Free Advertising in the Strangest Places

I'm not big on advertising lately. It costs money and is hit or miss. Plus, in simplifying my site I'm not really pushing so hard for sales as I used to be ... and some of the results I got from ads were weird. A lot of spammers and people trying to convince me to sell my jewelry with them. No thanks. Plus it's expensive...that's the main thing ... I'm really cheap. =)

This morning on my way to work I was listening to my standard radio show on KVI, Mr. Kirby Wilbur. Apparently the Guvna had a big meeting with so called business "leaders" and educators to talk about what the government could do to increase the appeal of doing business here in Washington State.

First of all, the people she meets with are obviously those who have contacts or connections in order to get to the meeting in the first place. Second, I doubt there was one small business person in the crowd.

So Mr. Wilbur asked for business people to call in and give their ideas for how the government can truly ease pressures.

I decided to call in...Because a few months ago they started a new tax rule. For sales made in Washington State I have to charge sales tax. It used to be that I could charge the sales tax from my area for all sales. Now I have to charge tax based on where the customer lives. So someone in Seattle may have to pay 9.2% where someone in Tacoma only has to pay 8.8%.

Unfortunately, my website (and Paypal) isn't set up to do these kind of complicated things - I'd have to figure out the sales tax for every town in the State and then program the Paypal shipping for each one individually. It's insane.

Not only that but when I pay taxes at the end of the year I have to report on each town's sales tax. Trust me when I tell you that it sucks.

So that was my suggestion. And after the call was over I hung up and flipped back on the dial (you can't be on the radio while talking because there's a delay and they get feedback). Kirby was saying that he wished he'd gotten my business name and if I called back in he'd give me some free advertising.

You better believe I called RIGHT back. Thankfully I got through. And I got to give my website address out on the radio!!! OMG! I was so excited.

Will it result in any sales? No idea. But people listen to his show across the country on the internet and he's very popular here in Western Washington.

You just never know when you can get a plug in for your business. I didn't anticipate getting a plug here...I really do think the new tax rule is insane and wanted to express my opinion.

Keep your ears and eyes open. Free advertising can sometimes be found in the strangest places.

UPDATE: I just checked my stats and I definitely have a higher volume coming in from this area. =) I hope those who visit bookmark me for later or make a purchase. But it's nice that they checked me out at all. Woohoo!