Advertising is key to having a successful garage sale. You can have the nicest stuff in the world to sell, and it might be all nice and clean and even fairly priced. If you don’t advertise the sale correctly, you could wind up with few customers and more stuff that you counted on to put away at the end of the sale. Here are some of my favorite tricks, techniques and tips for advertising for your garage sale.

* Use lots of signs. The more the better. Place them on the side of the road that the cars are traveling. Place two outside your neighborhood, once faced one way and the other faced the opposite way to pull traffic from both sides.

* Be sure that all of your signs look the same or at least have common similarities. Many people just “follow” the signs, and don’t have time to jot down address’, etc. Make it easier for them by helping them to see your signs.

* Attach balloons to each sign. I recommend helium filled because they won’t get in the way of the words written on the sign and they are easier to spot. You might use seasonal colors. But make sure all the balloons are the same color, again to make the uniformity of the signs.

* Try craigslist. If craigslist has a section in your area, definitely place an ad. They are free and you can say whatever you want. This is the first garage sale I have ever used craigslist, but I have received a huge response. It has done me well.

* Use the library bulletin boards, grocery store, college campus (especially if you have items that a college student might be interested in), newsletters for church or school, etc. to place ads. Most places will be fine with you posting an ad, as long as you remove it at the end of the sale.

* Take out an ad in your local newspaper. In our area, an ad costs $15.00 and runs in three area papers. The cost of the $15 is quickly made back, because anytime I have placed an ad, I have had dozens of people at my door the moment I am ready to open my sale. If you don’t want early birds, be sure to specify that in the ad. You might still get a few…. die-hard garage salers are relentless. LOL

* When creating signs for the garage sale, write big and bold and legibly. It is important that it be read from a distance.

* When you have placed all your signs, drive by EACH sign and double check that it can be seen from the car, and if need be, move it as quickly as possible.

* A new idea I was just told about for this sale in particular, was to send out invitations. On the invitations, request that your friends spread the news about your garage sale. Even invite them to throw some stuff into the sale if they would like. Remember that word of mouth is a great advertising technique for anything. I modified the invitation idea, and sent out an email to my local friends and family with a brief list of what I was offering, and the dates, times and locations. I encouraged them to forward the email to their local friends and family members, which I hoped would continue to circulate until the date of the sale. I also included a link to my address on mapquest which I figure took the guess work out of it for anyone they forwarded it to. Plus my address in unincorporated so its difficult to get to come up on mapquest and other map sites. This made it easier.

What are some of your favorite tips for advertising your garage sale?

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