No need to take out expensive paid ads to get people to find your yard sale. There are mostly online solutions to advertising your garage sale.
Craigslist
Most regions' Craigslist sites have a section for garage sales. You can post the date and time of the sale, describe the types of items you are selling, and give directions. In the header of the post, be sure to put the date of the garage sale. The posts are dated themselves, so be clear on the day the sale is actually happening. Post to Craigslist leading up to the event, and post the day of the sale, too, for added traffic.
Patch.com
The Patch community of news sites number more than 800, with each site focusing on a different town. And on the sites, users can create events for posting in the site calendar. That includes garage sales. Posting an event is free. To post, sign up for the Patch site for your town and head over to the Events section. There’s even a category for garage sales in the calendar.
Facebook users can create an event, and even invite people to it. So make a Facebook event for your next garage sale. You have the option of adding information such as date, time, pictures, and more. You can even message all the folks who RSVP to the event on Facebook with a few simple clicks. Make sure your event listing is classified as a public event, as opposed to a private one. That way, the general public can find the garage sale via Facebook.
Nearby Signs
If a neighbor is also having a garage sale, the street signs that say “garage sale this way” are inadvertently also directing customers to your site. Hopefully, you and your neighbors can plan this, and generate traffic for both your sales. Or you can be shrewd about it and search whether a neighbor is having a sale. However, turning a couple random yard sales into a neighborhood one is going to bring more traffic.
Flyers
If you have access to a printer at home or work, print off several dozen flyers and put them up on bulletin boards around town. Places such as laundromats, grocery stores, hair salons and pizzerias often have bulletin boards to stick your flyer. If you live on a street that already has a lot of foot traffic, handing out flyers to passersby is another way to spread the word cheaply. As with signs, check the local laws on handing out or posting flyers.
Firing off a quick email letting your contacts know that you are having a garage sale is yet another way to advertise. Don’t be spammy, but short and to the point. You don’t have to give everyone in your address book the hard sell about why they should come to the garage sale. Email is another option but remember to keep good correspondence etiquette in mind.
Each of these options are free or nearly free, and should help get customers to the garage sale.
Catherine Galioto - Catherine Galioto is a Jersey Shore native who enjoys writing on a variety of topics. She has been published in online and local print ...
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