Thread: Places to advertise

I'm sure you guys are sick of hearing from me, but I'm really finding the advice from y'all crucial as a new business owner and I hope that others, whether you are a vendor or dancer, are benefiting and getting some ideas on what they could or should do with their business, be it online or offline.

Ok, now that I've got my store up and running...advertising is a big concern, especially with my limited budget.

What I've done already is:

• Placed an ad on the cover page of Gilded Serpent
• Posted a message on my blog on Tribe about the store opening
• Sent a nice Constant Contact email to all of my dance related email contacts
• Created a MySpace profile, added bunch of people, plan to add 50+ daily
• Exchanged website links with friends
• Posted a MySpace scrolling photo album of current for sale items on my personal website.

What are some other ideas to get the word out?
What are other online places potential customers might congregate?
What offline places have you had advertising success? (magazines, events)
What other bulletin boards, forums, websites, etc I could put ads on or otherwise tell people about my store?
Any Ideas?

Thanks again posters!!!

Expand your web site reciprocal linking with other dancers. Every once in a while someone posts a message here on bhuz saying they're looking for link exchange partners - you could look back through old "business of bellydance" threads to find some of the ones from the past and contact those dancers, and you could also start a new thread along the lines of "looking for link exchanges" to find more.

I think vending at belly dance events could be valuable.

The problem with ads on all the BD sites and BD mags is that you will get the small number that are already involved in BD.
If you want to attract new people who would not nomally be reading the BD stuff, you will need to go into the general public ad area like community newspapers, local fitness areas, even hair salons and banks that have employee areas where you can put up a flyer work well. You might also look around your area to see if there are any metaphysical stores or alternative book stores, yoga apparel stores to see if you can leave fliers or cards.

Patrisha brings up a great point (exactly what I was thinking!). I'm not sure exactly what all you are selling in your store, but depending upon the items you'll want to consider your target audience. If you want to expand beyond established dancers and students who use the internet, definitely look into local types of advertising. In addition to the great suggestions Patrisha already offered, try looking for places where you can get a little face time, like farmer's markets, art fairs, and other community festival type events. On the stores - some of those places might even be willing to help you out to sell product by taking items on consignment.

Back on the BD end - You may also look for local haflas and consult with other local teachers to see if they'll help spread the word about your store. You could set up dancewear parties where you bring stuff to another teacher's class to show to her students (with proper permission of course). I'd also look on Tribe for different tribes that are based on costuming. And don't forget Myspace groups, too!