Michigan's Otherside Paranormal Forums

Well here we are the Holidays are over, and back to work we go. Todays question is how to get your organizations name out there to the public ? What are some ways you have tried, and what works best ? I mean once you have our team, and website, the next thing to do is get the cases to come in.

Other then emailing some of the historical departments, and township boards, for permission to do a investigation of an area. What are some things other groups here have tried. I think getting hold of those mentioned boards, is a good place to start, because of the publicity it draws to your group and the place you want investigated. Historical Society's for the most part as they need funding for there projects, and nothing brings in more funding then having the project published in some way.

Other then the business cards to pass out, does anyone else have something that has worked for them ?

When Michigan's Otherside was just The Great Lakes Paranormal Research Organization and we had an online investigation request form, a lot of people just happened to find us by typing in the right key words in Google and many by word of mouth. There's so many paranormal investigation websites out there it's almost hard to compete with where you will turn up in a Google search, especially in Michigan.

One of the best things I've always felt when it comes to websites getting noticed is having a clean, professional looking site. There are some horrid, tacky, tasteless sites that I"m sure attract equally tacky people, but if you want people to take you seriously and to feel like they are contacting a group that puts quality first, that can be expressed in a website. It doesn't have to be boring or stuffy, but my god...keep the animated gif's and blinky ghosts and eye blinding colors off your page!

We also have some generic business cards that we pass out to people, put out on the table when we go to conferences and I try to pin them up on cork boards in businesses where I can. There's a coffee shop where I live and I'm always posting our cards there and people take them, so it works.

Setting up a Myspace page can help you network with other ghost hunters and teams, but it's a damn "Paranormal Circus" on that site and we haven't had a lot of requests or stories in the couple years we've had our pages. Tom gets a lot of stories I know but he's also more "sociable" on Myspace than I am.

And of course, word of mouth is always the best I feel:)

That's all I can think of at the moment...I"m hungry....

oh come on nothing says professional like the same tired old burning Diablo gif file and blood dripping page dividers...
I tried to get John to put some on ORSP but much like Mr. Dangerfield i get "no respect"

a more serious comment. It is possible to pull of that kinda goth/demonistic mo teff and not be over the top tacky.
and I like the idea of business cards, also a good idea and cheap ones are not to hard to get. VistaPrint used to offer 50 free business cards (basic non-image stuff) or you can get cheap business card paper for your printers.

oh something I thought might strike an interesting conversation.
Amber mentioned posted her cards at a local coffee shop.
well I was thinking, churches have those Bulletins that always have adds in them. What do you the chance is of getting a paranormal investigating ad put into one of those...?
I can just picture the exchange now.
"Hello, Church of The Almighty, this is Rose how can I help you?"
"Um goodafternoon uh I was err wondering how can I get an add in your bulletin?"
"Sir are you or any member of your business a part of this parish?"
"Well, not really in fact most are skeptics,mediums, and pagans"
"..."

male prosititution worked for me. that's how i got the real encounters gig. LOL.
stv

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHH!!!!!! Ok the male prostitution thing got me. And yes...posting an ad in a church bulletin would be hilarious!