for about a week in the dallas newspaper its going to cost about $350 to $500 to post an ad for web design. do you think this is a good investment?
of course... and if u can make ur $$$ and than some.. it'll be well worth it... & also dpends what type of audience goes for your ad? make it convincing and maybe just say its free for 6 months... than force a subscription on them where is the only option to buy... hopefully ppl will like ur service and than wont cancel after the 6 months... lets say u get 25+ clients charge them base for the site and a monthly fee for maintenance...note these sites are just informational sites u r giving them...nothing really deep in code... whatever contract that u think its fair...its up to u... make it look RISK FREE or 6 MONTH FREE TRAIL in bold to beat ur competition.... or u can have bronze, silver gold packaging in pricing... u get the hint... hehehhee..
I disagree. I ran an ad in the Dallas Morning News for 4 years watching the prices go up and the readership go down. When I finally made the call to go on-line with my marketing, I went from 15~20 responses per week from the paper to 1200~1500 per month on-line. As my response rate went up, my overhead went down and I was able to bank the money I used to spend on display ads. Feel free to PM me.
I agree with 500Leads. As someone that will spend $14k in print media alone in August, its hard to get the return you want. Now, the question you have to ask, is how much is your program and how much costs (overhead) do you have in each sale. It's not the greatest result but it may be worth it to pay $300 to make $500. Given the audience of the print media readers, they may not be interested in a website. Better yet, contact your local chamber of commerce and buy an add in their monthly e-newsletter. You know that the people are online and it will be much easier to get leads. There is money in white-hat but for most of us, the profit margin has not been what we are use to in the BHW. Diversifying is great though. In summery, don't do it unless you know where placement will be. You can always pay apx 5-7k and purchase a front page note. You will get a great response with it.
I'd steer CLEAR of newspaper ads UNLESS you buy a half page and make it look like an article in the paper. Same font and everything. But if you don't have an excellent header, you're hosed. (aka you need to be a half decent copywriter) Example, I'd write an article about how grandma smith that owns the bakery down the road got ripped off $12,000 for a website -- how they can avoid it and get a website for a fraction of the cost. * disclaimer: or don't do it at all. I'd stick to methods mentioned above this post. Posted via Mobile Device
Newspaper advertising is shotgun marketing, meaning that you throw something out to a lot of people and hope it hits a few. Second, if you don't have them going to a specific squeeze page then you don't know if you are getting any ROI. I believe that your money is best spent in a Meetup, BNI, or some other business networking group. You can join a couple of active groups and have a ready made sales force that you don't have to pay any commissions to. Join groups that only allow one type of business in each group, that way you will be the only web designer. You can join a couple different groups and spend 2-3 hours a month forming new relationships and I can promise you it will be worth your time. Make sure that you visit a few of them and ensure that they are a good fit for you. Meaning that you like the people and the groups, they appear to be actively promoting each other. I specialize in SEO and belong to just one Meetup group in my city and it has paid for itself 100 times. Good Luck
