Dear all,

how many of you look at the advertisements in quilt magazines? how about the classified sections, etc.?? I am trying to decide on advertising for the next 6 months. Advertising on the web seems to be more cost effective, buy maybe I am wrong. For those who run quilt related businesses, how else do you advertise? My degrees are not in business related fields, so I am at a loss sometimes when it comes to marketing and advertising.
With this slow economy I need to make every dollar count!
thanks for your advice and replies!
Rose Hall

I do 99% of my looking online....I can tweak what I want to look for better that printed material from a magazine.

I subscribe to only one quilt magazine, and I do pay attention to the advertising. If I'm intrigued enough, I'll go online to see what else I can find out. I do a fair amount of online shopping, but I have to admit that unless I'm looking for something specific, online ads kind of bug me. But then, so do TV commercials, political mailers, and those little cards you have to rip out of magazines...

I don't read the ads , but the company I work for I know a lot of the customers look in the magazines to find the adds to see what we have on sale. I think it just depends how the ads are listed. I think they work better if they are in the actual magazine, rather than just a listing in the back, does that make sense ? We also do as a lot of buying keywords in the search engines rather than internet advertising. Do you have an internet store ?

I look at some of the ads but very little of the classified's.

i look at the advertisements and the classifieds in all my quilting magazines. the ones that interest me i mark and then go online and check out their website and then bookmark it. i think it's too hard to do a search online because there are soooo many stores online that it's a real pain to search through them all!!! :D

I have to agree with montanaquilter. I read my magazines cover to cover, but I will go online to check out stuff that interests me. Its hard to decide where to invest advertising dollars..best of luck to you.

i look at the ads for the new fabric lines that are coming to market and any new quilting tools or notions.


if your business is an actual quilt store it might be a good idea to start taking out ads in magazines and local papers plus online.

if your business is to sell the items you make i would suggest your local art festivals.

i work with Artrider and actually have a huge show coming soon. i'm not sure if they only work with contemporary artists or not. i have met other artists that work with them that do traditional art of their homeland.

then we also have a local art festival that is invitational only - you submit a bio and pics. then if you pass that you meet with them and bring your art pieces. i was very honored to be a part of it last year.

i would suggest you tap into your local art community and find out whats going on and if you can make it work for you. go to local gift shops and galleries with your work and ask them if they would take it in on consignment.

i work with 2 shops and i just give them the stuff and then when it sells we both get paid and i give them more stuff to sell.

I like to look at ads in specialty magazines. I usually skip them in more general-interest publications, but when I read a mag like, say, Mothering, I always check out the ads and see if there's anything that looks interesting. If there is, I make sure to check out their Web site.

I like ads that have a web address in them because I often look further on-line. I probably wouldn't see some sites without the ad in a magazine.