Updates:
First of all - changed the size of the logos on the feed/posts and on the advertising page.
And... Forgot to put the link to the home page of the blog and the new advertiser page on the feed for email subscribers and RSS subscribers. Here ya go... sorry! LINK TO ADVERTISER PAGE
You will see a new icon on the sidebar going forward. And a new page on this site.
At the top of the right sidebar is a billboard. A billboard that links to a page that features advertisers.
Allow Advertisements or Not Allow Advertisements
We thought long and hard about whether to take on advertisements. At first we were – “No way. We don’t want to be beholding to anyone that pays to advertise here." But we kept getting requests. Which is flattering. Obviously, there are folks out there that want to be part of the Incentive Intelligence viewer stream. Which for our little corner of the interweb is pretty darn good (better than almost every site about incentives - we've checked. I've got stats for you if you want to advertise - just connect with us here.)
We talked to a bunch of people. We got answers that ranged from – “Don’t do it. It will damage the brand”, to, “Go ahead – everyone else is doing it and why shouldn’t you get a little payback for all the work you’ve put into the blog over the past 4 plus years.”
We talked. We let it simmer. We talked some more. We let it simmer some more and here’s where we ended up.
Limited Billboard Advertising
Incentive Intelligence is a lot like a highway. People choose to go down this highway because it adds value to their business reading helps them design better incentive and reward programs. While others travel this road just because they enjoy it. This made us think about the highways and byways we travel each day in our cars. We see billboards all the time and they don’t stop us from traveling that particular road. As drivers, we understand that the road and the billboards, while connected, aren’t in a mutually beneficial financially symbiotic relationship (okay – buzzword bingo at its finest!).
In other words – if you take away the billboards – the road remains.
We feel we’re the same.
Since we have been here for over four years without advertising – and plan on being here for the foreseeable future - we don’t have to worry about pleasing our advertisers. We aren’t beholden to them.
We would just like a little sumptin’ sumptin’ for the effort.
So we talked some more and thought about the road/billboard relationship and this site. We decided that we’d give it a shot.
But with some big conditions.
Advertising Rules of The Road
First and foremost.The content will not change. This is key. The content will not change. Nothing will change our approach and our point of view. Nothing.
If we ever get to the point that we need our advertisers to survive we’d close the site before we’d compromise on our values and point of view.
That is #fact.
Second – we will vet the advertisers. There are some companies we won’t allow to advertise because we violently disagree either with their approach to the market, their products or their marketing tactics. We will not allow the normal “bad” influences into our site - you know who the usual suspects are (tobacco, alcohol, deceptive incentive companies, etc.)
Our goal is to monetize the traffic without making monetization the goal – but simply a happy outcome from the main mission of providing interesting, actionable and “make you think” content around incentives, rewards, recognition and influence.
We therefore have rules for advertising on this site...
#1 - We will limit the number of advertisers to no more than six (6) at any one time. This will ensure that we never have to worry about advertising being the main goal – there just isn’t enough money in six advertisers to make us compromise. But the limited number of advertisers also increases the value of our site. Win-win.
#2 - All advertising will include an I2I disclaimer stating emphatically that there is NO endorsement of the advertiser. This will be blunt and to the point. We aren’t recommending anyone. We are simply allowing someone to put up a billboard on our highway. We will however vet anyone wishing to advertise. They will have to be a real company. They will have to be either in the incentive industry, associated with the incentive industry, or closely adjacent to the business of influencing behavior in an organization, a distribution channel or the consumer.
What do the Advertisers Get?
Advertisers will receive at a minimum:
#1: Placement on an “advertisers” page on the web site. This will be a page where advertisers will share space with no more than 5 other companies. This will include one logo (no more than 300 200 pixels wide by 300 200 pixels tall) and no more than 100 words. There will be a right sidebar image that tells visitors to click on the image to see whose advertising.
#2: Advertisements at the top of selected posts inside a special box with the advertiser’s logo and information including the I2I non-endorsement disclaimer. This advertiser’s logo will be no more than 150 300 pixels wide and 200 75 pixels tall and include a three sentence description of the service/company totaling no more than 50 words.This box will be visible in all email and RSS feeds.
That’s it.
We really hope that this doesn’t inconvenience anyone or plant any seeds of distrust. Our subscribers are the most important thing on this site and we don’t want any of them to leave because of this move.
We’re confident we can make this work for everyone and also ensure our subscribers continue to get the unbiased and truthful discussion on incentives, rewards and influence you’ve always counted on.
Please let us know immediately if you think we’ve strayed.
The advertisers and this site DO NOT HAVE a mutually beneficial symbiotic financial relationship – but the site and the subscribers DO – and that’s what’s really important.
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