Articles

Sure, everyone has a billboard face with poor visibility. Maybe you built the sign for the great visibility of the other side, or maybe it was a great read at one time, but there is at least one bad advertising face in every portfolio. So what do you do to maximize that one clunker?

Is our nation in a recession? If so, that signals a great buying and building opportunity for billboards. Some of the greatest billboard buys and builds in history have come as a result of an economic downturn. Why? The reasons are numerous:

Periodically, you will come across the landowner of a potential billboard location that throws up an unusual response: “it’s not enough money”. But not in the “I want more money” argument. That’s just a part of negotiation. Instead, the argument is “I don’t mess with anything that pays such little money, so get out of my office”.

You would be amazed at how many billboards you see advertised for sale that are illegal. Unless you know how the permitting process works, it is easy to get caught in this scam. Often it is not even a scam – the owner himself does not know that the sign is not legal. Often, illegal signs change hands several times until they are finally found out. By then, there is no chance for the unlucky owner to get any kind of return of their investment.

It is very intimidating to look for your first billboard location. You feel like you don’t know what you are doing, and that you can’t possibly compete with the big companies. There is a simple exercise to cure you of these feelings, and start you on the road to building your own billboard company.

Great billboard artwork is a combination of simple concepts steeped in decades of research. As long as you follow these basic, time-proven steps, you will always deliver your client a billboard that is attractive and effective.

There are few business plans as lucrative as obtaining and selling billboard groundleases and permits to competitors. The financial risk is nearly zero, and the profits can be in the five figures. The only reason that every man, woman and child in the U.S. is not doing this is because 1) they don’t know the opportunity exists or 2) they don’t know how to do it

There is a right way and a wrong way to build a billboard. Unfortunately, the punishment for not building the right way can be crushing – from $10,000 to move the sign to total loss of your investment if property damage leads to expensive litigation. Building a billboard the correct way is essential to prospering in the outdoor billboard business.

We've all had biology in high school, and can probably name some of the parts of a frog. But can you name the parts of a billboard, and what they do? Let's take a quiz and see.

We won’t even worry about trashing the stock market – it’s already trashed itself. If you are happy losing 40% of your investment as the end result of chasing after 8%, then stick with stocks. If you have higher goals, however, then a small investment in the outdoor advertising “billboard” business may be right for you.