keywords will help you get and stay at or near the top of the first page of Google.
   
7. Find out who's linking to your competitors and contact them asking for a similar opportunity. Be careful not to act like you're entitled or needy. Look for opportunities for a mutually beneficial partnership, and suggest some things you can do for their business in exchange for their help with yours.
    
8. Make a slideshow of your products, or a before and after sequence of your work, into a video and upload to Youtube,  making sure to optimize your title and descriptions. When it's uploaded, write a new page and embed the video onto your own Web site.
   
9. Set up a map for your storefront or area at CommunityWalk.com and then embed it onto your "how to get here" or "about us" links on the home page of your company web site.
   
10. Write a "how-to" article that addresses your niche for a site like Work.com. This is a good resource for getting mentions and links. Looking at your product or service in a step-by-step manner is often enlightening to potential clients as it can help you to better explain your products and services.

 So there you go, a good list that once implemented, can do the marketing work for you.