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My husband and myself began a private adoption process in the beginning of the summer. We have a well known New York adoption lawyer and are in the process of being certified. (we had our home study 2 weeks ago, and did our child abuse paperwork and fingerprinting) My question is that we have researched several states and newspapers to advertise in...but how do we narrow down all the papers in the various states? We are working with a $1000 budget per month on advertising...does that seem enough? Any help or advice with how to get the most "bang for our buck" would be most appreciated by us. Any other suggestions wouldl be great as well! Thank you!
We had created a master e-mailing list of all our friends, family, close business associates, etc. We used this list to ask for help in searching, and kept the group updated every 2-3 weeks or so with how things were progressing. One of these list members, a "work friend" of mine from a previous employer (we mostly trade jokes on e-mail), made the connection. She had gotten an "update" from us about a week before her ex-husband's daughter found out she was pregnant and decided on adoption. So we were fresh in her mind. This young lady is Ryan's bmom.
A few other things we did that generated leads and one other family being made:
1. Made up business cards with brief blurb and our contact info. Left them everywhere - restrooms at movie theaters, hockey games, fast food restaurants, airports, etc. We gave cards to waitstaff, left them on pay phones, bulletin boards, ATM machines, etc. We got 9 leads, one of which turned into a connection & placement for another family using our agency. We asked friends and family to do the same and ended up with a "mad mad carder brigade". We got cards pretty inexpensively (something like $5 for 250) at Vista Print [url]www.vistaprint.com.[/url]
2. Sent out letters to hospitals, doctors, etc. Got one call from a social worker that almost turned into a placement for another family. This would've been very expensive if my employer hadn't let us use their color copier though.
3. Put up flyers in our cars with our info on them, as did some of our friends. Also put flyers up in laundromats, bulletin boards, etc. Got several calls from these, especially the cars.
4. We made up a basic website about us and posted it on adopting.org, abcadoptions.com, preciouskids.org and anywhere else that was inexpensive or free. We posted to all the search engines too. Adopting.org gave us the most 'hits', ABC will include you in a list of birthmothers-looking-for-situations if you list with them. Preciouskids includes you in an email of all the situations they come across through facilitators, etc.
5. We advertised in some of the local newspapers and college newspapers. We were less than impressed with the results for the cost. Several friends connected this way though. We also did an 'on screen' ad at a local movie theater that got us no leads.
6. A freebie - we put a short 'ad' in our signature line on e-mail and asked our friends to do so as well. Figured if it got forwarded and the signature didn't get stripped, it was free advertising. I have no idea if this generated any leads. In the 'what the heck' category.
Also, we really told everyone. I have a heart-shaped red button with the word ADOPT! on it that I'd wear places. You'd be amazed how many people came up and asked me about it, giving me a chance to give out a card and ask. I got 4 separate leads from people in a professional group who knew we were searching - either their friends/family or an employee became pregnant, etc. We told our postman and the guy who delivers the newspaper.
It was very hard at first (we really are private people) but got much easier with time and as leads formed. We also found so many "gifts" - notes of support from strangers, friends sharing their adoption stories (adoptees, adoptive parents, birth parents) that we had never heard, so many prayers. We are continually amazed and touched.
If we can help more, please shout! Best of luck.
Regina
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