I am not a marketing man (Part 3)

The whole idea sprung out after I thought what should I do to further enhance the awareness of the eleven year-old site (spreading thoughts and views in blogging shall never be a passive business, eh..) ?

Some of the already implemented ways like:-

• The conventional way of link exchanging with other similar blogs/ websites.
• Included the site banner in my profile signature on various forums.

...been doing quite okay and did more or less increased the traffic.

So came the "gift" idea.

For a start, I pondering a few options like:-

• The wristband
• The mobilephone tag (incorporated a screen wiper)
• Keychains
• Epoxy stickers (those u saw on some desktops)

While the cost of making those above-mentioned aren't cheap, but also how much publicity can those stuff generate?

Of course, I can't charge them at a "premium rate" to recover my costs. Also, sourcing for companies that going to make these stuff was a challenge as well.

Still, I decided to try out two options here.

Wristband
Did check with two "lobangs" that make the wristband.

"It would cost quite a bit to make something like the NIKE (LIVESTRONG) band (pictured above), as you need to make a mould for that... minimum quatity is 10,000!!" said the first supplier.

The second supplier offered a cheaper alternative (pictured above) but the wordings (using "silk-screening" process to print the text on the band) would tend to fade off after a certain period (then what's the point of doing it?).

Anyway, idea quashed after the craze over the band had faded enormously since Lance Armstrong started the trend.

Epoxy sticker

(P.S: Vik, just "tumpang" your sticker here..man :P)

The sms exchange went like this:-

• Me,"u make epoxy stiker? How much u charging n minimum quatity?"
• Supplier,"who r u and which company?"
• Me,"I'm not representing any company, jus an individual (non-obligatory) enquiry"

Having "said" that, there's no follow-up from the supplier, I guess he wasn't really that keen on small timer (pretty stuck-up, eh?).

Nonetheless, I managed to come up with a cheaper alternative to kick-start the publicity blitz.

To be continued ...