Do you have any tips to offer on places to promote and how to go about doing so? I do not know if text ads or banner ads are better? Is it okay to advertise in forums that allow it? I had heard that forum advertising can get you in trouble but I don't understand how as long as you are within the forum guidelines.

well my friend I would go read about business first if you asking these questions. All I got to say is market your company everywhere. Your local city is a great start. Forums are great to. Always talk about your company to everyone.

I believe every forum need some contributions from members, if you're trying to use them for just advertisement purpose I don't think that will worth to use however still you can use signature links that can help you somewhat to enhance the visibility of your site.

Signature links (when allowed) are an excellent way of promoting your websites. Remember that your post quality is somewhat representative of the sites you link to.

You can also add your site to directories and work on improving your search rankings through SEO.

Then there's paid advertising - text and banner ads can both be effective.

When to market? ALWAYS. Where to market? EVERYWHERE. How to market? That's a question that if you don't know the answer, you'll want to hire someone to do it for you.

Marketing a product that you believe in is a fairly easy task, especially if the product is you or your company. Many people don't like to talk about themselves, or what they do, or strike up conversations with others about what they do. If that's you, then you need to seriously bring in a crew to do the marketing for you.

If you're starting out, aim local. Advertising on forums is something that you can do when you have an established brand, but if you're new, be prepared to see money spent with little to no reward.

Here's a simple and easy method for advertising;

Buy 100 postcard stamps from the US Post Office ($0.27 to send a 4.5x6 postcard). Overnight Prints currently has a 100 postcard offer for free. So for $27.00 (and some creative graphics), you can mail out to 100 prospective customers in your local area, setup a meeting, and bring them on board.

During this recession time that we're having, you may have noticed that your mail box hasn't had as many mailings in them, often with days of NO mail in the mailbox. This is because peopel cut back on spending, and one of the biggest was the direct mail. This means BIG BONUS to you! Since there is less junk mail in the mail box, you stand a better chance of being noticed!

Need other ideas? Look around your neighbourhood, what are others doing? Wear shirts, give out business cards, leave business cards in the resturant when you leave a tip, communicate with everyone!

I can't teach you to be a better marketer, but if you watch and listen, you'll see a lot of people with the same "type" of ideas which you can easily implement. They are tried and true methods, and they work, so you just need to put a game plan together, get good ad copy and hit the streets!

I've done the leave a card in the resturant thing. I have cards that I have for specific areas. 500 cards for places I go (resturants for one), movies, grocery shopping, etc. I just leave them with people I meet, talk to, etc. Out of 500 cards and doing that method I probably get 25-50 calls and out of that 5-15 clients. Business cards are cheap to get and work out great.

Sometimes I will leave a business card attached to a letter in mailboxes. To cut costs I hand deliver them which isnt to bad. I get around 5-10 clients this way.

All this is done once every two months. In the winter time I stop the mailbox thing lol too cold for that stuff.


There are lots of ways to promote your self, you just have to get creative. The easiest form and cost effective (free) is to post on webmaster forums. HD, WHT, FWS, FWT, + a lot more that are out there. I can't remember all of them off the top of my head.

You know that opening a mail box that is not yours is a federal penalty Existing law in the united states states that only an authorized letter carrier my deliver mail to a mailbox. It is a federal offence classed under the mail tampering laws and is punashable by a fine and/or jail time.

This is one of the reasons that many places that deliver flyers to you will put it on your door step or on the door itself. Stay away from the mailbox

The USPS Domestic Mail Manual states “no part of a mail receptacle may be used to deliver any matter not bearing postage, including items of matter placed upon, supported by, attached to, hung from, or inserted into a mail receptacle.”

A little off topic, but fair warning to those that wish to deliver mail to a mail box.

All great advice. I squirmed a little when I read the part about the mailboxes - don't even venture close to them. Leaving your business card works for all businesses. Posting on forums works great - again the key is adding value.

Romes, is in the UK I believe, isn't he? Maybe, they have different policies on mailboxes.

I have never left a business card with a tip. That made me laugh. We are going to start doing direct mailers with our new HostDIY brand. It should be a good time.

lol oops, let me rephrase that. I leave them on the red arrow thing. It just sucks after I put like 20 up it starts to rain lol Atleast this way they get noticed. When you go to your mailbox, the first thing you will see if my business letter on the side of your mailbox. Most people read it before they even grab their mail

EDIT: I live in IL, U.S.

oops my bad, maybe there is someone else who has a UK webhost name similiar to yours. By the definiation above the red flag is illegal too.

really? hrmm...I better stop then lol I will have to look further into the mailbox laws.

Thank you (again, you are so helpful!) Conor! I do some simple graphics myself so maybe I can whip up some nice things and order these cards. I haven't ever heard of Overnight Prints, I usually use VistaPrint but they are SO slow lately with delivery. Is Overnight Prints pretty much the same quality?

I use vistaprint as well. They are very cost effective.

paperbox or front door with a peice of tape is always legal. hehe