Online advertising not all it's cracked up to be...

Man, I've managed to rack up quite a bit of charges with Google and Citysearch by advertising... however, I haven't managed to get the calls or sales that I should be getting to cover the costs. Basically, I'm breaking even. Been advertising for about 1 month now and after film costs, advertising costs and travel costs, I'm breaking even here... I would expect with as much as I'm spending that I would at least get a couple of bucks profit! haha

I'm considering doing a Yellow Pages ad in the next few months. It's going to be a "credit card" sized ad in full color. I'm hoping this will bring some Beeznus my way.

Good luck too you. No matter how much you spend on advertising word of mouth always seems to get you more biz. If at all possible you might want to try putting together a website, if you havn't already.

yeah...i did that citysearch ...and it is a total rip off...i would highly recommend you dont do the pay by click or phone call...they focking raised the price on me and didnt even notify me ..once i found that out...i cancelled the thing...DONT DO IT!!

Ya can't advertise with google if you don't have a website. Look in my signature...

I'm doing it by click right now. I've only gotten 88 clicks from them in the past month and thousands from Google...

Profit??? whats that?? i thought i was running a charitable organization!?!?!?! I was just about to register....at least then i would get the tax breaks!

If your selling generic widgets or product, Internet is great way to advertise..send your product all around the world, but if you own a tinting business, why put your money in something where 3 billion people have potential in reading it when only the people within driving distance matter to your business

Because we are coming into an age where people no longer use phone books. I'm in about 12 different yellow page directories in my area, and I feel like I have to be.... I'm having my website redone professionally to get me hits from the keywords I'm looking for in my State. If anyone performs an intelligent search using keywords, the search will potentially yield promising results. My closing percentage is very high from people who find me via the internet. They know about my company before they ever even see me or talk to me

I'm considering adwords but I've never used it before I hear it works quite well for some business categories. It all depends on the keywords for your search and the market you are in.

I hear ya

I should have added, I do believe that yellowpages works via internet and having a website...just not paying for global attraction to your site if your a small tinting Co.


If your business is selling a packagable product..then yes, anyone from anywhere could buy it, but if you tint cars/houses, there's no use in paying to advertise to someone in a different country for your services is what I meant..I do believe in the internet for EVERY business..just easy to get too carried away in where your money goes in respects to a tinting business

Not yet at this point, but it will someday, and I will be ready

I personally, do not use a phone book to look up numbers anymore, or at least very rarely. It seems like I'm just checking my ads when I DO use one . I use google almost exclusively for phone numbers, addresses, website searches, in combination with whitepages.com, and my mobile phone when I am on the road.

Between my manufacturer's website referring my page and contact info, and the traffic I get on my site, I obviously don't fill my schedule, but I am getting more and more business from it

That's not the way it works...

You can choose which cities and states you want to advertise to. This is based off of IP address. If your IP address is in a pool which is in the Metro Atlanta area, my ad will show up.

However, if you're not, you won't see it. For instance, where I currently work full time, out network is actually based in Newark. When I go to google and type in "Window Tinting", my ad does not show up. When I come home and use Comcast based out of Atlanta, it does.

I agree here. It's getting much larger than most people think. I have thrown away every phone book I have. I don't use them and they just sit there. I google for everything... Or use YellowPages.com.

At my main job the other day, I went around asking for a Yellow Pages book so I could view the ads of the local competition. Every person I went to said "Use Google". One person said "Use YellowPages.com". Nobody said they had a book.

I realize most people are still using yellowpages.com, which is why I'm going to start using it too... but it's slowly becoming obsolete.

I'm a little more enlightened on google ads ..I looked into it a bit this morning and listed my business (heck ..it's free ), thanks for the eye opener

I'm sorry. Did I forget to mention That I'm an idiot? My bad

I did the free ad on google and got a few jobs from that. I also ad on craigslist.org. Got a few from their too. and it's also free!

get a web site. advertize the site on your, and some freinds vehicles. it works ALOT for us. we always getting calls from ppl saying that they just checked out the site and wanna get r done.

most of my new customers are from online .
almost everyone is online so i think it makes sense to be on there.

Here is one case where online advertising was a benefit to me as a consumer.
My Brother in Phoenix had his car vandalized, the insurance totaled it, but he wanted to get it fixed.
It was a 96 T-Bird, and parts are hard to find.
I finally found all the parts, had them sent to to the Body Shop in Phoenix, (they had told him the parts needed could not be located and send the car to the crusher) and it was back on the road after a coupla months.
This was only possible because all these palces had internet advertising.
Of course, this may not be the case for window tinting.

Every $99 tinter advertises on craigslist. I tried but i use llumar and all those mobile guys quoting very low. A couple even advertised they use llumar for $99. Not sure how they do it ?

Uh... you sure that's your web site in your sig? It takes me to a page that sells fireplaces, mattresses and other stuff.. no tinting to be found anywhere. Might explain why you aren't getting sales?

Looks like he made all the right decisions.....

Dean got out of the window tinting business.

It appears his domain is now parked by one of those advertiser/domain resellers.

LOL I should read the posting dates before jumping in.. Who excavated this relic anyway?

Honestly, my biggest seller is word of mouth and being a good neighbor. I offer special discounts to people around the shop, business around the shop, friends that need work done, etc. In return, these people will refer everyone they know, and everyone they bumb in to and the subject comes up. Be a part of the community, make sure your shop neighbors, house neighbors, people you go to church with, the parents on your kids little league team, etc know what you do. I've had people following me around for 6-7 years getting work done and solely on the reason that I've befriended them and I'm the first person they think of. Get to know other people in the auto industry. I get customers calling me asking if I know anyone who does upholstery, painting, brakes, wheels, etc. Make sure the people you send them to are as top notch as you. Make friends with some good car salesmen, butter them up a bit, even if you don't get the dealer, they love to have an inside guy that makes them look like a champ when they can get their customer a tint for 1/2 what the dealer will charge. Everything I mentioned above is 100% free advertising and can account for a lot of your start up business.


Here's my take on the experience I provide to the customer and sort of my personal statement.

"I want the next car a customer brings me to be their next car, not the same car" In other words, make sure that they are so elated that they want you to work on everything they own, rather they need it or not.

Lastly, if you have someone in your lobby waiting for something to get done, buy him a diet coke, don't ask him, just buy him, you can always drink it later. You never know where your next big job might be.

very well put, I advertise in yellow book have a small ad in color. I put a chunk of money on a full page ad on the internet lookup, it has payed off every month for me.

I use the old fashion word of mouth. Also get active in the chamber of commerce. It gets you around other bussiness people to get flat glass work. Keep doing what you do that is apart of the tinting biz. You have to advertise and you can't tell after 1 month. DO NOT go crazy with yellow page all it will do is make the phone ring for people who want the cheapest deal.

report them to lumar and watch them change there tune or run a add that you fix $99 tint job's