advertising your business for free on mm.com

I want to conduct an experiment and I’m looking for a business owner in either Ypsilnati or Ann Arbor that might be willing to help me.

I’ve been doing this site for about 6 years now, and, other than the Amazon links on the side, I’ve never run an ad for anything that I wasn’t involved in myself. I’m thinking, however, that I might want to try accepting ads for local businesses. And, the first step, at least as I see it, is to see whether or not there’s really any value to be derived for a restaurant or retailer in doing so.

OK, here’s the background… The audience for this site has been growing tremendously this past year, and it looks as though we’re outgrowing the Hamtramck server we’re presently on. So, I’m going to have to move the site to a larger hosting company, and that means more in the way of monthly fees. So, I had this idea… What if I were to do something like run a coupon a month for a local business willing to offer a good deal for MM.com readers? I don’t know what I’d charge — maybe $100 for a month — and, in return, they’d either get a small coupon on the front page, or a link to a coupon at the bottom of every post during that month, saying something like, “This post was brought to you by the 99-dollar Casket Store, where MM.com readers Save in the Grave.

And, if we take in more than we spend on hosting, I can do things for the site, like buy a new camera, or maybe even build a little studio in the basement with a ‘green screen’ so that I can make movies of myself flying around Ypsilanti on a magic carpet (or magic coffin, if the 99-dollar Casket Store wants to underwrite it).

Anyway, it’s just an idea at this point. I was just thinking that, if I did want to go that route, I should probably first see whether or not you cheap assholes in the audience would ever use coupons, or respond to ads. (I suspect most of my readers live in people’s garages, stealing bandwidth, and eating vermin.) So, I’d be looking for a restaurant owner, bar operator or retailer in the Ypsi-Arbor area willing to 1) make a decent offer to MM.com readers, 2) provide a decent looking web-ready image, and 3) share all the resulting data concerning redemption with me. (Assuming that multiple businesses want to participate, I’ll take the one making the more attractive offer in their coupon.)

Ok, let the “you’re an f’ing sell-out” shit storm begin.

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6 Comments

  1. Black Jake
    Posted July 24, 2008 at 5:46 pm | Permalink

    No Comments/Pingbacks for this post yet…

    Either Ypsilantians are virtuous beyond the concept of advertising, or they’re too easily distracted by a big pink cat pooper.

  2. Posted July 24, 2008 at 7:45 pm | Permalink

    How about this:

    Attention Garage Dwelling, Bandwidth Thieving, Vermin Eating, Cheap Assholes: Cash Paid for Your Record Collections.

    I’d pay $100 to run that ad.

  3. mark
    Posted July 24, 2008 at 10:33 pm | Permalink

    I suspect it’ll take a little while for business owners to mull it over, but I’m confident that some will come forward, wanting to give it a shot. They really don’t have much to lose.

  4. mark
    Posted July 24, 2008 at 10:36 pm | Permalink

    And, if no one else comes forward, I’ll run Geoff’s ad.

  5. Ol' E Cross
    Posted July 25, 2008 at 12:03 am | Permalink

    I was at ypsinews.com earlier. There was the Michael Bodary banner on top, the Pete Murdock banner on the side, and just below, a banner ad with a smiling picture of Newt Gingrich for his latest book.

    I was tempted to take a screen shot but knew it wasn’t fair to either of the candidates. It is nice to imagine who’ll start popping up in the Mark Maynard sidebar once you start selling space.

    Might be smart to negotiate with Geoff for a ten year lease…

  6. sanek59
    Posted July 7, 2011 at 10:23 am | Permalink

    It took you almost three years from the announcement of this test to the implementation of the full-fledged advertising program. That’s like a billion years in internet time.

    I guess what I’m saying is that you’re slow.

    The new site looks good, though.

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