When I wrote up a post on my Entrepreneur.com blog on ten free advertising opportunities, I would never have guessed just how popular one of the ideas would be - free online local business listings. Recently, I came across another one of these great services, so I figured everyone would want to hear about these two great services for small businesses.

MerchantCircle.com is a combination of a business listing site with business reviews. If you don’t have a website or don’t know how to optimize for search engines, you can take advantage of their free listing which will have a good chance of showing up in the first page or two. The free package also allows businesses to upload photos, coupons, and create a business blog.

You can also upgrade listing packages to include more local advertising opportunities that Merchant Circle will manage for you, which is perfect for those business owners who don’t have the time or patience to learn about Pay Per Click advertising or buying their own media spots on top publishing sites such as USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, or FOX News.

TouchLocal is a similar service for UK-based businesses. They also have both free and paid listings, and offer similar Pay Per Click assistance in their paid package (and even offer a minimum number of guaranteed visits). Although TouchLocal has been around since 1999, I’ve only recently heard about them - so I was thrilled to know I could help my UK friends with a service similar to US based MerchantCircle.

Happy Free Advertising, everyone!

Just yesterday I added the live “Request Deals” feature to this site. And today one of you fine folks asked for a resource for free custom company pens.

Unfortunately, “Free” on this one is something I wasn’t able to find. But I did find some deals for you:

Branders.com has a coupon for $50 off your first order - they sell branded pens, pencils, erasers, and just about anything else under the sun. They also have FREE samples, so at least there’s a little bit of free action going on over there.

Thanks for the request and keep them coming - I’m happy to hunt down deals for you!

iPrint

As a former print designer, I was always nervous about giving a print job to a new printer. But my research shows that iPrint gets pretty strong positive feedback from their customers, with the most common complaint being that the business cards didn’t get cut accurately.

Well, even the most meticulous (and expensive) of printing companies can make (and have made) this mistake, so for these prices, I’d totally give them a try:

iPrint’s Online Discount Coupons

• 25% off Business and Stationery Products
• 20% off Business Cards and Rubber Stamps
• 50% off Holiday Greeting Cards
• 25% off Invitations and Announcements
• 25% off Business Cards at iPrint.com
• 25% off Personalized Post-it(R) Notes
• 25% off Signs and Banners at iPrint.com!

iPrint’s Freebie Offers:

• FREE Rubber Stamp at iPrint.com
• FREE Full Color Address Labels

VistaPrint

VistaPrint has made their name by offering free business cards. They also have mixed reviews online - but as I read through them, the biggest complaints are from people that don’t read the terms or fine print. Personally, I want to say “DUH” to most of these people - if they are offering something (of real value) for free, you really should read through it all to figure out that customization is extra, you have to pay for shipping, and yes, they will market the heck out of the rest of their services to you. Yes, I’m sure there are exceptions, but for the most part, the reviews were good from people who understood the process and paid for their products.

If all that is worth it to you to get 250 free business cards (or a slew of other freebies!) that most people say is high-quality printing, then by all means, go for it! Just read through the fine print when you do it!

VistaPrint’s Online Discount Coupons

• Save 30% Off All Letterhead, Brochures, Flyers, Folders
• 50% Off All Magnets - All Sizes
• 50% OFF Premium “Custom” Business Cards
• 75% Off Premium “Custom” Business Cards
• Save 30% Off All Folders/Press Kits
• 50% Off All Note Cards, Announcements & Invitations
• 50% Off All Postcards
• Free Shipping on Orders over $50 at VistaPrint.com!

VistaPrint’s Freebies

• Free Business Card Magnets
• Free Full Color Business Cards
• Free Rubber Stamps
• Free Return Address Labels
• Free Personalized Note Pads
• Free Invitations
• Free Notecards

Kodak Creative Network

Although Kodak doesn’t offer as many free goodies as the rest of their competitors, you can actually upload your own artwork for their offers, providing you can provide files in a print-ready format. If you don’t know what that means, but do have the proper programs (such as the Adobe suite or Quark), then they have detailed instructions on how to save the files so that they will be print ready. They also offer unique sizes for their business cards and postcards. So although you get a little less for free from Kodak, it seems as though the quality and customization options are much better.

Kodak’s Online Discount Coupons

• Save 20% Up To $200 on your first KODAK Creative Network order - Use coupon code 20OFF67
• 20% off marketing flyers - Use coupon code 20OFF67

Kodak’s Freebies

• 25 Free color postcards - Use coupon code 25Postcard67
• 50 free business cards - Use coupon code 50BUSCARD67

Constant Contact is one of the easiest and leading email marketing companies around. I’ve used them in the past and loved their selection of templates, the automatic tools, and the fact that they are free for 60 days or until you get at least 100 subscribers. Plus they have some really nice advanced tracking statistics so that you can see who is reading, who is clicking, and who is buying!

Constant Contact has a huge resource library on their site. Not only will you never be lost as you set up your email campaigns, but they also have marketing tips and tutorials, webinars, audio tutorials, white papers, and a marketing glossary. You don’t even need a credit card to get started!

Branders.com offers personalized promo products. Use this coupon to get 50% off of your first order. Their top sellers include pens, coffee mugs, key chains, t-shirts and USB flash drives, all custom imprinted with your logo or company name. Check out their free samples as well!