Magazine Ad?

Redbaird said:
Believe it or not, the best magazine ad bang for your buck is not traditional magazines. Putting ads in local high school sporting event programs will give you 10 times the return. Plus you are helping out the local community. You can get a huge local following when people see you supporting their kids.
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That is brilliant!!!
 
EdCaffreyMS said:
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. :)
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Printing this out...Thanks Ed!!
 
chrisstaniar said:
I belong to several of the FB groups and the "Knives for sale" are pretty much all blocked. You can still post pics of knives in any of the groups or on your FB personal or business page, but as was said above the minute it says for sale or has a price in it they nuke it.

You also can't create a business page that has a FB "shop", that gets nuked before you even get started. But FB will constantly nag you about promoting your page and how you can give them money to get more likes. I haven't tried that.

I've tried Instagram and so far it hasn't done much for me.
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Yeah...I always share a link on every post I do to my web site. Most of my web traffic (73%) comes from FB hauser knife page. If I put a goofy knife meme/vid I can see an up-tic in traffic to my site...I also notice when I share knife "philosophy" there's a bit more traffic...but not as much...Ted isn't as deep as other people (meme creators) are funny...lol.
 
Redbaird said:
Believe it or not, the best magazine ad bang for your buck is not traditional magazines. Putting ads in local high school sporting event programs will give you 10 times the return. Plus you are helping out the local community. You can get a huge local following when people see you supporting their kids.
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Great idea!! Thanks!
 
Sean Jones said:
Ted, I know next to nothing about marketing so take these ideas for what they're worth. :cool:

Since you seem to be shooting for a niche spot selling it as a edc/cowboy knife, consider contacting outlets that cater to cowboys. Such as saddle makers, boot makers etc. There's websites all over for cowboy clothes, boots, tack...you name it, it's out there.

I don't know exactly what your approach would be, but an article like Ed mentioned in a cowboy related magazine or website could just be the ticket.

Also if you want to open your market further to other areas that aren't specifically for cowboys, just call it an EDC knife and drop the cowboy. Just a thought.
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We're working on a laydown sheath that'll let me push the cowboy aspect a bit harder. I can market to specific venues by changing names of product...no problem. Thanks Sean!
 
you could also try a good hunting/fishing website or forum, you'll likely have to pay a small fee to have an add/banner and post threads about your work for sale. I am a member of two other websites that I see a lot of this type of work. One is Hunting-washington. There are all manner of different types of activities there, and the other one is bushcraftusa.com
 
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