I've advertised a number of times over the years in magazines.....Blade, Knives Illustrated, Tactical Knives, etc. I've also tried ONCE in a magazine called Gun Collector....WHEW! Awful expensive!
The return.....NEVER WORTH THE MONEY! I have friends who work at most of the major knife and outdoor magazines..... they tell me that unless you're willing to spend the money on a full page ad, and run it for their minimum of 6 months.....it's usually a waste.
Where you will get the most sales is when an article is done on you. How do you make that happen. Well, first ya gotta get noticed. You do that by have THE BEST pictures of your work you can have, and send them into ALL the magazines.....at least quarterly. As for me, I did it for years on a monthly basis. I don't know whether I finally got them something impressive, or they just did it to curb me sending pictures all the time.....but for a number of years I managed to either have an article, or a pic be printed for an article.
My advice is try to think outside the box..... Maybe put your work in a "Made in Montana" store....but then you're looking at commissions that tend to be pretty steep....... or if advertising, try something like Montana Magazine, or something like Northwest Crafters.
These days all the sales are taking place via the net....through things like Instagram. The thing there is first you need to get on it, post A LOT, and get a LOT of followers...... I know makers who only sell on Instagram or at shows.
Me? Well having not worked for the last year means I gotta start all over again.....but for me it's always been a mix..... website, modern and up to date, Facebook, Instagram, Chatrooms sometimes, and even places like reddit. The trick is to make what you're offering desirable.....how you do that is always the question.
