Here are four effective free advertising methods that have been tried and tested and best of all, they truly work!

We do this naturally and we do it almost every single day. When you recommend a favourite work at home website, rave about a great marketing e-book, share a new business adventure or talk about a new product with such enthusiasm you are spreading the word. One friend will tell another and so on and so on. Word of mouth is still one of the best free advertising tools today.

Signature advertising is by far the single easiest methods available. Use it in forums (where it is permitted) and emails. A signature file or sig file is a text of information about your business that may include your name, your email address, telephone number and other pertinent information. The link is automatically appended to outgoing emails and internet postings (forums). Signature advertising creates one way back links to your business or website and drives targeted traffic to your website.

Writing articles have proven time and time again how powerful and effective it really is. It drives traffic to your website creating more exposure, you gain more incoming links and you get higher ranking in search engines. The more traffic you receive the more profits you make, but it's only effective if you write quality articles rich in keywords and keyword phrases and provide useful information. Otherwise, no one will want to re-print them and your resource box like a signature file is null and pointless.

From community forums to social networking sites such as Ryze, Facebook, MySpace, Adland Pro etc. networking groups is taking its place among the other great free advertising options. It's a place to gather, meet, share, discuss, inform and learn about various businesses. The same can be said for networking marketing in the real world where you can meet in person at various venues.

There are many different avenues to explore and promote your business online or offline, but when it comes to free advertising these are the four methods that have proven to be on the top of the list for being successful and effective.