Look, I've been involved in network marketing for over 15 years now.

Some of the best places to advertise your affiliate program or to build a list are free advertising programs.

For a while when I was a stay-at-home mom, earning money on the internet was easy. I supplemented the income from my husband's job with the money I was making promoting my businesses and from income I made with a variety of affiliate programs, network marketing programs and from free advertising.

Then the economy tanked in 2009 and everything changed. I had to find a full-time job because people were getting scared to spend money and for a while I was a little scared too. It seemed like everyone just logged off their computers. There was no website traffic on the traffic exchanges, no one was joining safelists or newsletters. And worst of all, no one was purchasing paid advertising. Even inexpensive paid advertising. My fellow marketers communicated that their businesses are very slow as well.

Once the economy started to bounce back, I started furiously promoting my products using free advertising and a wonderful thing happened, people started returning to the internet, specifically to network marketing and home business opportunities. I actually never stopped using free advertising and every now and then I got a few signups. I noticed that a lot of other people were using free advertising, because they couldn't afford to pay for it.

My pattern of free advertising and the pattern at which people access the internet and read their emails did not change. If anything, the volume of visitors increased and the internet was back to its usual self. I found several new free advertising sites and continued to promote my websites. I was able to rebound and was very successful creating a very comfortable monthly income with free advertising.

Don't let anyone tell you that free advertising does not work, on the contrary, it does.