How to Self Promote and Market Your Work

You've created some wonderful work. You want it to be seen and noticed. You want people to buy your creation. You want publicity. After all, how can you make money if what you have created to sell is never seen by the general public? That's where promoting and marketing yourself comes in.

Regardless of what you have created, the principle is the same. In order to sell, to be seen and noticed, you must promote and market your creation. It can be a book you wrote, handcrafted designer dolls, fabulous paintings, or handcrafted jewelry.

If you are someone that simply creates things for the fun of it, for a hobby, and you don't do it to make a living, then there is of course no need to worry about promoting or marketing anything. But for the rest that create in order to sell and earn a living, marketing and publicity is a necessity. No one will purchase or order something that they don't even know exists.

The number one rule of promoting is shameless self promoting. If you don't promote yourself, no one will! Toot your own horn! Tell others about your creation, your site, your book, your articles, your crafts, etc. Whatever it is that you have created that you are wanting to sell or promote, tell about it! Don't sit back and expect someone else to market you if you will not market yourself. Self promotion will get you everywhere, but sitting back and not telling about what you are offering won't make sales.

Make a website. A website is paramount today for just about any business related venture. Have clear photos of your what you are wishing to sell or market, and give very accurate descriptions of items. If you are promoting a book, offer a sample chapter for free. Offering the book in a downloadable ebook format can also increase sales.

Have a newsletter. This offers you the chance to tell your readers what you have new, about sales and specials, or to alert subscribers about updates to your site. A newsletter is one of the best publicity and marketing tools you have, because it allows you to communicate directly with all of your readers.

If you are in an area that had art fairs and craft fairs, reserve a spot to sell your wares. If you have written a book and want to promote it, ask local bookstores about setting up a table in their store to sell books and sign them. Offer a free book to every 100^th person to want a book or something similar. Face to face sales have an advantage to internet sales in that it's more personal. Internet sales have an advantage in that you can reach so many more people online.

If it's feasible offer samples of your products. Giving away free samples can often bring in sales by allowing a potential customer to try before they buy. The best way to offer any free samples is by face to face contact rather than over the internet. While the web offers a lot more people, a lot of freebie web surfers are simply looking for a freebie with no intention of buying anything. Face to face contact gives a better chance at making the sale and offers you the opportunity to speak directly with the person, making it a much more personal experience and therefore allowing the potential customer to more than likely remember you.

The simple fact is that unless you hire a promotional or marketing expert, no on is going do market for you and promote for you. You can ask family and friends to help get the word out, and word of mouth is good. But it all starts with you. Marketing will make sales and sales make money. Promoting yourself will make yourself known and the profits will roll in. Sitting back and expecting to be found by some streak of luck just isn't reality. If you took the time and energy to create something, take the time and energy to market that something and promote it shamelessly. Shameless self promotion will have you laughing all the way to the bank, while the person that didn't think it was the right thing to do will be still sitting there waiting to see the green.