You may have noticed there’s a new pair of links off to the right side of this page just under the link for Change Congress. Look for "Sponsor:" and you’ll find it. Hey, what’s up with that? Well, here’s the basics.
I was approached via e-mail by a marketing firm saying they had a client interested in sponsoring my site. For some reason I didn’t immediately hit the delete key. This didn’t seem to be a "we’ll get you into the top results of Google" offer, and the company that was interesting in sponsoring this blog was actually library related. My response: "Ok. What’s in it for me."
The gentleman at the other end offered $150 in exchange for the links you see for a period of six months. I thought about it for a day, did a little research on the sponsoring company and asked a large group of my online colleagues what they thought of the idea. With one exception the responses were "got for it." So, I did.
I insisted that I retain full editorial control and reserved the right to write this blog post about the experience. Once everything was finalized (which involved no signing of contracts, just some e-mail which I found refreshing) I received the money via PayPal and then put up the link. (Did you notice that I was paid first?) The ad is scheduled to run through 12 February 2009. At that point the relationship will be reevaluated.
What did I do with the money? I immediately blew it on a forthcoming Clive Barker limited edition, what else? 😉
