ASOPA membership?

[Susan Ballinger]

I am just starting out as a portrait artist and am looking at the most effective ways to market myself. One of the things I was thinking about was joining the ASOPA. I would love to hear some responses to my questions. Are you a member? Why or why not? Do you feel that it was worth joining? Have you gotten a lot of business from having your name posted on the membership on their site? Did you pay extra to get the thumbnail picture with a link to your website and do you think it increased your business by doing so? Plus, it'd be great to hear what has worked and what has not been worth the money/effort to drum up business. Have you had to continue to find ways to advertise, or once you had an initial customer base, did it continually replenish itself? I don't have very much money right now- my current job isn't even paying the basic bills...so I need to get the word out for the least amount of money possible. Thanks in advance for any replies I receive!

Susan