do you advertise?

if so, how? i need to get my name out in my area, but dont exactly know where to start. i have business cards and made some promotional flyers, but dont wanna be cheesy and stick them on peoples cars! any ideas? thanks in advance!

Market advertisements (Grocery stores). It sounds cheesy on its own, but everyone and their neighbor has to eat. It's free, everyone reads them, and it attracts more business.

Of course depending on the kind of photography you do and your market, then you may want to consider better means of advertisement.

Starting out though, why not use whatever fodder you can get your hands on?

Myself, I do half a page in the newspaper every month...but that's on special terms (I write columns) but it gets people to know that I'm out there, I can do this service and here's a sample of the work I do). It'd cost me about 400 a month if I were to do an "ad" in that size, but for what its worth its basically one.
Try inquiring to your local newspaper about it.

Also, list yourself in all the known directories used in your area (Yellowpages).

Registering with a local or state professional body (NWTarts for me; something I've been moving to do this past week) will also help boost your authenticity and trust amongst clients.

Spend your time/money on SEO if you are in the retail photography business. Hopefully you are good at making friends and networking it's more important than your skill with a camera.

Yes, $7K to $10K a year, and its worth it.

First, a website if you don't have one yet. But, you need to drive traffic to your site to make it work. SEO as mentioned for your website in very important in the retail market. List your services on any of the free listings you can find. They aren't worth paying for, but a free listing helps.

Networking and word of mouth. For every client you work with, find ways to have them spread the word (free session for referrals, discounts, whatever). They can really help build a business quickly. They can be your ambassadors.

Print advertising in local media. They shouldn't cost all that much, and since they are local to your area, they hit your customer base.

Partners. Ie, for weddings and events, you can hook up with consultants, event planners, bridal shops, event halls, convention centers, and so on.

Mingle with your clients. For commercial work, find ways to hang out with art directors/art buyers (associations, volunteering, etc). For retail, find groups that are common to your products (bridal fashion shows, bridal events, etc, for weddings, mothers for baby portraits, and so on), and get involved in one way or another (membership, volunteer,...)

Publicity and press releases. When you start up, write up a press release and send it out to newspapers, industry magazines, etc. When you land a big job worth mentioning, send out a press release. New studio upgrades, press release. Found a quarter on the side walk, press release You want to keep your name out there.

Display your work. On-line portfolios for one. For retail, print displays in local businesses (restaurants, bars, hospitals, libarary, etc) can work but are expensive to produce. You can display your portraits in malls for a fee (if they don't have a studio in the mall).

Effective advertising is a combination of methods, and not just one. And it needs time to build, so you need to keep it active at all times. If you get real busy with clients and slow down your advertising, you will feel it a few months later when sales fall off. Then you need to scape together money while its tight to re-invest in advertising and it will take months to rebuild itself again. What you have done by slowing down the advertising is create a 3-6 month slowdown in sales. Better to keep the machine going then to create peaks and valleys.

Another thing:

Become more active in websites (it takes some time but its a small factor that's worth it). Forums, photo galleries, photo-help forums, photo-appreciation forums, etc.

It's all a part of the networking game (also helps to enjoy it a bit, too). It also helps with your SEO (though I've yet to master that)

great advice! thanks soo much!