What About Selling MA Products?

[PlumDragon]

I recently started selling herbal liniments for martial artists, namely dit da jow (I plan to add more products as time goes on). If youre not familiar with dit da jow, its an herbal liquid that you rub into your skin to help heal bone/muscle bruises, relieve pain, inflammation, arthritis, tendonitis, etc. My website (in my sig) explains a bit more about it.

My question is, how do you martial artist businessmen deal with advertising of such products? Since my customer base is nationwide, just hanging signs at the local college isnt really a good way to maximize my customer base; I need to find a way to reach martial artists at a national level. Money is also definitely a factor, as I have no real funding, and this operation is still being run out of the house.
Any advice on selling martial arts products?

Thanks in advance!

[BoarSpear]

what formula/ whose do you sell? do you make it ? is it aged? how long? is it a 7 or 26 herb formula? what alcohol do you mix it with? just wondering, i make several formulas Ark Wong's , Duncan leungs , and several Mew Hing formulas..i age mine 10 years for the best and a minimum of a year for average. we use vodka and the double soak method for best results. as for marketing good luck..people who have used it will knock your doors down to get it...those who havent or who used a rubbing alcohol bs formula think its snake oil...

[PlumDragon]

I make all my jow from scratch. I order all the herbs individually in bulk. I have 2 basic formulas, a cool jow (general purpose) and a warm jow (for extreme circumstances, iron palm, or other types of conditioning). I also have a couple other recipes that I offer, mostly on a limited quantity basis and do some custom work for people. The cool jow has about 12 herbs in it, the warm jow has about 19. Presently I use vodka as well but am trying to acquire a source of pure ethanol/water so that I can get rid of the flavoring crap they put in vodka. I dont boil herbs, use fancy soaking methods, etc; my tests have shown that you actually lose some of the volatile oils, etc when you play around with stuff. I make it carefully, seal it, agitate it daily in the dark, and a few other little things.

Do you sell Mew Hing from that Lacy guy, or somewhere else? id be interested to hear about your Duncan Leungs formula as I also have a wing chun recipe or two. If you want to talk about this offline, feel free to email me at therin@knology.net

BTW, Thanks for the reply! =)

[BoarSpear]

Sounds good..we use all glass containers , kept in dark and agitated daily. And no i dont use Lacy for my herbs i get them all in bulk. Lacy, geesh thats a subject best treated like nitro, Very volatile discussions and monkey dung flinging is the standard response. i do know lacy he seems like a very polite friendly guy. a Bit to much into god for me but hey its his life. As for GM Doo Wai ...i have never met him or talked to him...i do have countless hours of him and many off his top students...GM vincent Peppers ect. As well as equal amounts of lacy and his followers on video. the things that are attributed to lacy dont sound like the guy i know...gm doo wai calls lots of names and uses alot of offensive lanquage, it makes all kung fu people look stupid. Wars between student and teacher are not uncommon however, two Gms in a shi##ing contest on the internet is deplorable.
i will say this Doo Wai has the fastest internal boxing style i have ever seen, he is smooth and powerful. his coconut breaks look phony..he is either the BOMB or faking the breaks...many people who can do it still cheat "to be sure" in demos lacy and his students on the other hand are stiff, too much kenpo is evident in the movements. Lacy was hit by a train and his hip destroyed so he has an excuse for sloppy stepping and waist mechanics..his students do not... on the other hand lacy's coconut breaking skills are real.
the training programs are very similiar but the prices are on opposite extremes. Lacy is cheap , doo wai is astronomical . 20.00 dollars vs 1000.00 for the same form except doo wai will only be a demonstration...lacy will teach it. one will let you see what it ought to be the other will let you see how to get there, IF you can "read" the movements and correct them as you go. Doo Wai claims lacy was not a inner circle student, or taught the high level forms. look at the videos on Doo Wai' s site see the big hairy bushy bearded fellow? thats LACY....
i have several formulas i dont mind sharing but alas Duncans is not one them he would probably wring my neck...i have it for personal use( i used to train with steven at the house) but i dont let it out as he never gave me permission(granted i never asked). i prefer a very strong all purpose jow for most things, dummy work and iron palm for instance. I also have a plethora of internal jows and soups..quick hit pill formulas from Shoalin , dim mak antidote's the whole gamut. i dont make or use much of the internal jows though..a few with wolfberrys and such. too many internal formulas contain endangered species and toxic ingrediants that might make me an endangered species.