Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm at the stage in my business where I'm starting to consider various advertising options. Right now I haven't gone beyond google adwords and ebay "signpost" auctions. I know gbase is a very popular resource for factory and vintage instruments, but my sense is that there are not many people going there for custom instruments. At any rate, I've found that my search for various luthiers usually brings few or no results...so if people WERE going there looking for handmades, I imagine they'd have long since given up.

But I could be wrong (it's actually more common than I care to admit), so does anybody have a positive experience out there to pass on?

Andrew Wright
Indianapolis, IN

I have thought the same thing. I think that moving as a flock helps everyone. It is better to be in a crowd of your peers than all alone in an advertising venue.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

but...................

You looked.
There may be others.
If it's not a financial strain, you could become the "go to" guy at least through gbase, so long as you have the product to back it up!
Todays consumers will look everywhere they can, and are much more informed. the main thing is to get good exposure in quality places.
Best of luck!

Paul

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Paul Bordeaux
http://www.bordeauxinlay.com

... but if you have to choose, I would go in places where people are looking for this kind of info.

Not to contradict you Paul. I understand your point, but I am generally assuming that you are making "choices" with your advertising budget. And in that situation I would choose to go where other luthiers are.

This is the old pop machine analogy. If a Pepsi machine is added right next to a Coke machine, the sales of both are higher than if either stood alone.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

I suppose an idea I hadn't thought of would be to do a "group buy". In other words, if I decide to pay the $350 a year or whatever it is and am not going to use all 30 guitar slots at any one time (which I won't), I could offer them to anybody who wanted to put one or two guitars up. Not sure if I could do it in a way that would direct people to somebody else's site instead of mine, but it's a thought.

Andrew