We've been doing a lot of advertising through Craigslist and feel we have become to dependent on the site. Any suggestions on other ways to get free classifieds? Craigslist has been kind, but is slowing. Maybe it's the state of the economy but the logo business seems to be slowing. We have plenty of return customers which is a testament to the quality of work we do. We just need more first time customers. So help please!
It might help if you let us know what kind of business you are running. This is assuming you feel comfortable doing so. Often times different markets would do better with different types of marketing. If you are looking for immediate results, you might look into PPC. This of course requires quite a bit of research, but can work well for you if done properly.
You get what you pay for. And free means you can't complain of slow business. For the few cents you pay for PPC, you get dollars for the logos and products customers buy.
Most of my new business comes from craigslist. It's been kind to us but we don't like being so dependent on it. That and I fear we might eventually cash out the market there. But they just keep coming, so maybe not.
Many of the free classifieds out there just don't pull in enough traffic to make it worthwhile posting there. There are thousands of such low traffic sites. I agree with what has been said about PPC. It's extremely effective and if done right can bring in far more than is parlayed on it. It seems you would also benefit from understanding more about marketing and traffic generation in general.
PPC is good but could be very difficult and competitive depending on the keywords you are targeting. You could be competing against very popular keywords which will cost you extra to be on top. You can't beat free classified ads which offer everyone to be on top at some point or the other.
I would find local free classifieds ads. The local news station here has free online classifieds. craigslist is good but people like to work with local people some times.
Craiglist is a great site. I don't think you should stop using it. Make it part of your normal routine. There's nothing wrong with depending on it. If you want to try PPC, all I can say is GO SLOW. Make sure your landing page is converting well before you start spending money on clicks.
look into ppc and offline marketing. You should also market to online business owners through articles and explain how importan logos are when brandind a business. You will begin to see results pretty fast if you do it right.