Sell High pr Domains

When you first start out you’re bound to be keen to market your business as much as possible for free. But sooner or later you’ll probably succumb to some form of paid advertising, maybe even in print.

I’ve recently been researching advertising space in magazines for a new business, and it’s a bit like entering the lion’s den. It’s easy to understand why so many rooky business people get eaten alive!

I got stung when I started out a few years ago. I bought an advert in a graduate magazine, paid a lot of money, and it did nothing for me. Zilch. Nada. Why? I bought a display advert, not classified.

Here’s the bottom line, if you’re a small home business NEVER buy display advertising in a magazine (those big, colourful adverts spread amongst the editorial).

Only ever invest in classified ads (smaller, and at the back) that have a clear call to action. Classified adverts cost a LOT less than display adverts, and have a significantly higher return on investment for a small business.

Talking of investment, never pay the full price for your advert. Automatically expect a 20% discount, minimum. Start small (the smallest ad size is usually 3 x 1) and increase the size of your advert in line with it’s success.

Which reminds me, make sure you can measure the response to your adverts because this is the only way you’ll know if your investment was worth it, and therefore if it’s worth investing again.

Display advertising is the domain of large corporations with big budgets to build their brand. Don’t go there. It’s a numbers game. Enough people see your nice big advert in enough magazines and they’ll remember your business. You want people to do more than remember you, right?

So in summary, my top tips are:

• 1. Classified adverts only.
• 2. Haggle, haggle, haggle.
• 3. Buy the smallest amount of space possible to begin with.
• 4. Make sure you can test the response of your adverts.
• 5. Include a strong call to action.

This article is written by Leigh Hunt, Founder and Home Business Mentor for Lotus Courses, providing coaching, home study courses and start-up support for mums starting home based businesses. You can visit her online at http://www.lotuscourses.com Take advantage of Leigh’s FREE 10 day eCourse on ‘The Secrets of Becoming a Successful Business Mum’ today by enrolling at http://www.lotuscourses.com/ecourse