How much do you spend on advertising?

[mamaMAMAma]

I'm thinking about putting a little more money on advertising right now. I would like to set some sort of limit, perhaps based on my sales and would like to find out how much others spend on advertising. I put in an ad on Mothering Marketplace, just a line ad which was not effective at all. I'm designing a 1 inch ad now that would definitely stand out more. Have others used the 1-2 inch ads on Mothering? How effective have you found them?

[Erin Pavlina]

I like to use the percentage system. 2.5% of my monthly sales goes into advertising. I get a lot of trades due to the fact that I can trade ads with other companies, so I don't need to put a lot of actual money into an ad. But I like to expand my market and look for places that compliment my target market.