Just a thought...

[lordtariel]

I was checking some Google rankings for a site I’m working on and got an idea based off of the side ads. Somebody had put a gift certificate to a martial arts center on eBay. What would you think about putting a gift certificate good for a month of lessons to your dojo up on eBay? It might be a good way to do some recruitment for your dojo and get some extra funds. Do you think this sounds too McDojo-ish? Has anyone tried this kind of thing before? I don’t know if there are any restrictions on eBay for this type of thing or not. Maybe you could make the gift certificate also good to cover part of the cost of gear if they stay. It would require some research. Just a thought I wanted to throw out there.

[Jiffy]

Not at all, although I feel many will disagree with me. To me, being a McDojo is in the way you teach and your priorities being more on money than good standard. There seems to be this attitude that good marketing makes you a McDojo. As far as I'm concerned, as long as you are being honest and ethical, any marketing that brings people in is good marketing.

[Zorbasan]

its an interesting idea, but i dont think ebay will be the right media. a dojo is a very localised thing, whereas ebay is a world wide audience.

good marketing comes down to hitting the right target demographic.

[bushido_man96]

I agree with Zorbasan. I think I would offer a gift certificate through some local venue, instead of ebay. So, I do like the idea, just not the medium.

[MisterRadley]

I agree with Zorbasan and bushido_man96. The idea is good, but you should offer it somewhere other than ebay.

[scottnshelly]

Check with your local Chamber of Commerce. Our town has a Super Santa give-away type deal each Christmas. Local businesses can donate small gifts to be auctioned or raffled off.

Also, local schools in my area have school carnivals each Fall. They always have a bingo area that gives away prizes donated by local businesses.

Your area may have something similar or even better. Great idea by the way.

[Jiffy]

Perhaps give gift certificates to your students to give out. Other than that, maybe leave them around your local stores etc.

[Zorbasan]

also an incentive for your students to bring new students in would work as well

[atalaya]

the aikido group that i used to train with would once a month do a workout at the local farmer's market (on a saturday). during the workout they would have a (i guess she was a secretary?) take down people's information who seemed interested and she would invite people out to a free month of training. this sparked interest in many people and made sure that they didn't have any preformed misconceptions about aikido. (it also brought in a wide variety of new people, many of whom stayed on)

[MisterRadley]

the aikido group that i used to train with would once a month do a workout at the local farmer's market (on a saturday). during the workout they would have a (i guess she was a secretary?) take down people's information who seemed interested and she would invite people out to a free month of training. this sparked interest in many people and made sure that they didn't have any preformed misconceptions about aikido. (it also brought in a wide variety of new people, many of whom stayed on)

That's a really good idea. Thanks for the post.