It seems like every few days now I receive an email from some commercial website or other that suggests they would like to "sponsor my blog." Usually they request that I put a text link on my blog to their site, or sometimes they offer a link exchange.
Wait. Sponsorship involves some flow of funds or other resources from the sponsor to the sponsoree, right?
For a while I ignored these requests.
Then I started fending them off with replies such as...
Thank you for your interest in sponsoring my blog. Our standard rates for providing text links to other sites on Proper Course are $12,495 per year for a minimum commitment of three years, payable in advance.
Usually that shuts them up but one site did come back and offer something like a $100 discount on their advertisers' products, which as I recall were luxury cruises in the Med.
Sometimes I write back and ask them what compensation they have in mind. Usually they offer one or two hundred bucks and then I write back and say that my CFO (aka Tillerwoman) is insulted by their derisory offer.
I don't really want to clutter up my blog with text links to commercial sites that have little or no relevance to the subject of this blog. (Me.)
I don't really need the kind of money most of these people are offering.
On the other hand I am sometimes tempted to reply with a detailed budget for my 2011/2012 Laser "campaign" including new boat every year, new sail every major regatta, travel and living expenses for regattas in Florida, California, Europe and Australia, costs of "training camps" in Caribbean and Mexico, private coaching etc. etc. and offer them a more comprehensive return in exchange for 100% commitment to covering my campaign costs.
Are any of my readers receiving similar requests?
Do you have any creative ways for dealing with them?
Would you like me to forward future offers of "sponsorship" to you?
17 comments:
I think ads destroy readership.
I get those requests. I ask for a worthy chunk of change in exchange for a link. They usually respond with a counter offer that is laughable.
My blog must be very low on the "monetizers" radar screen...I would not mind the money though...perhaps all your laser needs listed plus a new pottery wheel, a decent studio shed and a new automated kiln for starters...
Sailing Anarchy is plastered with sponsors. I have yet to click one. Off of the top of my head I only seem to recall the "Hoot." Did anyone ever buy one?
I was tempted by the Hoot. I might actually have bought one. But whenever I checked out their website online it seemed that they were always reporting (for at least three years it seemed) that they were just working out the last kinks in the final prototype. Not a hopeful sign. I haven't checked in there lately though...
To be honest I would be happier with a major sponsor like that, for a product that I might actually be interested in, than all these requests for random text links for next to no return.
Not that I really want to have ads at all...
SA is not so much of a blog as it is a 'zine.
The Hoot is still in the future, the last time I checked (a week ago). Very intriguing design though.
Consider posting links to charitable organizations, and then write off the fee as a donation might be worth more as a tax deduct than the paltry offers from sponsors. Your accountant or the IRS might not agree but some charities could use the help.
Personally I am pushing awareness of prostate cancer and support the PCF and other prostate cancer organizations. http://www.pcf.org/site/c.leJRIROrEpH/b.5699537/k.BEF4/Home.htm One in six older men messing around in boats will get prostate cancer. Some of us not so old last year at 54 I was diagnosed and successfully treated so hopefully 5 others of you will not have the diagnosis. It is very curable but 25,000 men will die every year in the US alone. We see lots of pink ribbons for breast cancer but few blue ribbons for prostate cancer awareness. Tillerman would you like me to get a blue Prostate Cancer awareness ribbon for your sail, it might help your racing, other racers would turn to figure out what is is and you could slip by....
I don't do blogging for money - rather it's to keep my distant family and friends up to date.
I do get some such ad requests on my Pacific Islander blog (which has considerable traffic) but not my sailing blog. I don't bother to reply.
I think Doc hit it on the head. Ads drive away readers. They have that effect on me. (uh, oh, that may encourage you to carry adds)
Not only do I find ads annoying; I find them so annoying that I have ad-blocking software on the two browsers I use the most.
Carol Anne might re-consider her principles if someone like Negro Modelo or Pilsner Urquell wanted to sponsor her boat and send her a case of beer every month. Short of that, why would we want to bother?
Now you are talking Pat...
I wrote this post and asked the questions not because I particularly want ads on my blog. As others have commented, I too feel that they are annoying and distracting.
Theses unsolicited requests that some of us receive for links are, for me, similar to those annoying telemarketing calls. The product or service offered has some value to some, but it is just irritating that they are bothering me with their pitch when I am trying to eat my dinner.
My evil and malicious streak often makes me want to respond to both kinds of "offers" in a way that has some fun at the expense of the callers. I'm not very good, though, at thinking of very creative ways to turn the tables on these folk.
However... I have put 5 years of effort into this blog and continue to spend several hours a week on it. It is a labor of love, I suppose. But if someone came up with some idea that enabled me to reap some tangible benefits from it (that beer of the month club thing would definitely appeal Pat) I might consider doing something to help the "sponsor". But not annoying text links or banner ads on the blog, please.
Hey, Steinlager is already the official beer of Black Magic. (OK, a different boat, but the same name ...)
And Raul Aguayo, the Olympic Laser sailor from the Dominican Republic, is sponsored by Presidente beer.
hmm, interesting piece of text and the comments about the HOOT. Was tempted as well. Ended up trying the BR Moth instead and are hooked.
I have always been for "white sails" though sometimes short of moonies but I also like my blog clean of ad´s.
Unfortunately followthehorizon.com has started getting these as well... so far I'm just flat out ignoring them. A few, however, have started sending follow up emails asking about the first email and claiming my contact form is broken. It isn't broken :-P.
I do like your idea Tillerman. Maybe I'll type up our cruising budget and just reply to each request with the budget.
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