“If it’s not free, it’s not for me.” Is this how you approach promoting your business? I came across an article in a Linked-in group that was talking about steps to take for promoting articles on the Internet and how “free” it is. I would post the link for you, but this post is not about article marketing. It’s about this issue of everything having to be “free” all the time.

I will share my response to the post that article marketing is so great because it’s so free. Here’s what I replied with:

“True, article marketing is a terrific source of link building and traffic generation, but I hardly consider this promotional avenue as “free.” I spend about 10 hours a week writing articles of my own and another 10 or more promoting them. My time is the most expensive cost of my being in business so I can assure you it’s not free. Plus, I’ve learned to be okay with spending about $150 per month on tools that help me leverage my article promotion beyond manually submitting to only article directories one-by-one. And, that’s where the results really kick in. Personally, I believe we have to get away from this feeling that if it’s not “free,” it’s not “for me.” Business is business and there are always costs of doing business…even if it’s just your time that’s at stake.”

Now, there’s one really good line in there that I’ve never thought about before. And, I don’t think I’ve heard anyone say it from a stage either. “My time is the most expensive cost of my being in business.” Isn’t that true in your business too?

We need to stop thinking everything needs to be so “free” because if you spend a couple of bucks in the right places, you could be saving yourself thousands of dollars worth of your own very precious time.

So I ask you, what is your time worth?

In the past 7 days, we have launched not one but TWO new services at HereNextYear; Advanced Article Marketing and Modern Press Release Promotion. These two walk hand in hand and I can assure you none of them is “free.” But, I can assure you too that both of them save your valuable time and bring results.

Okay, so there’s a shameless plug for our two new offerings. But, my hope is that you will see what I’m getting at here…We have got to stop thinking everything must be free or it’s not for me.