How much do you spend on Advertising?

[SpoiledOne]

Hi guys!

How much do you spend on Advertising, weekly, monthly, yearly?
Generally what is your advertising experience?

Heres my experience about my little bit of advertising.

I'm sure with everyone doing so many different businesses it an vary. Advertising is actually a new big step for me. I've pretty much solely relied on ebay and website searches which very surprisingly I've done really good so far.

When I started the business there was no start up fees besides buying a domain name and hosting. Everything that I made was bought when it was ordered, so that saved tons of money. I've pretty much stayed in the green the whole time owning the business. But when it came to thinking of advertising I didn't know where to start. I was thinking, OK, I own a pet boutique ...where do I advertise? I found an online pet directory that after researching it was very popular and had good advertising prices for their online ad. I started out small and purchased 200 clicks. We'll I got he 200 clicks but no purchases. I actually got a few purchases that week but they were all from people who found me on google. How interesting... lol. I did however get some local advertising from the city newspaper. I got a lot of business for actually a couple of months after that, new people and returning customers. That made me feel really good, because it was actually around the beginning of my business.

Okay so now I'm moving up to advertising in a magazine... woohoo! haha.
I'm advertising in a magazine called "Modern Dog". Has anyone heard of it? It's one of the top pet magazines for products and fashion and what not. I'm doing an advertisement in their marketplace section. $900 for 2 magazines, (thats 6 months of advertising!) AND I got buddy buddy with rep. that was giving me this deal and got one of the items to be featured in there fashion spread. Does anyone have experience with advertising in a magazine? How well did it turn out for you?

thanks for reading my... hopefully interesting advertising story.. haha.

I look forward to reading yours!

I do love feedback as well, here is my boutique:

http://www.SpoiledOnePets.com

The website was done by me. I've made every single image on that thing, I'm trying to keep it very homey and user friendly as possible. I know its cutesy but so are out pets, right?

[versas]

I didnt read your whole post, but to answer your question...

On our website, we spend less then $20 a month on advertising.

However much of the time goes to SEO, so that we get better traffic organically for free. Where 95% of our traffic comes from. But again, it takes alot of time so that the price we pay... Time.


As for your website, I'll write more later, but GREAT USE OF COLOR!

Very pretty.

[commit]

Versas,

How is Nexcards doing?

[versas]

Kind of off topic but almost too good- we now need to outsource to fulfill orders, we need to expand but it's not our main business so we are trying to contain it.

Why what's up?

[commit]

I started a business card dealer and it went well. Send me the products of what you need to outsource in higher production with your price points. If you like send the info to jessewalter@gmail.com.

Im sure I can help with some good print houses.

cheers.

[versas]

I started a business card dealer and it went well. Send me the products of what you need to outsource in higher production with your price points. If you like send the info to jessewalter@gmail.com.

Im sure I can help with some good print houses.

cheers.

We have our own machines for cardstock, but if you know anyone with metal stock, plastic and above 9pt pp synthetic printers, then we can talk some business.

[SpoiledOne]

eerr.... okay thanks for the feedback? Oh wait... my thread was hijacked! ...lol

[wully00]

I currently run my business on the side, I have a lot of experience with Google both organically and SEO. I currently spend about $65,000 a year with the company I work during the day, it definitely is worth the return if you have a niche market and know your way around adwords (i.e. maximize CTR for cheaper clicks, use negative keywords, etc.). I also optimize the site organically.

The most interesting statistic from my experience is people were twice as likely to buy something from us if they came from organic search results. (7% vs 3.4% Adwords). So the SEO stuff definitely takes more time to see results (I've found like 4 months or more) but well worth it in the end.

FYI MY business on the side-- I do wide format printing (posters, banners, trade show displays) and I guarantee you I'm the cheapest if anyones interested.

[SpoiledOne]

Awesome, thanks wully00. I'll keep you in mind the next time i do a trade show.

[SpoiledOne]

Has anyone done advertising with a magazine and got good results from it? I guess if anything it will help get the name out there.

[wully00]

Sorry, I reread my last post and wasn't sure it was clear- I run the Adwords account and spend $65k on Google Adwords. The company I work for also advertises in magazines, like you were saying its a great way to get you're name out there. If you're going to advertise in magazines I would highly recommend you have some way of tracking where there coming from -- unique Coupon code or special offers work best, follows by "where did you hear about us." And go after the most niche magazines out there -- the ads are usually cheaper as well.

[SpoiledOne]

Yeah I have the "where did you hear about us" for every order. Thats how I was able to keep track of my other advertisings. We'll I searched and found that "Modern Dog" was in the top 10 pet magazines, so I think I'm doing great in that aspect. They had the best prices too...

Thanks for the responses.

[akula]

comparative industry figures...i.e. how much web2.0 startups spend on advertising show in the following presentation

http://lsvp.files.wordpress.com/2007...-the-money.ppt

[fromantv]

since i just started, i will try to do it myself, if it fails i will seek other options

so right now 0 dollars

[buynick]

I don't spend a dime on marketing/advertising. I sold on eBay for a while, then sold that business off, and now just send weekly emails to my subscribers and customer base.