Advertising Your Small Business Online

The New York Times has a "Self-Service Advertising" feature aimed at small businesses. According to NYT, "If your online advertising budget is less than $10,000 per campaign, Self-Service Advertising from NYTimes.com is right for you."

This self-service advertising feature offers a "complete on-demand banner advertising solution" on the NYT website. You can select and customize one of the ad templates they supply, or upload your own--and then choose to target that ad geographically.

The Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times also have options for advertising online. From the Trib's Advertiser E-Services page, you can choose to run your ads in the print and online editions of the full paper, the Redeye, or the TribLocal.

For the Sun-Times News Group's site, STNG Online Advertising, you can target your ads to run not just in the Sun-Times, but also in any of the local papers that STNG owns, including The Evanston Review.

Financing and Small Business

The Small Business Administration has devoted a section of its website to the 2009 Recovery Act, and what the bill will mean to small businesses. Recently, as part of the Act, a change was made to the CDC/504 Loan program. The Wall Street Journal explains the impact of the changes in an article from the June 26, 2009 issue. Entrepreneur Magazine gives information about the new ARC Loan program, which provides loans up to $35,000 to financially troubled small businesses, in an article published on June 10, 2009. For start-up companies, the SBA's Micro-loan Program may be helpful. Entrepreneur Magazine has useful information about this loan program as well.