Wikidweb talk:Sponsorship

From Wikidweb

Table of contents

1 Is this the same as selling ads?

2 So, do you guarantee clicks? Pagerank Increase? Etc.

3 Are you a non-profit? Can I deduct my sponsorship?

4 Will you take any amount of money to sponsor a category?

5 Good luck ;-)

6 Sponsor Contribution Amount

7 Sponsorship

8 Sponsorship

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Is this the same as selling ads?

Well, yes, sort of. We believe that this is a somewhat friendlier approach than sticking a bunch of ads in the sidebar, and we want to get a feel for the community's response.

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So, do you guarantee clicks? Pagerank Increase? Etc.

No, Our intention is to solicit sponsorships. Certainly this will result in some more visibility for the sponsor, but we do not intend to have a pay-per-click model or anything similar.

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Are you a non-profit? Can I deduct my sponsorship?

No, we're not a non-profit organization at this time - we have all kinds of wishful thinking about the future of the directory, but right now we're just hoping to raise some funds to support future growth.

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Will you take any amount of money to sponsor a category?

No, Would like to have at least some amount to cover the administration. A five dollar donation is nice, but doesnt' cover the time to set up the "thank you" link.

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Good luck ;-)

I expect that if you get it right, one day soon this site will huge, so don't sell long term sponor links for too little or for too long a duration. Your comments about what you'll do with any surplus money are nice, but if you want real credibility you really should create a non-profit group, or perhaps a charitable trust (they can pay you to run it :-) - then people will know that it's not just another commercial enterprise trying to get volunteers to do all the work for free :-). The type of sponsor links you describe sound good. --Wikikiwi 04:53, 23 Oct 2006 (MDT)

You make a good point about the surplus money thing - since that's totally wishful thinking, maybe I should just get rid of that completely, and if/when it happens, I'll publicize it then. That's some really good advice about the charitable trust too - thanks! We only recently organized an actual company and I'm still dotting the i's and crossing the t's for that, so it may take me awhile to act on the charitable trust thing - but that's a great idea. Thanks Again, --Aerik Sylvan 08:39, 24 Oct 2006 (MDT)

although as an online business 'person' and an e-comm owner, i feel avoiding sponsor ads would bring greater credibility to the site. perhaps a special sponsors page would be ok, but i would be hesitant to include it in their category or page. maybe a special certificate graphic in their page indicating that they are nice enough to keep this site going would be ok.--Azrael 08:58, 5 Nov 2006 (MST)

Hi Azrael - thanks for the input. I can appreciate what you're saying, I certainly like sites that don't have sponsored links and ads, etc., but the reality is that once Wikidweb gets to be a certain size, I'm either going to have to beg for donations or monetize it. Wikidweb is a different kind of thing than Wikipedia, and doesn't have as fanatical a community, so the donations avenue probably isn't viable. However, as Wikidweb gets to be a more and more respectabel resource, advertising probably is viable. Best Regards, --Aerik Sylvan 22:21, 10 Nov 2006 (MST)

Some further thoughts about fundraising: Excluding my time, my costs are currently pretty minimal to run the wiki directory, but when we have 10x the listings/visits/pageviews (the numbers keep growing) I will need more hardware and bandwidth to keep up, so I'll be forced to find some way to make some money. The purpose of the wiki directory has always been two-fold: to have flexible and responsive directory for web browsers to find useful content, and also a place for people (including website owners) to publicize useful websites (with constraints, of course - this is not a free-for-all link farm for advertisers). We believe in what we're doing here, but it does (and will) cost some money... Thanks, --Aerik Sylvan 09:29, 27 Apr 2007 (PDT)

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Sponsor Contribution Amount

It seems as if this may be a good idea. As long as you give users @ potential sponsors an idea as to how the money would be used, I don't think there would be much problem. I know that the project is in its early stages, but do you have any Sponsorship Contribution amounts in mind yet? darren n. smith / gabrielmichael.com

Well, I'd use the money to cover my webhosting costs to start, then to pay a professional editor to maintain listing quality, then further develop the directory and other projects.

I'm thinking a minimum of $25 per year, per category. If I should end up with more than one sponsor for category, I think I would rotate them... --Aerik Sylvan 13:37, 18 Oct 2007 (PDT)

$25/yr seems reasonable, however I'd put a cap on number of sponsors per category per year (as in no more than 4) - I assume some categories will be much more popular than others... perhaps you can also offer more than one level of sponsorship. --Livluvlaf729 22:14, 23 Jan 2008 (PST)/upon-request.com

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