How did you become interested in Esperanto? Discribe it may help promoting Esperanto.

In my case, as in my profile, it's Red Dwarf

"The love and effort put into Esperanto will not be lost, but no one person can construct a Universal Language.”—‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Well, I suppose that ought to be interpreted as teaching esperanto will only be helpful if the world wants to learn. I think the world in general would want to be able to easily communicate with others from all over the world, and if informed about it and given the oppurtunity to learn most people would want to learn. I suppose holding free classes in your area and putting up posters would be a good start. I had never heard of esperanto until I saw it mentioned in a book, but I was immediately interested after a quick google. I think it's the same for most people, tell them about it and let them decide it they're interested.

We should be better organized.  Google on Esperanto is a shambles.  Not a single book on Esperanto in "World's Biggest Bookstore" here in Toronto, a city of 5 million people.  Can't find a really good dictionary.  Even fairly basic vocabulary seems to be lacking. My friends have never heard of Esperanto.  I've read that there are hundreds of magazines in Esperanto--but what are they, where are they, how do you find them?  Lernu.net is excellent for learning Esperanto, and internacia.tv is interesting (sometimes) but clearly struggling to get off the ground.  There are chatrooms, but hardly anyone seems to be using them.  My gut feeling is that Esperanto is an idea whose time has come and gone, and the movement is dying.  I hope I'm wrong.

Posters to promote Esperanto.
http://esperanto-usa.org/en/node/42

oatie:What are some good ways to promote Esperanto on a local level?

Laŭ mia opinio:
1. It's up to other people to be drawn to E-o if it is for them, so make information available through legitimate channels, and let people come to you if they wish. Talk about it if friendship allows you to do so.
2. Be honest about the difficulty of the language. If learning English or French to a reasonable level of fluency takes (say) 1000 working hours for a dedicated adult, and E-o takes 250 or 500, that is still a hefty amount of effort. It's like saying that incomes in Israel are low compared to the U.S. or Western Europe. It's still a First World country.
3. Be prepared for legitimate objections, such as:
(a) 'But we already have an international language, English, the de facto language of science and diplomacy, and what's more, it's gaining, in Europe.'
(b) 'I prefer to spend all that effort learning a useful language, to get a job with.'
(c) 'Spanish (or another language used by hundreds of millions of people) may be a better choice if someone wants to take up a second language.'

In short, I would say, be a friend first and foremost, not a salesman.