I've been toying with spending $20-$30 bucks doing some advertising for
Wikinews. It'd only be a few days, and if we noticed an impact I'd be
looking to see a few other people stick their hands in their pockets.
Google "Project Wonderful" for the advertiser I'm looking at, you buy by
bidding a slot on a site (or group of sites - but more expensive) for a
number of days. A sidebar advert getting 50-100K hits a day can be had for
not much more than $5/day. A good advert will convert that into readers, and
hopefully a few contributors.
This was an idea I had last week when working on the quiz. I took a break to
read my favourite web comic (
http://www.schlockmercenary.com/) and as you
scroll down the page there is a banner on the right. Cost per day right now?
$5.20. What if... "What if we take it for Monday after the quiz is set up?"
was my thought. For any week we used the promotion we could add an extra
answer to every question... "Shlock eats it". This is a running gag in the
site's forums and if we're advertising there...
So, having been toying with that idea and wondering who could do a banner I
was reading the foundation mailing list today and there was a reminder that
the fundraiser starts tomorrow. Hmmm, I don't want to spend more than that
$20-$30 bucks on my wikitivities over the next month, so advertise our quiz
or give to the fundraiser. Or... buy an advert for the fundraiser.
I've emailed Howard Tayler, the mad mind behind the aforementioned webcomic.
My request to him has been to donate a drawing to go in the space. I buy the
space, and it links to the WMF fundraiser.
So, in closing, does anyone else have any _economic_ ideas along these lines
where the small amount that can be afforded can be used to turn into a
larger income? By income I'm not just talking about money for the
Foundation. If that ad spot on Howard's site went to $6/day and I decided
for one month to advertise the quiz (and do the aforementioned theming) I'd
spend $24 or $30. The advertising is highly targeted being the day after the
quiz is published and taking just one day makes people who read a site daily
notice the change. The income would be readers and hopefully a few
contributors.
Brian.