Ouch. Yeah I still spend $0 in advertising. All my business comes from satisfied customers and word-of-mouth referrals (the way I believe it should be - I loath paid advertisements forced upon people). At one point I a few years back I was one of the top 500,000 websites in the world (Alexa verified).
I've taken multiple hits over the years when other platforms (like Youtube) swept through their content and eliminated unpaid "ads" as they see it. I have no clue what the future will hold, and extremely thankful that I have a few distribution partners helping keeping me afloat during these slow times. Maybe the federation's content will be logged by google and my site will regain it's popularity.
Best thing you can do to help us small businesses is to give a shout out wherever appropriate (not spam, naturally). Just remind people that XYZ business or brand exists is extremely beneficial and worth more than any paid advertising.