Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

As the owner of a small, home-based computer repair business, I have an interest in promoting the business and its related website.  I had an idea which I thought might apply to others as well.

Why not give something of little cost to yourself, but great value to others, for free?  For example, as a service provider I can perform certain types of repairs without buying parts.  Yet, these services go for everything north of $100.  So, in my case, I could get links to my website by submitting a free service to local online news publishers.  For example, I might offer free repairs of some time to disabled war veterans or another reasonably small group for my area that I could serve.

Also, links from reputable news sites can go a long way toward increasing your Google ranking.

Surely this strategy has been done before.  Any success stories?