Promoting Yourself on a Budget

I can't believe how many times I ignored the Vistaprint ads popping up on my computer, thinking "Free" was just too good to be true.  250 business cards for Free, proclaimed the ad I saw most frequently, and I'd think, yeah right.  Then when the Groupon and Living Social savings sites offered $70 in Vistaprint products for $15, I decided to try Vistaprint products. Were they as high quality as some of the office supply products I'd ordered?  I ordered business cards and printed stationery with those offers and was pleasantly surprised by the quality. Because of those orders, I got on their mailing list and started receiving e-mails with special offers for free products; sometimes it was a pen, notepad, and maybe more letterhead stationery. The trick was not to order more than what they were offering for free and the qualifer for this deal was that I had to pay postage, but the postage ended up being very reasonable.  I'd once ordered "rack cards" through Staples, paying more than $25 for 50 rack cards for a book-signing I was doing at Barnes & Noble. These rack cards are about twice the size of a normal bookmark and give my contact information and describe both my writing and the public speaking I do. I've gotten at least one phone call for a public speaking engagement as a direct result of that book signing, and only ten people picked up a rack card. Identical rack cards were shipped to me for just $5.38 through Vistaprint. Vistaprint walks you through the steps to designing your own business cards, rack cards and even brochures. I have now designed magnets to give away at my coupon workshops (average less than twenty cents each, shipped), a tote bag, a mousepad,and thank-you notes.  I only go for the "FREE" offers, never click on other products that are offered (and you will be offered many more products as you go through the checkout process) and I am careful to avoid clicking on any of the boxes at the bottom of the page or I might find myself with a website charge or some other "wonderful" offer that I didn't realize I was signing up until 30 days later. It is fairly simple to avoid these additional charges; just read everything carefully before ever clicking on "I agree," or "Add to cart." 
I've designed postcards to advertise upcoming couponing and writing workshops and even a tote bag to carry my couponing workshop materials in. Technically, these products aren't virtually free~ the postage costs do add up, but this is still a low-cost way of promoting myself and my services as both a writer and a coupon workshop presenter.  And whether we like it or not, any successful author needs to learn how to promote themselves, and what better way than through the colorful and quality Vistaprint products. My advice is to try out one of their business card offers, and then wait for the FREE offers to deluge your mailbox. If time is not of the essence, you won't want to pay the extra postage for faster service, either. In this case, I should have paid for faster shipping for my Couponing Workshop postcards~ I ordered them on December 31 and just got them today. I have just two weeks to promote that particular workshop, but the Writing Workshop postcards I designed last night will still get here in plenty of time to promote my March 17th workshop, even if they take the standard 20 days to arrive.