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Joe Pelonio
10-15-2007, 4:25 PM
I have done no advertising except the yellow page column listing since about 2000, and now am not there either. All my new business comes from referral or the internet. Still, the winter is always quieter as my regulars slow down with holiday vacations plus since moving to the house, I would like local people to know I'm here.

I've been getting a few local jobs from hobbyists looking for some of the laser work I can do from the website, one who lives on my street and found me on Google, she walked to pick up the order!

The only local daily "eastside" newspaper went out of business a year or so ago, leaving just the 2 Seattle papers.

Apparently they have now come back in the form of several weekly tabloids, delivered to homes free on Fridays. There are 10 versions by city or cities, in our case it's a Sammamish/Issaquah paper and the first edition was last Friday.

I figured if I get in early my ad will stand out more since there will not be many other ads yet. Sure enough they are offering a special deal so I am in for 13 weeks, 1"x4" ads for $260 total, and I gave them 3 versions on a PDF that they will rotate. I thought it interesting that there is no tax on advertising!

I'll let you know if it does any good, the first ad runs Friday, and will go to all homes and businesses in the two cities.

Craig Hogarth
10-15-2007, 5:49 PM
Is that a 4" ad in 13 editions for only $260? If so, that's absolutely amazing.


We've been doing print for the past 6 weeks with moderate success. I have a full color 2.75x3.75 ad that runs bi monthly in the "business profile" page. That's $130 per edition plus I get to use half page twice yearly for article and ad space. Circulation is 16k with 9k subscribers. I also get an occasional full color ad in various inserts when they are available and pertain to my business.

Including the Valpak and newsprint, we spent $1600 last month bringing in ~$700 gross profit from the ads, so we're pretty much happy so far.

I just signed up today with another paper getting a weekly full color 2x3.5 ad plus a story every 12 weeks. Circulation is only 5k with 3k subscribers, but it's circulated in a very wealthy area of my county.

Joe Pelonio
10-15-2007, 6:08 PM
This will be circulation of about 30k homes and businesses. Sammamish median income is $120k and Issaquah is $70k. Since it's free everyone gets it and with no competition it should be well read. This area is heavily Microsoft and Boeing employees, high tech people with money, but I guess that could be good or bad. They may prefer to spend their money on gadgets rather than
unique artistic gift items. :rolleyes:

Hopefully your profit from the ads eventually are more than the cost.
In my case I should be able to do that on one order, but not having done this before it's a small gamble.

Craig Hogarth
10-15-2007, 6:45 PM
This area is heavily Microsoft and Boeing employees, high tech people with money, but I guess that could be good or bad.

I'm on Whidbey Island, so the whole south end is loaded with the Boeing guys, since the commute is only a 30 minute ferry ride. I haven't gotten any of the guys in here, but the wives go crazy when the find us. I just have to figure out how to get more of them up here, since most southern residents prefer to take the ferry and go to Lynwood for all their shopping.

Scott Shepherd
10-15-2007, 7:34 PM
most southern residents prefer to take the ferry and go to Lynwood for all their shopping.

Take the drain plug for the ferry. That'll teach 'em :)

Joe Pelonio
10-15-2007, 10:05 PM
I'm on Whidbey Island, so the whole south end is loaded with the Boeing guys, since the commute is only a 30 minute ferry ride. I haven't gotten any of the guys in here, but the wives go crazy when the find us. I just have to figure out how to get more of them up here, since most southern residents prefer to take the ferry and go to Lynwood for all their shopping.
If this works you might consider something similar.

Stephen Beckham
10-15-2007, 10:21 PM
Guys - not sure if you area offers it, but after running a $250 ad I told the paper that as a startup I just could not pay that much to keep the ad.

After a couple weeks my saleslady called and asked if I would be interested in some Reminant Spaces. They created three different sizes (of two different ads) from business card size up to a 3X4 and will run them at their need to fill in columns. They asked for a $$ limit per month (I set it at $100) which can get me 8 of the smaller sizes or two of the largest size or a combination of something in between.

The prices were about 1/4 of their normal ad prices since it wasn't guaranteed to run at my will, but at their need.

Again - not sure if offered in your area, but I figure I'll give it a shot through Christmas to see if a bunch of little ads might catch someone's eye.

Clyde Baumwell
10-16-2007, 8:27 AM
glad to hear you guys are going back to print advertising-good idea. I'm wondering what products or services you are focusing on with your ads? Have you found certain products or services to have better returns or generate more interest?

Joe Pelonio
10-16-2007, 10:05 AM
glad to hear you guys are going back to print advertising-good idea. I'm wondering what products or services you are focusing on with your ads? Have you found certain products or services to have better returns or generate more interest?
I guess I'll find out, that's why I have 3 versions that will run.

Craig Hogarth
10-16-2007, 1:11 PM
I've been advertising engraved pictures and picture frames. I figure that's the most interesting and will peak their interest.

We sell a lot of wooden roses and we'll be running an ad for those next week. We're thinking that's actually going to be more effective than our engraved stuff.

For our Chamber magazine, we advertise the typical B2B stuff.