Yard sale help - Tips, Tricks, and Getting Started Information

Planning | Advertising | Sale Items | Day Of Sale | Afterwards

Advertising Your Sale

I'm a firm believer that you can never do too much advertising. Advertising is what keeps businesses in business and you have to do it, especially when business is good, not just when it's bad. Unless of course you are wasting your money. You'll never know if you are wasting your money unless you can track your responses. The only way to do that would be to ask the shoppers how they found your sale and by then it's too late, BUT, you'll know better for next time.

There are some froms of advertising that are simply not cost effective. Unfortunately, until a new medium comes along that can make those forms more resonably priced, you just have to grit your teeth and live with them, no matter how bad it tastes. There are several advertising methods that you simply must do to have a successful sale. 1st, Printed Media

These are absolutely necessary and probably the most expensive. Shoppers plan their weekend around these ads and believe it or not, there are some folks out there that still don't own a computer, let alone know how to use one. That number is declining daily so all is not lost. The fact remains that people will scour the garage sale ads in their local newspaper or sale paper just days before the weekend for a list of sales and plan their routes accordingly. So if you're not listed, you are going to miss a lot of the opportunity to sell your merchandise.

I dislike these publications because I feel they are too expensive and their shelf life is so limited for the amount of money you pay for it. Be expecting to shell out up to $10 for a one or two day run for your ad. Many times, it is not even published on the Internet, so if your sale paper is soggy in your driveway before you get home on Wednesday, your weekend is down the drain (no pun intended) unless you have a friend who has a paper that you can borrow that maybe managed to keep it dry.

Absolutely necessary information in these ads are the dates and times of the sale, the address of the sale, the type of sale, restrictions for Early Birds, Cash terms, rain dates. I'm on the fence about listing valuables for sale, I think that is a risk to your home safety. Especially since the paper can remain circulating long after the sale and the risk will not just disappear. Unless you have difficult directions or big items available for sale outside your sale time, leave phone numbers out of the ad too. It's just another security issue.

2nd, Online yard sale websites

You absolutely need the online websites. Not just one, but every one your computer can find. There are several great sites out there. Some are free, others charge fees, and still others have ad options so that you can buy more if free isn't enough. Definitely though, every site you can find, you should advertise on, especially if you can get free advertising. What's the worst that can happen? Nothing! Again, you won't know until it's too late.

Make sure you put all the relevent information into your ad. The biggest advertising mistakes I see are ads that are not organized (by the advertiser) and to compound that confusion, the details in the headline are missing as well. Let's take a Craigslist for example, you can have a free ad (and you should get one) but those ads are generated as they are listed. A headline reads: "Everything must go!" Readers want to know the details. When, Where, What. So they have to click every link of the 100 ads on a page to get details. Then, the person makes another mistake and places the ad today, let's even say it's a Saturday and they state Saturday in their headline. If they don't add the date, which Saturday are they talking about? Trust me, I won't click every link on a Craigslist page for details. I want it simple, fast, and informative and I'm willing to bet there are many out there that after the first 10 ads are right behind me, gone! My time is too valuable to waste by scouring poorly written ads and there are tons of them out there.

Again, make sure your details are all in your ad. Make sure your ad doesn't get lost with time, take advantage of online shelf life and post your ads as far in advance as possible. If you are dealing with sites like Craigslist, then you will have to post your ad more than once. In major metropolitan areas, maybe even daily, which may be against their terms of use. If there are 100 ads on today's page, chances are readers are not going to go back 2 or 3, or even more for that matter to find your ad.

On Yardsalesz.com, we've found the biggest traffic day for searching and reading ads is Friday. Monday is the lowest and obviously the best day to place your ad, if it's for the upcoming weekend. Of course, you can place your ad months in advance and it will still be organized so that readers can find it with no trouble. Those are the types of sites you want to advertise on.

3rd, Signage

Yard signs are a great form of advertising and should be utilized but not just by themselves. You should check into your local ordinances for signage before you place them. As a general guide, you should only place them at the intersections leading to your home from the closest main street.

Your signs should all be the same as far as background color. Letters should be wide, heavy black, waterproof marker and easily readable from a distance of at least 50 feet. You want to neatly write your sale type, address, and directional arrow at a minimum. If you place your signs out early the morning of your sale, you can alleviate the need for dates and times, thus giving more room for address information and larger letters.

Remember to take any placed signs down immediately after your sale.

4th, Local blog forums

If you have a local blog or forum website, sign up and publish your sale in the announcements section if there is one. These are great ways to get in touch with the locals that maybe don't get the newspaper or local print sale ads. Again, post these a week or two in advance and bump them to the top of the page with reminders.

Planning | Advertising | Sale Items | Day Of Sale | Afterwards

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