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SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Dec. 14 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- A survey conducted by CheapBooks(TM) to find out how people learned of their business shows that the best form of advertising is word-of-mouth; 37 percent of respondents selected word-of-mouth advertising as how they heard about CheapBooks(TM).

"I've tried advertising in almost every ad medium," David Tiberio, president, said, "and, word-of-mouth is extremely effective. I was also one of the first to use Internet advertising on PPC sites such as goto.com which is now Yahoo Search Marketing."

According to Tiberio, one of his least-successful campaigns was a radio campaign in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, La. that was held a few days before Hurricane Katrina. After an initial sharp rise, sales immediately dropped off.

Other statistics from the survey reported that 17 percent of people who had learned about CheapBooks(TM) saw banner ads; 10 percent discovered them through search engines.

In addition to word-of-mouth, CheapBooks(TM) has discovered that hosting promotional events and giving out free items is effective for increased business recognition.

CheapBooks(TM) recently hosted an event at Syracuse University with Reality TV star, Syrus Yarbrough, of MTV's Real World Boston; 150 people attended. Students had a chance to speak with Syrus, have their pictures taken, and also received free t-shirts, coffee, and dessert.

Photos will be available for viewing the event on community Web sites such as www.Flickr.com. This week, portions of the event filmed by World's Greatest, will be televised, nationwide, on the ION and PAX networks.

"Last year, a 15-member, all-nurse tennis team was in town for a competition on the same day that I was handing out free t-shirts," Tiberio said. "The nurses wore the t-shirts during their tennis tournament."

Tiberio's favorite non-traditional advertising story involves a 14-year old Nigerian boy. The boy posted a message on the pen-pal forum at CheapBooks(TM) explaining that he could not afford to use the local Internet Cafe's e-mail service; Tiberio mailed him two t-shirts. A week later, another posting appeared from another Nigerian asking about free t-shirts.

CheapBooks(TM) has been well-known on college campuses for almost nine years. The company provides consumers access to low-cost books over the Internet. It compares the prices of many major online bookstores such as BarnesandNoble.com, and Half.com.

For more information, visit: www.CheapBooks.com.



Send2Press® is the originating wire service for this story.