OK. First things first. I am a graphic designer I am not promoting my services through this post. Moderators, if you find anything self promotional about this post, Kindly let me know.

THIS THREAD IS ABOUT ONLINE ADVERTISING

So back to where I started. I am a graphic designer (once more ) So, lately I have been trying my hands on advertising my services. Previously all the work I got were through references and ODesk. Now I would like to further expand my business (again ) and start investing on advertisement but the problem is I am confused about which sites to advertise on. Being a graphic designer I thought my best bet would be to advertise on sites hosting logo design competitions like elogocontest etc because it is one place people looking for logo designers would come to. However much to my dismay I found out that very few people clicked on my ads. I tried several things like changing my ads from simple through moderate to outrageous but found little difference. Could someone here especially designers tell me which site to advertise my services on to get best returns.

Besides that I would also like to know what would be a good budget to set aside for advertisement purposes (remember that I am a start up) What startegies do you generally employ to advertise your services like type of ads (animated/plain), size of ad, ad placement, length of advertisement campaigns, type of ad service you use like adbrite/buysellads etc.

I created a similar thread at SP but to no avail.

I have been having the same problem with my development company. The best advertising is just word of mouth!

My advice: 1. Attend local meetups that you may encounter potential clients; 2. Create and post Craigslist ads every week and include a creative sample and link to an online portfolio - Make sure you refresh your ad every week when it expires; 3. Do call calling to local advertising agencies - project managers and client services - yes, it is tedious but it works.

Link building, posting add on free sites, bloging etc are standard SEO practices. I would suggest you to participate in online competitions for graphic designing, this will bring the fame and repute to you. You may start free consultancy service also to attract the customers.

You can try google adword , bidvertiser ,etc .

Thanks buddy for all the information.
SNIP

First of all make a website and then promote it.