TBYB! wants to inspire you to DO personal marketing, because this stuff seriously rocks your life. Here are ten very effective advertising techniques that you can implement in just a few minutes.
Several of them use a picture to make your ad more powerful. Use Flickr, Google Image Search, or magazines to locate photos to illustrate your ad.
- Set your home page. You see the website you choose for your home page every time you open your browser. Does it feed your mind and remind you about a goal you have or send you off on distracting tangents?
- Change your password. Most of us have at least one password that we key in every day. This is a great place to embed a slogan for your ad campaign.
- Change your desktop wallpaper. If you’re anything like me you spend many hours a week staring at your computer screen. That makes it one of the most effective locations I’ve found for images that inspire me to take action.
- Subscribe to the RSS feed, podcast, or magazine. Make sure fresh content related to your goal is being delivered to you automatically on a regular basis. This not only reminds you about your goal, but it also provides a steady stream of new ideas about how to get it done.
- Set a welcome phrase on your phone. Many cell phones and Windows Mobile devices offer the option to display a short text phrase on the screen. It’s a great place for a short affirmation or your ad slogan.
- Take a picture with your phone, then set it as the background. Want to read, write or walk more? Have a friend snap a photo of you doing that. Then switch your phone’s background to that picture, and you’ll see yourself doing what you want every time you answer the phone.
- Put up a picture on your bathroom wall/refrigerator/bulletin board/locker, etc. Our brains are wired to respond to visual input, so seeing pictures really works.
- Tape a picture to an envelope. Want to save money for something? Put a picture of that thing on the envelope where you’re saving the money. Check out TBYB!’s recent guest post on Get Rich Slowly for detailed instructions about how to use this method and a great discussion by GRS readers in the comments.
- Put a picture in your wallet or calendar. You know that little flap with the transparent pocket? Perfect place for an ad!
- Carry a prop. Find an object that represents your goal to you and carry it everywhere you go. The more people ask you about it the better!
Finally, this list would not be complete without mentioning the humble sticky note. Of all the material on this site, the Post-It note ad seems to be the method people implement the most. Which makes sense because it’s fast, familiar, you already have the stuff, and it could not be easier:
- Write your slogan on a Post-It note. It’s quick, it’s easy, and you can put it wherever you want. Be sure to write whatever you want to achieve as an affirmatative statement, in present time.
What quick and dirty methods do you use to advertise to yourself?
Related articles
- How to use Flickr to find pictures for your ads
- Illustrate your ads with Google Image Search
- How to customize your computer background
- Change the picture on your cell phone screen
- Write a headline for your cell phone ad
- How to make a quick text ad on your Windows Mobile device
- Extreme makeover – refrigerator edition
- Personal marketing in the bathroom: better than taking a magazine!
- How to prompt others to remind you about your goal
- How to write an effective ad on a Post-It note
- Write your copy like the result you want is already true
3 Comments
#2 is a big no-no in terms of computer security. Passwords should be as close to random as possible, to make them harder to guess. If they’re related to your hobby or goal of choice, a decent cracker will rip it apart in less than a minute.
Of course, if you don’t care whether a cracker gets into your MySpace account (how much damage could they really do?) you don’t need to worry about it. For your online banking, though… probably better to be careful.
Thanks for pointing that out, Dan; I agree completely. It would not be at all appropriate to make a password this easy to crack for something like a banking, investment, or PayPal account. However I have dozens of passwords for less sensitive accounts, and sometimes I think this can be a decent place to slip in an ad slogan.
I read an article on Slate with a brilliant and simple password strategy that would work perfectly for this: think up your slogan but just use the first letter of each word. For instance ” I want to save one hundred dollars a month!” becomes Iwts$100am!