Before I go into the meat of the blog entry, I do need to urge you to realize that it takes money to make money. As often as the adage can be uttered without much thought, it’s so wide-spread because it’s true. Marketing is the most expensive and often most over-looked cost of doing business, especially for those in the creative fields. This is why it’s important to know where to spend the money and where to save money. I’m of the opinion that finding free and cheap methods of marketing free up dollars for the more essential items that you can’t get for free.

That said…

I’ve mentioned many times that it’s important to have multiple profiles on social networking sites; but I would like to extend that recommendation to content-hosting sites. Places like Flickr, Photobucket, YouTube and others provide several key benefits to you:

1. THEY’RE FREE -perhaps the best part so far
2. They put you in front of a MASSIVE audience (check out this article for some stats of how YouTube can get you exposed to the masses)
3. Having your name on multiple, very highly trafficked sites will make your name pop up more in search engines
4. They serve as a great means to pull new fans in and point them toward your website or to learn more about you

…and the list goes on.

DO: Use these free content sites to host your music videos, pictures, music, etc. so you can get tons of free exposure.
DO: Use the extra cash to hire better video/audio production companies and graphic designers.
DON’T: Use this as an excuse not to pay for more traditional methods of marketing.