Marketing in a New Town that I moved to--any extra ideas?

So I moved to a small-medium sized town where there are only two face painters that I know of--me, and one leading monopoly. Not much competition.

To try to get my name out there, this is so far what I've done (and yes I've searched the forum for other ideas already):

1) Went to elementary schools to offer face painting or balloons for their upcoming back to school 2-hour open houses. Offered volunteering to most, and stated my rate to others. The ones that I was going to charge didn't like the idea of being charged at any rate and didn't really want anything to do with me. Went to one wealthy primary school so far and they said they dont' need my services. Going to try two more wealthy primary schools today. Handed out business cards to all the schools I visited though.

2) Went to the local big churches that offer family fun nights and offered to volunteer, to which one responded favorably but needs the children's activity coordinator to approve.

3) Posted on bulletin boards at the local YMCA and other kid-friendly gyms

4) Posted on Starbuck's bulletin board

5) Originally had gigmasters but no one in this small town uses it so I let my membership expire and not renew

6) Already have a website

7) Already have an official facebook page for my company

8 ) Posted on craigslist

9) Created an account on gigsalad

10) About to create an ad (though I'm still iffy) in the town's leading kid's magazine that around 30,000 parents read bi-monthly at doctor's offices etc. $350 for one issue that runs 2 months. Given 1/4 page vertically in full color. Do you think it's worth it since there's that many people looking at the magazines?

11) Went to a local facility that rents out their facility to the public for kids birthday parties and they gladly accepted my business cards and "said" they will offer face painting and balloons to their clients and will bill their clients directly with my rate and then pay me my rate once their client pays them.

12) Considering going to bowling places to see if they have bulletin boards

13) Went to Chick Fil A to talk to the manager about rates and face painting and ballooning for their Father Daughter nights among other family fun nights. They said they will get back with me if they need me. Emailed their marketing coordinator and am awaiting some kind of response (hopefully).

14) Considering going to Libraries to see if their children's story time needs a face painter or balloon artist since I can do either one or both

15) Trying to figure out how to post in the cafeteria bulletin board at the big college that's here in town. Don't know who to contact.

Am I doing anything wrong? What else should I do? I feel like I'm running out of ideas. I'm also considering walking around with my face painted but I feel extremely shy about that (I also am not good at painting my own face--mainly just painting on other people)

BTW this is a college town that I live in. Lots of college students. But the neighboring city is where most of the kids are and that's where I've been advertising in mainly

Thank you for reading my long post and for any responses given!

I've got a bunch of blog posts about marketing - here are links to two of the more pertinent.

http://shannonfennell.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/business-tips-for-face-painters-body-artists-and-make-up-artists-2-marketing-your-services/

http://shannonfennell.wordpress.com/2012/09/01/business-tips-for-face-painters-body-artists-and-make-up-artists-9-soliciting-work/

Quick note of advice, only because my day-job is at Starbucks!

Our community bulletin boards are supposed to be for 'not-for-profit' stuff only. So advertisements for services, sales, even tickets to plays/shows and stuff are usually taken down as soon as we notice them. (Lost dog? Put it up. Dog for sale? Take it down.) My store is pretty stringent about it, though other districts may be more lax. However, chances are that your post was taken down.

Try Panera! (That's where I send all of our people, lol) To my knowledge they are a lot more lax about their board. I regularly see cars for sale, adverts about local shows and plays, etc.

Snickell:

Thank you for letting me know! I went back to the Starbucks today to see if my flyer was still there (the lady working approved my flyer to be put up so I guess my location is lax).

My flyer was still there...............UNDER someone else's ad for an entire apartment complex's available rooms for $530/mo....

Then some Mary Kay associate put her business card over every single flyer that was on the board covering part of their flyers.

I get posting your flyer is fine, but they covered 99% of my flyer. Sigh.

Anyway, I don't think I'll be getting any calls from Starbucks any time soon or ever thanks to that ad over mine.

I went to Panera Bread and they don't have a bulletin board or any place to put up flyers unfortunately.

its summer,if you are willing to work for free to advertise try an ice cream stand thats popular. Paint the kids with owners permission, and give out your cards to the families. I do this for our local VFD Block Party, and after 1 time we now charge and do a split back to the VFD. Its nice to show your work and show you support the local charities and businesses. good luck.

Dear gracie621:
I sounds as if you are doing everything right.
Read Shannon Fennell's marketing tips.
Shannon Fennell gives some insightful, helpful, and realistic tips for us.

I have been face painting for 16 years. About 6 years ago, I wondered if I could make a living doing face painting. It was a long, hard, uphill slog to get to the point where I could sustain myself solely on face painting.
I walked around with my face painted while I did groceries, banking, errands. I painted my children with UV face paint, and took them UV bowling.
After a year of this, and not too much work... I wondered out loud to my husband whether I was supposed to be a face painter... and within 20 minutes of saying that... I GOT A BOOKING! It has been building slowly from there. I wish I had read Shannon's marketing tips BEFORE she actually wrote it. Um... that didn't come out right. It makes me sound insane. Just don't read the about sentence about wishing for time travel.
xoxox

I had the "market" seeded with so many business cards I lost count. After doing a few big festivals as well as placing the cards everywhere. For many months, I had NOT ONE CALL. One night, I lamented about this to a friend. Just the law of ODDS should dictate that a call would come in. And guess what? A few weeks later, right before I left to go to my first face painting convention, that call DID come in. And after that, more. It's slow at first. Keep on doing what you're doing and a few years down the road, there will be some days when you wonder why you ever wanted to spend so much time on the phone booking parties. Really. )