Looking for some advertising pointers

[GarrettVD]

Hello all,

I'm a freelance web developer, specializing in Facebook and social media applications. I've been doing this professionally for a few months now, and have had a few small clients (and one big one)

My question to you is what is the most effective way to market myself, on a budget of say ~$600? Do you think online advertising is more effective than newspaper / other forms of advertising for this type of industry?

I've tried advertising online at a few websites (newspaper websites) with little ROI, and I am looking into Google AdWords.

Can anyone share their experiences with advertising and perhaps give me some pointers?

Thanks very much,

[donatello]

Build a few VERY good webpages that people will find when they search organically - this, however, takes some time.

You can try adwords, but be careful as it can cost a lot and return little if you do not select your wording very carefully.

What kind of stuff do you do exactly? Do you create the standalone applications in something like Drupal?

Here's a secret:
Buy a domain or two that includes the most commonly searched keywords for your specialty... here are some that ARE AVAILABLE AT THIS WRITING - but someone might come along, read this before you and snap them up...

Anyway, they are only valuable if you do something with them, otherwise a waste...

SOCIALMEDIADEVELOPMENT.NET
SOCIALMEDIADEVELOPMENT.ORG
SOCIAL-MEDIA-DEVELOPMENT.COM

SOCIALMEDIADEVELOPER.NET
SOCIALMEDIADEVELOPER.ORG

SOCIALMEDIADEVELOPERS.ORG

Just a thought.
Good luck.