(At StartupNation's request, the following words of advice were provided by Richard Feldman, a winner in the 2008 StartupNation Dorm-Based 20.)
If any substantial part of your startup is online, I suggest paying equity for tech guys rather than dollars for expensive IT solutions. My roommate Tom set up the first version of ITOG.com using our DSL connection and a prehistoric Windows NT computer he resurrected from his parents' basement and reformatted with Linux. The whole setup cost us zero dollars.
Sure, it had its problems--our circuit breakers were always on the brink of being overtaxed, so whenever someone used the toaster without unplugging something else it would kill the power and take down the site--but it also let us demo our product to early investors.
Today we have the cash for a robust setup, but we got to this point by putting in the hours to make a bare-bones server run our online operations, allowing us to spend our limited cash where it would really make a difference.
You won't be in school forever, so make sure to use your campus as a resource while you still can. ITOG's first publicity came through articles in Washington University's student newspaper and official school publications.
Every school has faculty and alumni involved in entrepreneurship, even if they aren't part of an official program; ask around, and you'll find advice and support from places you least expect it.
We discovered that some alumni had formed a successful marketing company that specialized in exactly what we were trying to accomplish, and we ended up using them for our first marketing campaign.