How do you Advertise?

[Sunshine]

In the past I have gotten new clients by word of mouth. Since moving to a new area, that is not working as well, since I have not been able to build enough of a strong client base here yet.

I have tried advertising on Care.com but have gotten few leads since people want you provide care in their homes and I need to provide care in my own home, as to take in more clients and make more money.

I have also tried craigslist but find the people advertising there are offering insanely low rates which a truly professional provider cannot compete with. It seems to me these are illegal providers taking in more children than they should (At least in my area how else could they afford such low rates?).

In this day and age few people read the classifieds any more, though I did briefly consider advertising there as well, until I saw my local town paper wanted hundreds of dollars for the most basic advertisement.

So how do you advertise when you have an opening to fill?

[bklsmum]

I advertise on CL and have no issues staying full and while my rates are good I am by no means anywhere close to the cheapo rates I have seen advertised.

[spedmommy4]

I use craigslist, the local resource and referral center, and ebay classifieds. (All free advertising)

I also use care.com for business. Care.com is interesting in that it is multiple sites. I use the business site and I have had one interview but no enrollments from care.com. I am debating renewal.

And lastly, I created a website for my childcare using godaddy.com. The website and domain were less than $20 a year. I then registered the website on bing, yahoo, and google. I also list the website on all my ads, my business, card, and my Facebook page.

[daycare]

you have to find what works for you and your area.

I have a lot of free listings on yelp, google, yahoo locals, and etc.

I don't like to advertise on craigs list, the people it has attracted have not been people I would like to conduct business with, but I think it's just my area, because I know other people that do have success with it.

I do have a website, cost about 45$ a year and I have my own domain name that I pay an annual fee for, can't recall how much, but it's not a lot.

You can also advertise on here too.

[Unregistered]

Flyers, magnetic sign on my vehicle from vista print, classified ads (small town), business cards, word of mouth...again small town, there is no Crsiglist for my area.

Also I have a Facebook page I keep updated with what we are doing. I do not photograph kids except their hands holding art project, their hands in water table, etc.