Yes you would not want to put all your eggs in one basket so to speak.   It might be printed flyers at all the local stores would give you more mileage then a website. Looking at what others in your area that are in the industry might help. While there may not be other puppeteers there may be children entertainers which would be a good source.  When the company I worked with still did a regular season a big part of the audience was often play groups in the area. Might look at where you can get in contact with such groups.  Of course most of these ideas have to do with puppeteers that are performing and not builders but I think you can still employ similar techniques.  Don't forget to told to and get feed back from current clients. How they found you, what caught their eye most about your product ect.

Interestingly much of 'not putting your eggs in one basket' is something that came up for me - Shawn knows what I've been doing, but I haven't mentioned it publicly... I got a marketing strategy made for me. A lot of the suggestions covered different types of marketing. Ads in trade publications, offering events/real world stuff, social networking online, specific targeting of publicity to bloggers or forums, etc.

One thing that really got me thinking was her suggestion of 'sub-branding'. One problem with my site (SOP) is that it covers all types of puppets, but we all know that not everyone is interested in learning about every part of puppetry. So what she suggested was to treat marionettes as a sub-brand, and market specifically to people who are interested in that; and another strategy for muppeteers; etc. I'd never really thought about doing it that way, but she was spot on.

I am currently reworking SOP's design specifically to change navigation options so that you can browse depending on what kind of person you are (beginner, pro, performer, builder, teacher), rather than treating everyone the same. I think breaking down target audiences and the kinds of ways they're more likely to find you is a really useful idea. It means you're more effectively targeting people using a narrower focus... It does mean you need a better understanding of your customer, but probably for the same amount of work.

-- Also, since it's kind of relevant: I put an add on a good freelance site I've been trying to get some work on. Basically you advertise a job you want done, people bid for it, you choose the best of the lot. My point is that you don't have to hire an SEO company for hundreds of dollars if you do want professional help. I spent $180 USD and it was totally worth it. A lot of stuff was "well, duh!" or "that's not going to work", but mostly because I currently don't have the time/money to put into the long-term suggestions. We had a good back and forth on ideas. This was a payment just for a strategy, and I suspect my budget (same amount as I spent) was probably too high for the services received; at the same time, I wanted to get decent professional advice and not some generic response from black hatters.

Seriously, if you do want pro advice for marketing, it's out there.

I wish I could also mention something else I'm currently working on, which is a good example of pitfalls of real-world marketing used online, but it's for a client - suffice to say that treating online and offline as the same doesn't work exactly the same way.

My husband is bi vocational.  pastoring a small church and  building/remodel. His specialty is custom cabinets, trim, etc. that part is local. He also does custom woodworking, most of which is pulpits/podiums. That part is nationwide, and people looking for that find it because they do specific searches.  He has contacts through minister friends as well.  He does the building/remodel for our income, as we don't take a salary from the church.   While our city isn't particularly hi tech, we are only 15 miles or so from NASA, and that area tends to look online more for service related companies.   Thanks for the help and suggestions.

I guess the big question then is: are people likely to buy custom woodwork that is large/hard to ship online from people out of state?

If you are more likely to get people within the state/city ordering things like that, then I'd suggest making sure your keywords (metadata it's called) on your site reflects things people will search for. Ie. handmade, pulpits, custom, Texas. Instead of something more generic like: woodwork, build, local. Or whatever.

And then maybe look at relevant websites/blogs/forums where hubby can post/discuss his work. A big part of it I would think is getting other people to 'see' his craftsmanship even if they can't visit the workshop and view the merch for themselves.

Other than that, again it goes back to looking more at your own data and noticing the trends. I mentioned above an experiment I'm doing, where I tweet a link to a post on my site 5 times a week. I never did that before, only randomly tweeted stuff. But I've noticed twice as many people will visit/retweet the post as before. I'm going to keep doing it because it seems to work. Trial and error is what makes up a lot of online marketing I think