Being a small business owner is exciting and hard work. If you have the privilege of working for yourself, you understand that both discipline and marketing skills are necessary to make a sizable profit. In today’s tech world, online marketing is essential to get some publicity, but there are also good old-fashioned marketing ideas you can use locally.

Here are some creative marketing ideas for you to make money from home through your small business:

1. Get articles published in local magazines. Write some high-quality articles and see if you can get them published in your local magazine or trade magazine. This is very profitable and can reach many readers.

2. Sponsor a sports team in your community. If you want to build brand or service awareness, sponsor a local sports team. Wear your logo and name on uniforms and send out a press release to let others know that you are a generous member of the community.

3. Teach classes and workshops. If you’re an expert in your field, feel free to run your own classes, workshops, and check out speaking at seminars. As you go out into the communities, you will connect with many people.

4. Create a blog and update it regularly. The purpose of a blog is to dazzle your readers with interesting and relevant content. If you are not a writer, you can hire a freelance writer for a very good price so that you always have fresh content. Doing so will give you better search engine rankings so more people can find your website through search engines. More traffic equals more sales!

5. Host a free event. Do you have knowledge or a quality service to share? Go ahead and host a free event to get the media interested and get lots of prospects for your product or service. Give out prizes and make sure you have an email sign-up sheet to receive a newsletter or other free giveaways.

6. Get your information online everywhere. In addition to your website and blog, stay active with online marketing avenues like YouTube, iTunes for podcasts, Facebook pages, Twitter, and other popular social networking sites. As you expand your sphere of influence, you are building credibility and attracting more traffic and potential sales.

7. Honor birthdays and holidays. Many business owners report that sending handwritten birthday and holiday cards to previous customers has earned them bonus points in a big way. Take the time to do this and you’ll be more apt to see your past customers again and again and have them talk about you with family and friends.

If you own a small business and want to make money from home, it’s essential that you take advantage of traditional and online marketing techniques. Some of these ideas only take a little time, so you have no excuse to slack off with your marketing strategy. If you don’t have enough time to invest in marketing, hire someone to do it for you, as the investment will be worth it.