Read more on The Edge Singapore

Read more on WCCO Minneapolis – St. Paul

I am in the process of trying to start a photography business. I would be working mainly with weddings and events, but will also be doing head shots and portfolio photos for models.

To start off I will not be working out of a studio, most of my work would be elsewhere anyways considering that I would mainly do weddings and events. But now here is my question…

I know about a couple websites that I can advertise on, such as craigslist, etc… But I was hoping to get some ideas that other people may have as to where else I could advertise… but more importantly, where I can advertise for free and be able to reach people who may be interested in my services.

I am hoping to get some creative answers out of this. I had one idea to contact many local business related to weddings such as a florist, tuxedo place, limo company, etc… and offer to put a link to their website on mine in exchange for a link to my website on theirs, as well as to find out if I can put my business cards or flyers in their store and in return I will put theirs in a sales kit that I am in the process of building and will send out to prospective and contracted customers.

But besides this, I was wondering if anyone had any other ideas of places I may be able to advertise for free or at least VERY cheaply. I know sometimes you may be able to put up a flyer in grocery stores, laundromats, hair salons, etc… but I need some creative ideas such as the one I came up with to contact local related business to cross sell each others services.

Thanks again for your help, maybe this will get your brain working, or maybe you already have a thought which I hope you will share with me. Have a great day and happy holidays to you!
To Joe M’s comment below…

Actually I have booked quite a bit of work from my ads on craigslist. Each time I post my ad I get several replies to it, and I have booked 9 weddings for next year already in the past month from advertising for free on craigslist… and I also booked two more last minute ones for this year as well which I have since completed… so I hope this answers your question about that because even though you may not think so, posting on craigslist is well worth your time for two reasons… one is that people do go to it to find things, and also it puts your ad in the search engines!

Also, I already brought up all of the ideas you suggested, I am looking for something other than the ideas I know of which you just repeated.

Other than to contact wedding planners, which is not a bad idea, but I am sure that many others have contacted planners as well, so I would need to expand on this idea to get their attention.

Okay, I need fresh original ideas here….
Oh ya… and again Joe… I dont need vistaprint… I have an assistant who is a graphic designer, and like I already mentioned above. Really, its as if nothing I said was paid any attention to… oh boy…..