Howzabout a little Monday Morning Meta?
So, you may have noticed a couple of new ads on Eclectablog this past week. The first one over there on the left is for an Ann Arbor-area electrician, Dan Del Zoppo. Up there at the top is one for We Are The People Michigan. These two ads have something in common: they were purchased directly through me rather than a separate ad distribution company.
Why is this important? Well, first of all, it means that I get 100% of the revenue which is nice for me. But, better yet, these are ads that are targeted toward my audience. Like you, I detest the stupid ads served up by Adbrite, etc. I have no use for cellulite reduction or some of the other odd things that randomly pop up. A way around that is for my readers to purchase ads of their own. It supports my work and gets rid of the dumb ads everyone hates.
The Dan Del Zoppo ad was purchased for him by his son Dave as a Christmas gift. It will grace the top of my sidebar for two months. Dan Del Zoppo has been in Washtenaw County for 20 years and has strong ties to the community as well as organized labor. I am proud to have him advertising at Eclectablog.
We Are the People was fortunate enough to have their ad in place when my blog was featured on The Rachel Maddow Show last week:
So, if you are part of an organization that would like to support progressive bloggers and reach a targeted progressive audience in the Midwest, please consider placing an ad on Eclectablog. Or maybe you are a regular reader and would like to support my work. For less than you might think you can run an ad of your choice for a month or more. Support your favorite charity or plug some group that is doing good work. If you can’t swing the full thing yourself, several folks could pool their donations to replace one of the dumb ads that we all hate with something that does some good. For a fee, we can even create the ad graphic for you (the Dan Del Zoppo Electric ad was created by us, for example.)
At the end of the day, you’ll have made Eclectablog a better-looking site and you will have helped me to keep things going.
In addition, starting in January 2012, I will be having quarterly fundraising drives. Once each quarter, every day for a week, I will be begging for your support (and donations.) I hate doing it, but I put considerable energy into this blog and, frankly, I incur some costs in the process. This is a way for me make sure I don’t go broke bringing you up-to-date news from around Michigan and beyond along with commentary and even some original reporting. I hope you’ll forgive the intrusion and also consider making a donation to help things along.
Finally, plans are underway for a podcast. I am teaming up with Christine Barry from Blogging for Michigan to create what will start as a weekly podcast to discuss Michigan politics and news. As things progress, we hope to bring in guests from the Michigan political scene. Stay tuned for more news on this.
Thanks for reading!
