Determine your budget and how many fliers you'd like to distribute. The cost associated with creating your flier can vary depending on whether you want to post 20 fliers on a small college campus, 200 fliers in storefronts in your community or distribute 2,000 for a huge affair. If you choose colored paper, that will cost more than plain white paper. If you use a design requiring a great deal of ink, the cost can rise accordingly as well.
Develop a catchy title. Think of a title that will grab your readers' attention and pull them in. Are you featuring a popular celebrity whose name you can use? Will your event be offered at a bargain price? Use a few words to make a powerful statement about your event. Use an imaging software program to create that title in a large enough font size that it can be read at a distance.
Use high-resolution digital images or superior graphics for your flier. Colorful fonts may also be attractive. If you will hand out the fliers, decide whether you want them on 8 1/2-by-11-inch sheets of paper, which will be good for posting, or on 5-by-7 or 4-by-6 glossy cardstock, which will make them easy to hand out and can have text on both sides. If your budget permits, perhaps you will want both. Your high-resolution flier can also be sent as an email attachment to a listserv or uploaded to a website to share with potential attendees.
Keep copy simple. Don't spend many words discussing details about the entertainment. Stick to answering "who, what, where, when and why." Don't clutter your flier; make sure the design is easy to read and includes some white space. Use a font and a font color in sharp contrast with your background. Post a sample design and see if you can easily read it. Ask others for feedback. Proofread your work and double-check that you have the correct event date, time, location, admission price (if any) and contact information on admission.
Produce the flier. Once you've established the layout, design and copy, it's time to put it all together and produce the flier. Pay attention to borders on a poster flier; leave enough space for posting with tape or tacks while not covering crucial elements. If you decide to use your personal printer, open up the printer configurations feature to ensure you have the proper settings for your paper type and desired resolution (1200 dpi for photo images). Invest in the proper type of paper for your printer (such as ink jet versus laser). If you decide to have your fliers printed professionally, make sure the program you used to create the fliers is compatible with the retail printer's software. If you decide to have the fliers photocopied, make sure your original is high-resolution print. Ask to see a sample copy before allowing the printer to make the whole run. Compare your original with the copy to be sure it's a good match.