There are many advertising methods to get youself or your business noticed online. They include SEO for search engines, pay per click (PPC) advertising, advertising co-ops and joint ventures, posting forums and boards that cater to your target market, press releases, and article writing.

Off-line advertising and marketing is ignored by many online marketers. However, there are many ways to advertise off-line that is free or costs very little. I want to let you know about three of them.

1 – Business Cards

Business cards are a requirement for anyone who is serious about their business. They’re a superb method of getting the attention of prospects and keeping the attention of customers. Just hand them out to anyone you think will benefit from what you’re offering. Additionally, leave a card behind whenever you visit a club, bar, or restaurant. There is one salesman who says putting one in each bathroom stall generates leads.

If you are just starting out in business you might consider printing your own business cards at home.

2 – Brochures and Flyers

You can easily create brochures and flyers with today’s desktop publishing and computer technology. Simply post flyers (with permission, of course) at businesses and other location where you think your potential customers will see them. Or hand out brochures to the people you meet throughout your day.

A lot of bars and restaurants will let you post a flyer in their places as well.

Grocery stores too. Many have cork boards near the front door for just this purpose. With hundreds of people walking by every day.

3 – Advertising With You Car

Yes, that’s right! Your car is a great vehicle for advertising. Place magnetic signs on the sides of your car with you company name and web address on it. It’s like a big business card on the side of your car.

In this way you and your business will be exposed to a large number of people whether you’re driving, parked, or stuck in traffic. These magnetic signs aren’t very expensive either. Check with a local sign maker to learn the cost.

The Road to Big Profits

Maps serve a purpose. People use it for directions. They trust it and depend on it to get them where they want to go. It tells them where the local attractions are, and other places if interest, particularly among tourists – the people who use maps the most.

Considering the credibility and the power of maps as a printed medium, it takes an entrepreneur 2 seconds to realize that there’s money in maps… as an advertising vehicle.

You can design your city map to be as large as 28″ x 40″ which can be printed by commercial print houses with large format presses. Or you can use the 11″ x 17″ format and bring it to your neighborhood quick printer.

The Map

What you’re going to make a map of is as critical as deciding about how you’re going to do it. These are the two questions that will make the foundation of your business.

Big cities are very seldom a great market for City Maps. However, if you break them apart and make maps for selected business districts, even down to selected neighborhoods, the taking is plenty.

Focus on dense retail districts. Target those with neighboring restaurant row, historical spots or other tourist attractions.

Purchase reprint rights of already existing maps as this would prove significantly easier and more cost efficient than producing one yourself.

Cartoon styled maps may be visually entertaining, but they are seldom useful. You will probably attract more advertisers if you can equate your advertising rates with potential use.

Advertisers

Position advertising blocks on the outer edge of the map area. Depending of the size of your map and the paper you plan to print it in, you can have as many or as few “blocks” to offer for advertising. Encourage your advertisers to buy more than one block of advertising. This will not only make your map look more exclusive, it will also make your selling ad spaces get done a lot sooner.

Producing Newsletters On CD

Brandel Communications is currently developing a newsletter that will be released on Compact Discs, mailed to you once every two months.

The subscription rate is $195 a year. (Our production cost: around $3 per CD. With 6 CDs a year, our total cost is $18 per subscriber.)

Instead of print or video, we have decided to tap the CD market, the fastest growing communications media.

Minimum Start-Up: $2,500
Average Start-Up: 10,000
Profit Margins: 50% to 75%
One Person Business: Yes

OPPORTUNITY SEEKERS

To offer a subscription to this (still unnamed) newsletter, we are running full page ads in opportunities magazines, as well as implement a direct mail campaign.

Our initial marketing thrust will be directed at individuals seeking to start their own business, or a second source of revenue.

The Biz Opp market is at a strategic crossroads where new economic opportunities intersect with our growing disenchantment with conventional employment.

This market thinks! And it is quick at recognizing new opportunities. This is why we decided that the growth of How-To CDs depend on the variety of titles available.

WE CAN REPRESENT & SELL YOUR CD TITLES

While we are selling subscription to our newsletter, we offer customers the opportunity to purchase other CD titles.

We also have a regular New Titles ad which lists new Power Guides and How-To CDs available.

Every time we send out a newsletter and a catalogue, we include your CD on our title list and orders are sent directly to you. We do not take a commission or a percentage of your sales.

Your customer’s orders and payments come directly to you. You fulfill the orders and keep the money. We will design and print your ad for you.

CREATE YOUR OWN NEWSLETTER

We will accept advertising from those of you who plan to produce your own CD newsletter.

Producing a newsletter on CD allows you to collect subscriptions in advance, which is extremely helpful in generating cash flow during your start-up stages.

Producing a newsletter gives you a continuing link with a market that shares your common interests. Consider also the interest factor for a newsletter in CD form is quite high.