where can I advertise my travel agency?

Question

I would like to advertise my new home based travel agency but where should I begin?

Answer 1

Associations may be a good avenue to explore. These organizations will address many of the thoughts, questions and concerns you'll inevitably have as well as many you haven't anticipated yet. See the source box for some relevant links.

A few free resources – check out the sources box for links:

1) Create a blog pertaining to your field

2) Use Yahoo! Local & Yahoo! Groups – Be sure to read the TOS for each one!

3) Write articles pertaining to your field and/or expertise.

4) Advertise on Craiglist

Also, consider signing up for an affiliate program. These programs enable you to advertise on other's sites (your affiliates) and once a sale is made to you, your affiliates & the program are paid a commission.

I listed a few handy sites & articles relating to marketing, promotion & advertising. Here are some book titles that are relevant:

* 301 Do-It-Yourself Marketing Ideas: From America's Most Innovative Small Companies by Sam Decker
* Off The Wall Marketing Ideas: Jumpstart Your Sales without Busting Your Budget by Nancy Michaels, Debbi J. Karpowicz
* Guerrilla Marketing for Free: Dozens of No-Cost Tactics to Promote Your Business and Energize Your Profits by Jay Conrad Levinson
* Entrepreneur Magazine's Ultimate Small Business Marketing Guide: Over 1500 Great Marketing Tricks That Will Drive Your Business Through the Roof by James Stephenson

Hope that helps! I wish you much success & happiness in all your ventures!

Answer 2

Locally, you could try your local Chamber of Commerce.. Yellow pages, brochures, grocery stores, newspaper ads, etc.

Online, you can have website that has your business on it and explain why you are different from the rest. You get a lot more business from having a website, than spending all that money on offline advertising.

Once you are online, you can advertise at ANY of the traveling forums, give advice to people on best time to travel, or hot spots, etc. Write articles for online eZines about travel, with you website link in them. This makes people click and go see your site.

You can also go to online forums related to parenting, and perhaps make some posts about easy ways to travel with children, with babies, etc. People will like your answers, if they are knowledgable and helpful, and click on your website (which will be in your forum signature)..

This is just a few ideas to get you started. :-)

Good luck!

Answer 3

A travel agency is the ideal business to take on line so why don't you start your own web site? I also had a travel related business renting villas and apartments on the Costa del Sol and after I built my own web site I never looked back.
I used the SiteBuildIt! programme to do this.
They are a really geniuine company who have helped many people start successful on line businesses from home. You don't need to know anything about site building as they take you through it step by step and hold your hand all the way.

Have alook at their site here:-

http://buildit.sitesell.com/info1114.html

and if you want you can have a look at my site too and read my experiences of takin gmy business on line:-
http://www.costadelsol-vacationrentals.com/build-your-own-web-site.html