Boosey's Offline Advertising Day #1

[MrsE]

Yeah definitely!!!.... I'm taking off in about an hour and a half!!!....

Gotta pick up the flyers in about 45 mins (btw- the final cost for 4500 flyers is $300, they gave me some kind of discount...)..

 

[jaymartins]

Cool - keep us updated!

The good thing about this is that we can't saturate each other! The potential custom is endless, especially with more people buying PC's and laptops.

 

[springer98]

@boosey12 ... just sent you another PM but had an idea after hitting the send button.

Sell the back of your fliers to a local offline biz. Let them cover all your expenses plus make an additional profit for design, layout, set-up, printing, etc.

You not only make whatever you get from your offer but a profit for making and distributing the fliers that you're going to be doing anyway.

 

[ukescuba]

boosey i know your using flyers but i use postcards for the same thing your doing there real nice high glossy postcards i get them printed from these guys hxxp://willywalt.c0m i get 10,000 4x6 for $250
hope this helps

how much is shipping? got comparative prices from a few different place including shipping...

also what stock are these? 14pt+

TIA

 

[StillSmiling]

You can buy pre-cut door hangers at any paper supply store, then have any printer (Staples/Kinko's etc) print & cut them for you. I've used these guys repeatedly:

http://www.door-hangers-direct.com/blank-door-hangers.htm

They sometimes have really good deals on door hanger bags -- which are great for when you'd rather use a flyer but weather is crappy.

Springer98 nailed it! Let somebody else carry the cost for you.

 

[springer98]

Back in the dark ages, before the innerwebs, I used a technique similar to Boosey's. I'd make the rounds of all the all-night convenience stores and corner newspaper boxes on the weekends, when the Sunday papers came out.

In the convenience stores, I'd grab a cup of coffee and chat up the clerk. I didn't come off as a perv, just friendly. After a little while, I'd wander over to where the Sunday papers were and stuff my flier into all of them, like it was a regular insert.

At the corner newspaper boxes, I'd drop in a quarter (things were cheaper then) and stick my fliers into all the papers in the box.

Everything was call in or mail in, then. Come Monday morning, the phone would begin ringing and by the middle of the week, things began showing up in the mail.

The money was good, while it lasted. Then came the innerwebs and my business REALLY grew!

Kudos to guys like Boosey12 and Helloall who've recently posted a couple of good offline promotion methods. After all, that's what BH is really about... thinking of creative ways to get people to do what we want them to do.

 

[premiumsource]

Google is your friend in this case, so just search for it. I've found several places that charge around $100 per 5000 flyers and then if you order more price goes down even further.

 

[LHaskins]

For cheap printing in black n white, you can buy a cheap samsung laser printer for about $80, which comes with half full toner allowing you to print about 1.5k flyers, then u just get a toner refill kit for about $15 which will give you another 4k+ flyers from it

@boosey12 ... just sent you another PM but had an idea after hitting the send button.

Sell the back of your fliers to a local offline biz. Let them cover all your expenses plus make an additional profit for design, layout, set-up, printing, etc.

You not only make whatever you get from your offer but a profit for making and distributing the fliers that you're going to be doing anyway.

You can also get a brother laser printer that will print on both sides of the paper (costs $120 to $150) and put your ad on one side and the offline biz
on the other yourself! Do it right, and get 2 to 3 flyers per sheet.

 

[AboutBizz]

I did the EXACT steps you did before then I found out about perforated paper. YOu can buy PREmade perforated paper and then that way you can change your message/phone number...split test messages etc. We would up running them thru the laser printer. I saved hours not cutting perfs into the paper and it was a better presentation as well.
http://www.perforatedpaper.com/ offers a custom perforated paper. I did 8X11 with 10 vertical perfs/page (a 2 inch stub). One thousand are about $125 -- Five thousand are about $500.
FWIW

 

[bl4ck1ce]

I'll second the advice to sign up for a Staples card, they send out coupons for up to $50 on a pretty regular basis, and the price per sheet goes way down with the more copies you get. Over 1k sheets was 4c each last time I was in there.

