Craftings of The World

Free Promotion

The first ways to promote your craft show we'll look at are free. This is where you want to start. Lots of websites, including this one, let you list your craft shows and fairs for free. So first thing to do, is list your show here! Now that you've done that, lets find some other places to list your show. Open up Google and search for: Craft Show YourState. Now start clicking. Go through the first 30 results or so and submit your site to every one that lets you submit for free. This will get your show listed on the websites people will find when they do that search. Repeat the same process on MSN and Yahoo. Now when people search on one of the "Big Three" search engines for craft shows in your state, they'll find you. Hold onto the sites that charge for a listing, we'll come back to them later.

Now submit a listing at CraigsList. It's a free classified ad service. This next option may sound a bit strange, but start a My Space Page. Put information about your show on it, a link to your website or blog, and add a bunch of friends. Don't just add random people, make sure they have expressed an interest in crafts. Some of the best people to add will be crafters who are setting up booths at your show. And speaking of these folks, suggest that they list your show on their website. Just a little thing saying that they will have a booth at your show. If they don't have websites, point them at blogger. If they promote your show, it helps them by letting their customers know where to find them, and it helps you let more people know about your show.

Paid Promotion

Now that we've covered some free ways to promote your show, let's look at some that cost money. The first two we'll cover have free options, but what you get for free pales in comparison to their paid services. So if you have money budgeted for promotion it would be better to pay for the extra exposure. You've got a press release that you're sending out to local media, right? If you don't have on yet, write one up. Now in addition to sending your press release out locally, submit it to PRWeb. They've got a great press release service that can get your release out to all types of publishers around the country. You can submit for free, but the amount of free exposure you get is limited. If you don't have the money to pay for your release, by all means do a free submission.

Next, take that press release and write your own article about your show. Make it around 500 words. Don't use too much promotion type language in the article. Make it informative and interesting. Now lets submit that article to Isnare. They're an article distribution service, and will submit your article for publication all over the Internet. At the bottom of your article be sure to include a link to your show's website. Isnare also has a free submission option, but it can take a long time to get a free article approved and then they don't distribute it.

Remember those craft show directories that charge to list your show? Now's the time to take another look at them. Deciding whether it's worth paying to be in these directories is a hard decision. Look at were the site shows up when you do a search. If it's not in the top five, you may want to pass it by, maybe not. Have a look at their Alexa rating. Though not prefect, Alexa will give you an idea of how much traffic the site gets. Also, if they don't have any other shows listed for your state, or don't have many show's listed at all, that probably means they don't get much traffic.

Now for the final tip for promoting your craft show. I've saved this one for last, because it's potentially the most expensive option. But it's also the only guaranteed method for increasing your exposure. It's Google Adwords. This is what's called Pay Per Click advertising. That means you pay based on the number of people who click on your ad and visit your website. It's guaranteed because if no one clicks your ad, you don't pay. The good thing is, you can set the maximum amount that you are willing to spend in a day and the maximum amount you're willing to spend for each visitor. You definitely want to spend some time choosing the words you want your ads to show up for. Google as tools to help you choose. Your ads will show up on Google when people search for one of the words or phrases you choose for your ad to show up on. It will also show up on other websites that are relevant to the terms you choose. This gives you a lot of exposure for your site, but doesn't provide any "free" traffic" like the other methods do.

These are just a few of the ways to promote your craft show over the Internet. If you think about it, you could probably come up with a bunch more. Like local classified websites, other social networking sites, and even more. Even if you're promoting a small show for a school or civic club, you can use these methods, especially the free ones, to get a lot more exposure and customers. Promoting your show isn't much different from promoting a website. It takes time and dedication, but in the end it's worth it.

Source : www.myartsandcrafts.com

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