If you have a small bar, restaurant or other dining venue, you probably don't think that you have enough money in your advertising budget for a commercial. It's true that while you might not have enough to have Christopher Nolan direct your commercial, and you probably aren't going to be able to afford Super Bowl placement, it doesn't mean that you can't afford a commercial. You just have to learn how to make one on a limited budget and unlimited imagination.

There must be quite a lot of options when it comes to making your commercial and here are a couple of them:

Hiring a professional might not be in the realm of possibility because of money issues. However, if there is a college in your area, you might be able to get the film or marketing students to take on a commercial as one of their class projects. You will be able to get the commercial created very cheaply, and it will still look very good. You might even get their professors involved which means that with the extra feedback the project will receive you will definitely end up with a number of high quality commercials.

Of course, since everyone has a camera today, you can even create your own commercials. You need to have a script and a vision, but it shouldn't be too difficult. In fact, you will probably have a lot of fun making it on your own. The commercial should focus on one main message and highlight all of the great things about your establishment. Show the exterior and interior, the restaurant seating, the features that make your place special.

Make sure that the commercial reflects your establishment well. If you have a high end bar, you will want to show that in the commercial. The same holds true if you have a fun loving bar with its own cast of regulars.

With a camera and an editing software, you can probably film your commercial and put it together in just a couple of days. It might also be fun to see if some of your regulars want to make their own low budget commercials for your venue. You can put all the various ads online and have people vote for the one they like the most. You might even consider offering a few free meals and drinks for the customer with the winning commercial.

If money is an issue, you won't be able to pay for spots on television, but that doesn't mean that no one is going to see the products of all this hard work. The Internet has made it very simple to put digital content up, and there are a number of different sites where you can upload your commercial. YouTube, Metacafe, Myspace and even Flickr are only a small example from the large list of video sharing sites available for free. In addition to putting it on the video sharing sites, you should also put the video commercials on your website.