You can do 2 or 3 per sheet and then get them cut, either at staples or another print shop. I used to work at a print shop and we cut paper at $1/cut per 500 sheets, so it's pretty reasonable. Still have to cut the tear-off bits by hand, but I suppose if you had a bandsaw you could do them all at once... or buy the pre-perforated paper mentioned above.

Several years ago a friend of mine made over $1k in a weekend promoting Herbalife products using methods similar to this, they do work!

I live in a university town as well.. hmmmm. giving me ideas.

 

[rockamore1]

This is awesome... I have fliers for my phone biz. (igotminefree.com) printed them out myself! Cant wait to promote... If I ever get my lazy ass out of bed... uh.. maybe i better pay some 1 to pick them up lol

 

[lokiceo]

Is there going to be any other offers in the packets other than the survey site?

If you want to go all out with this idea, you should strike a couple deals with local delivery places, charge a flat fee per flyer in the packet. Delivery places are probably the best way to monetize a move-in packet, as the new tenant will be wanting to find out what are good restaurants in the area. Not only that, but theyre almost guaranteed to get delivery the first few nights, as they don't have anything in the fridge yet. Delivery places will jump all over this offer.

Also, you could triple-monetize your driving, rather than getting just the flyers, get some door knob flyers and corrugated plastic signs. Hit houses with the door knob flyers and throw the signs up on the side of high traffic roads, all promoting your survey site.

Hope it goes well

 

[stylesb]

I would of bought a .com for something like this.

You think kids will goto a '.weebly' site?

especially college kids, thats where most start learning more and more about the net, considering they are on it all day everyday

 

[DeadEyesOpened]

I manage a print shop, and the trick is to get as many printed up on the largest sheet you can. In my case (promoting a free ipod email submit) I print black on white 8 up on A3 giving me 800 flyers for $15.00, I cut 'em myself.


this is my offer:

"Subscribe to our newsletter and win an ipod nano" <nice ipod pic>

www.catchy-domain-name.info (cost $1.19 from godaddy)

redirect to offer @ 80 cents a submit

profit

Good conversion rates so far, I'm estimating 15%

 

[plouyd]

Go to a trade school that has a print shop and ask them what kind of deals they can do for you. Usually they give it to senior/junior students to do for a grade, so you might be able to get a good deal.

That is if you need paper.

 

[MrsE]

That's a really good idea!!.... Honestly, I don't know of any trade schools around here though?!

I'm breaking right now.... just got done with the 2nd complex.... there's no fucking way i'm gonna be able to do all 8 of them today!!....

Glad they got Wi-Fi at the Clubhouse though

 

[grafxextreme]

I have a membership website set up for noobs. I charge $10/mo for videos, software, ebooks and other stuff for them to build a business. The way I market my website is to print up a set number of color business cards with my ad on it. Then place the business cards in inexpensive paper business card holders in convenience stores, community colleges, flea markets, laundromats, and other places where my niche may visit. Keep it right near the cash register.

I average about 20-30 new members a day. Haven't really marketed very much. I had a JV partner who was distributing the cards for me but haven't heard from her in about two or three months. (So hard to keep good help) Still with a membership site there's good residual from both the membership fee and affiliate offers. And since it's noobs it doesn't take much to keep them happy.

 

[AboutBizz]

If you continue this a s a lead generator you'll quickly tire of the cutting part (IMHO) As some have already stated you'll prob find a better use of your time hiring it out to a student or Staples... however I wouldnt suggest using them for apartment distribution. I previously owned a newspaper with 35K distribution and learned quickly most peoples path of least resistence to delivering free papers was to dump them after a while.. as you can attest the grunt work sucks and is actually REAL work. lol

 

[virtualgeorge]

I'd get my own site too, I will even host it for you and someone else said they will get you a domain.

When I first decided I wanted to be self-employed I got a wild hair one day and quit my job and decided I was going to start my own business.

I started doing the flyer thing and lived close to ASU so there were apartments everywhere and would put them on the laundry room bulletin boards, malls(usually gets you a nasty letter) and parking lots all over town. It kind of sucked but it worked and I got the new business going.

 

[stinky_boy]

I keep calling the phone number, but damn, no one anwsers??

...It cost 5 cents a copy at library and 0 cents a copy from work....got to be bh sneaky...