A comparison of four different methods to make electrical contact to both 100 nm gold nanowires and 50 nm multiwall carbon nanotubes is given. The techniques are compared in terms of the success yield, contact resistance, complexity of the fabrication steps, and potential for creating novel device structures and architectures. The different methods compared are (i) in situ micromanipulation of wires onto prepatterned electrodes, (ii) ion and electron beam assisted deposition, (iii) electron beam lithography, and (iv) drop casting of wires from solution onto prepatterned electrodes. (c) 2006 American Vacuum Society.