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.