talkmagic.co.uk

I've used Vista print a few times and found them to be quite good. They do spam alot but that doesn't really bother me, I can live with an email or two each week.

Business cards and website are the ways that I've gone and they both seem to work well.

I did a charity gig recently and was told to bring along information to give out. I chose a one page flyer. I have got five gigs so far from that day.
Most of my business comes from a website. Very little came from the Golden Pages, which is why I am not in it any more. In my old market (I've moved city) there was one good newspaper where a classified add weekly got a lot of work. Check your local area for the equivalent.

im not revealling my advertsing techniques, thats almost like revealling to a spectator how I do an effect, infact its worse...

I will give you this though as a point in the right direction...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Freesourcing-Ho ... 1906465800

thats up to you how you choose to use it...but once you have an advertsing method that really works, dont go telling people...its your formula!

Word of mouth is the ONLY method of advertising that works all the time.

In any form of paid ad -- brochure, biz cards, Yellow Pages, etc. -- you get to say what you want.

ONLY through word of mouth, does the spectator have a chance to pass along the unvarnished truth.

I've used Vistaprint a few times for cards, business stationery, and even T-shirts. The quality has always been good, and delivery is really fast. Remember they'll print exactly what you set up, so it's worth taking extra time to put it together right and check it thoroughly.

You can avoid the spam by being really assiduous about reading the small print and ticking (or not ticking) all the "inform me" boxes. And if some gets through anyway, you can unsubscribe.

They are absolute masters at offering you just one more thing, just one more thing... The best defence is to go in knowing what you want and how many, and not getting tempted to increase the order or throw in a couple of fridge magnets or whatever.

Chris wrote::lol: im not revealling my advertsing techniques, thats almost like revealling to a spectator how I do an effect, infact its worse...

I will give you this though as a point in the right direction...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Freesourcing-Ho ... 1906465800

thats up to you how you choose to use it...but once you have an advertsing method that really works, dont go telling people...its your formula!

Agree with Chris!

One thing with Vista Print is that they do tend to print slightly dark. So any images that you upload shuold be slightly lighter than you really want.

Drew McAdam has a very good e-book out with A LOT of very valuable information on building yourself up as a performer, including buckets of advice on very effective, cheap advertising and will share with you some of the things that he has found to work from years of trial and error. Highly recommended if your after something like this.

Robbie wrote:You can avoid the spam by being really assiduous about reading the small print and ticking (or not ticking) all the "inform me" boxes. And if some gets through anyway, you can unsubscribe.

And do as Robbie says, be assiduous. I wasn't. The incoming advertising e mails and special offers were coming in almost faster than I could delete them until I got to the unsubscribe button.

I can't actaully imagine who would welcome such an avalanche of promotions! Having said that now that I know where I went wrong I would use them again as I am pleased with my business cards and with the price

Agree with Chris!

blimey

I think printed material is still a good way to promote your business. Altough I don't like Vista Print their business cards are not good quality, and agreed they bombard you with spam. I found these guys offer a good free business card.

With more and more people spending time online this is a great place to advertise your products and services. Most companies have a website these days.

I run my own print/design business and found Google Adwords to be good way to get business in.

Not sure if it works for this sort of work but it has to be worth a try since you can get free Google Ads vouchers that require a small start up payment to activate them. I paid £15 and got £65 worth of advertising.

If you are going to try Google Adwords, make sure the keywords you enter are specific to you. Only put in what a potential customer might type into Google. When I first started I had just put as many related words as possible and wasted a lot of money.

If I were good enough at magic to do paid shows, I'd definitely give it a go.

awebuser wrote:I think printed material is still a good way to promote your business. Altough I don't like Vista Print their business cards are not good quality, and agreed they bombard you with spam. I found these guys offer a good free business card.

With more and more people spending time online this is a great place to advertise your products and services. Most companies have a website these days.

A new user posting a link to a website with keywords in the link text? Hmm...

Subliminal

*JOKE!*

Business cards,wedding fayres,and also visiting restaurants,hotels etc.As long as you speak to the right person,ie manager/owner or events manager,you can show them exactly why they should book you.
Good luck