Where to advertise?

[Willowynd]

One litter of frenchies...3 more on the way. I can't butcher them (look at those faces! and the personalities!)...suggestions on where to advertise? I can always take this current litter to the swap in July, but by the time the other 3 litters are old enough, the swaps will be over. I have tried the farmer market list, the local community lists and craig's list. Suggestions?

[ladysown]

ads up everywhere?
do you have a kijiji locally?
local paper?

[Backfourty,MI.]

What about local bulletin boards like TSC, they have them by there restrooms at every store. Make sure & have a cute baby picture of them on there. No one can resist baby's of most any kind. Also your vet's office probly has a board, some local resturaunts here also have them, etc. It's free that way & in a couple weeks no response then pay for the paper's ad.

[Pony]

Our Orscheln sells rabbits. You might want to ask around and see if any of your feed/farm stores will buy them from you.

Are you on a farm with frontage? You could post a sign.

Good luck!

[maidservant]

I've sold quite a few rabbits using www.domesticsale.com and www.hoobly.com. I always put my town (7 miles from us technically) and always state that buyers must pick up, since I do not ship. I especially love domesticsale.com because at the end of the e-mail, it provides you with the responders ip address and general location in case anything goes wrong. I've had many people from out of state contact me and lie about where they are!

Good luck getting them sold!
Hope this helps,
Emily in NC

[Pony]

Originally Posted by maidservant

I've sold quite a few rabbits using www.domesticsale.com and www.hoobly.com. I always put my town (7 miles from us technically) and always state that buyers must pick up, since I do not ship. I especially love domesticsale.com because at the end of the e-mail, it provides you with the responders ip address and general location in case anything goes wrong. I've had many people from out of state contact me and lie about where they are!

Good luck getting them sold!
Hope this helps,
Emily in NC

A little off-topic, but in response to your statement about locations of ISPs:

I live in MO, but my ISP is in IA -- but not always. Sometimes, they hub off to another location, so it can look like I'm in Kansas, too.

If you're relying on just the ISP info for the responders' locations, you are probably not getting the right info.

The reason I know this is because I post to the Chicago Tribune's message boards, and many of the posters there have the same issue. Live in one place, ISP is in another place, possibly thousands of miles away.

We now return you to your original topic.

[JCWehking]

I used to have a home business involving parrots. I was state licensed/inspected and shipped all over the world. *That was suppose to be my references for giving advice.*

I found the BEST way to sell pets is two fold. First with a web site. You can keep updated photos and information on your babies. People see...People want. Be sure to update it frequently.

I used to use Yahoo Sitebuilder because its beginner friendly and was easy to change. At the time it costed $12.95 a month.

Now I have freewebs. Don't really like it, but the site is just for family members and on the rare occassion I have something I need to sell. It's limited in what you can do, but doesn't take a lot of investment. If you don't want pop ups clogging your site, it cost $14.95 a year. Otherwise it really is free. I recommend this option unless you plan to get bigger into breeding. Its just not cost effective to pay $12.95 a month if you plan only a few litters a year.

The second part of selling pets *in my limited experience* is advertise everywhere you can on the internet. I stopped listing in the local papers because its expensive and I never sold anything through them. People today love their internet.

For parrots, there were sites that specifically targeted buying and selling parrots. That is where I sold my expensive and lesser known breeds. I posted on hoobly.com and local new's site (www.keloland.com) and recieved many inquiries from those on the more common species.

Sorry this turned into a novel. To sum it up, advertise on the web and use lots and lots of pictures.

[bluebird2o2]

If you are not shipping, advertising on the web is a problem.98% of the people contacting me on the website live too far away too pick up a rabbit.I advertise in those free papers that come out weekly (Ad weekly etc.)the ad is free.I sell most of my rabbits at shows.

[AprilW]

I second having a website! When I was bigger into showing rabbits and selling them (before the meat rabbits), most of my sales were through a professional website with plenty of advertising. List your website on as many breeder directories as possible and trade links with other breeders. The more people who visit your site, the higher it will be when someone does a search.

On every page of your website, repeatedly state your location and breeds raised. Such as "Creme D'Argent rabbits in Georgia". You can add a title to your website, which shows up above the address bar. This is by adding the code < title > Words here < / title > with no spaces to the header of your html. This will allow your website to come up more frequently in searches.

www.hoobly.com and www.kijiji.com are good for advertising. www.craigslist.com gets high traffic, BUT they do not allow the sale of animals. Some breeders word their ads properly and don't get flagged, but if you get flagged the ad is taken down.

Attend rabbit shows if you can and have a sign with your rabbitry name and sales list. I place ads in pennysavers. I can call in a short ad for free, although when you call in the ad they may be more likely to misspell a word.

Let's see, in "Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits" he recommends you talk to your local feed store about putting on a "show" there. You can have some of your rabbits to display, some to sell, and bring printed information to hand out to people. I think it sounds like a terrific idea and I've been meaning to do it one day when I have some extra rabbits to sell.

Pass out business cards whenever possible. You never know when the discussion of rabbits will come up and you can whip out a card for them. Supposedly www.vistaprint.com will allow you to print free business cards and you only pay for shipping. I've never used them but I plan on looking it up.

Also, if possible, be willing to meet people REASONABLE distances from your home. You can ask reasonable gas fees and most people are willing to pay it.

[o&itw]

I don't know if anybody mentioned "Craigslist" but it's free and many advertise on there.

Checked above... somone said they could not advertise animals on craigslist... maybe that is the case in their area, but here in Missouri, about 1/3 of the ads in "farm and garden" are of animals, lots of horses, but also rabbits, chickens and sheep. If you wish to check, type "craigslist.com" in your browser, click on Missouri, and then click on "Columbia" then click on "farm and garden".

I double checked craigslist to check on the prohibition of animals.
The prohibition is on "Pets" , breeding services, and body parts. This is because of potential legal issues

I quote from their list of prohibited items:

"Household pets of any kind including but not limited to dogs, cats, primates, cage birds, rodents, reptiles, amphibians, fish. Re-homing with small adoption fee OK

Pet animal parts, blood, or fluids - including but not limited to stud/breeding service"

These prohibitions are due to laws in certain states, especially California.

You can advertise live animals of any type for sale, for breeding stock, etc. You can simply state "French Lops for sale"
if a buyer later choses to keep the animal as a pet that is at their disgression.

[a7736100]

too many people flag your ad and it's deleted.

[Willowynd]

I have advertised on craig's list in farm and garden and never been flagged. I have an ad there now. I will try the other sites suggested...and guess I should get on making a site for the rabbits

[o&itw]

Originally Posted by Willowynd

I have advertised on craig's list in farm and garden and never been flagged. I have an ad there now. I will try the other sites suggested...and guess I should get on making a site for the rabbits

I wished I lived closer, I have been looking for some decent agouti FL does for a while, and can't find any close. I missed one on Craigs list... my call was 5 minutes late. I ended up buying one of her daughters (which is half Flemish), a beautiful rabbit. I intend to cross some anyway, but I did want to get back into a few purebreds.


Had an offer for a couple of high-priced senior does....almost took it, but ran into a freind of the lady advertising them who accidently spilled the beans that she had never raised any kits out of them in the year and a half she had them..... she never bothered to tell me that part...