When I first started my online business, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. With the help of a friend, we mapped out the initial business plan I would follow to success. The funny thing is that neither one of us had any clue how the internet worked, but armed with professional certifications in accounting and auditing and with a ton of high quality work experience we figured that we had this nailed. We did not.

The one good thing about starting the business was that I could not invest any real capital into the business to get it off and running, as many businesses are required to do when first starting out. I had a meager startup budget of $100. This proved to be my strength and not a weakness as I originally thought it would be.

After getting started with a domain name, arranging hosting, building my web site and then finally publishing, I was astonished by how many "opportunities" came my way to help me achieve success. Everyone had a best of that and a best of this. If I took part in just a few of these great ideas, I would have drawn down my budget and some more in no time.

I had to be innovative, and this is what I did. I decided to do everything that I could free or it would not be done.

I listed my site in every free directory I could locate. I listed my web address on every search engine that I could locate on the Internet. I sought out as many high quality competitor link exchange programs. I wrote an e-book and started an affiliate program of my own. I began writing articles to post out as free content.

So how will my experience of doing everything free help explode your search engine results? Let us look at what is going on here.

Listing in directories and search engines