advertising, events posting & faq on pdxdog.™com

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Permalink Reply by Andrea Schneider on August 5, 2009 at 4:58pm

Hi,

I want to list some of the value pdxdog adds to the Portland community.

By the feedback I've received, pdxdog is useful, helpful and fun for the community. We are filling a need, and playing a role, not previously filled in Portland and beyond.

We are an intermediary, organizing, and communication service, which people choose to use in a variety of ways. The tools are useful, educational, and above all fun for our members and others. We have done a good job of connecting people with needs, with people who can help them.

I created, funded, and run this network alone. Our community knows pdxdog is a business, not unlike and like, any other in Portland. This has always been written in our policies.

We have a unique role to play in the community. We have served as convener, leader, conveyor of information, and fundraiser for a special causes. pdxdog has helped people network ,with people who never knew each other, before the network existed.

We have helped businesses meet each other and build beneficial connections, which may or may not have been profitable.

We are known for community collaboration, good ideas, leveraging resources and sharing openly. Our "product" is our growing community. As Portland's dog loving social network we welcome new dog people to Portland and our dog community all the time.

We support member groups and outside organizations, wherever we can, because we love our community and our pups. Like any other business, we make choices about who those groups are everyday.

We have chosen to be a local network on purpose. We bring together a real community, one that touches hearts and lives, in real time, in real ways.

Now to your questions:

I do have data about the Portland Metro Area and site visits. I included some of it in the media kit, but not all. I started to put it in the media kit, but the kit ended up with way too much copy and not fun to read. I also don't have all the data possible, but will have more as we grow.

Bark Magazine's data is really good and I was happy to use it. Statistical studies like that, are not done on a yearly basis, research like that is very, very expensive. If more useful, detailed local data exists, and members have better data for me to use, I would love to see it. I myself don't have the resources to fund that local study.

Most publications, even local ones, use industry standards, and national data, to describe the market, then tailor it, if they can, to the unit needed. I looked at most of the dog magazines, their online media kits, and demographics.

Some of the latest research, into advertising and marketing metrics, suggest it isn't all about the click through anymore, although that remains of great interest to many people. It's only part of the story. Actually , the story is becoming more important. People want to know more about the advertiser and the benefit they bring to their (the customer's) lives. Consumers are watching, how they spend their dollar, more carefully, and they have choices.

The discussion about ROI is maturing into discussions of how marketing and advertising is having to change in regards to social media. What counts and has real meaning is emerging daily. It's still easy for people to sell themselves as experts.

Businesses large and small, are having to adapt quickly, many are running as fast as they can. It's well recognized these changes are affecting every sector and community. It's commonly discussed, on the radio, online, in publications and books. I don't think the path is clear, or that we really understand the nature of the phenomenon

The role of the advertiser is changing, especially in social media. It isn't a one way street anymore. Just like pdxdog has be be of value to the community, the advertiser needs to be perceived, as valuable to their target market. Businesses are being more thoughtful about how they spend their advertising dollar. As we know, these changes are reflected everyday in newspapers, as advertisers are moving to online formats.

There are strong indications the trend is toward a softer (rather than hard sell), the click-through is one measurement, but does not directly correlate to sales. One way to know more directly, is if the advertiser offers a coupon, promotional code or something like that, and tracks where actual sales are coming from.

As the role of social networks, blogs, and other social media outlets evolve, people are needing to learn how to monetize their sites, from the biggest to the smallest.

Why? Just like any other business endeavor, it costs money to run a social network. Many of the expenses are similar to any other business. Running a successful and professional network requires professional expertise.

Someone has to manage the network, pay any fees associated with the network, work with web designers and graphic artists, and on and on. Unless it is a hobby, or you are independently wealthy, or have a backer of some kind, those expenses still have to be paid.

The MarketPlace, in it's current form, just went up, so it's really new. I don't think the old version was really helpful to people and it was cumbersome to use.

I want to fill it up, and promote it, in as many ways as I can. I can visualize a lively and dynamic online MarketPlace, with people looking forward to seeing what's new or finding a resource when they need it. Each ad in the MarketPlace gives people places to looks for what they want or need.

It will be easy to point people in the direction of the MarketPlac,e for all kinds of services, resources, information, etc. I have plans to make our MarketPlace different and a place people will seek out. That's my job and I haven't done it yet. I have to have businesses to point to.

Being invisible isn't useful to me or the community. I want to have the resources on pdxdog to help those looking and those providing the service.

I created an advertising rate of $300/Year, which is $25/month, so any business could advertise and benefit on pdxdog.com. It's really a giveaway.

The $300 a year advertiser gets a lot for very little. They get two graphic ads linked, to their website or blog, they can use their business name as their member id, they can talk about their business on their page and they have one free event posting a year.

There is not a better deal anywhere and I have really looked. I have made this rate so low, I figure, if people don't advertise, and make it easy for us to drive business their way, they don't want to advertise on pdxdog. It's a very simple and easy message for me to get.

By not making a decision, for $300 a year, people are making a decision. I want their business, and I want to recognize them on our website, and I will keep moving forward. As I get more sophisticated with data, I will willingly share it. I expect, however, that some of these questions people can find the answers to themselves.

I will work closely with the people who do advertise to get the most out of it. Obviously, if they are paying a premium rate, they will get more of my time. That just stands to reason.

The other two ad packages, even at the premium level, are less expensive than anything else out there. Again, I did that on purpose. I'm sure as pdxdog matures, I will be able to adapt those packages, provide more data and information, and continue to beat any other advertising rate. We want to be a good value on many levels. We care about our quality.

Best,

Andrea

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Permalink Reply by Marley, Sushi and their Mama on August 5, 2009 at 10:21pm

You might already be aware of this but you can use Google Analytics on your actual website (on yours, not on pdxdog) and it gives you extensive data as to where web traffic is coming from. It tracks visitors, traffic sources, page views, average time on site, keywords searched... it even tells you what kind of web browser your web visitor is using.

My humble opinion is that the ad rates on pdxdog are quite reasonable (I'm not a business owner and I'm not currently advertising on pdxdog but I have a background in advertising, design and marketing). I'd say that for such a bargain price, it's well worth reaching Portland's largest, organized, dog-specific social network. Seems like a lot of exposure for not much investment. But that's just me.

Oh, and I originally became aware of Olive's Heroes through pdxdog... don't know that I would have heard about your organization otherwise.

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Permalink Reply by Andrea Schneider on August 6, 2009 at 12:58pm

Thank you very much for your support on the value of pdxdog in the community and as an advertising outlet. Your suggestion for individuals to put Google Analytics on their sites is good practice. And will help each site owner's determine their own ROI.

Big Yummy Bone to you, Marley and Sushi!

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Permalink Reply by Andrea Schneider on August 7, 2009 at 3:17pm

I have given more thought to the questions and posts by Olive/Bridget & Heidi. As I continue to research pdxdog & Portland statistics, I will continue to share the information with everybody.

There are some excellent points & questions in this discussion.

a

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Permalink Reply by Andrea Schneider on August 24, 2009 at 1:22pm

An excellent article on the current state of advertising and marketing by Seth Godin (ideo.com)
"The massive attention surplus"


"There was an attention drought for the longest time. Marketers paid a fortune for TV ads (and in fact, network ads sold out months in advance) because it was so difficult to find enough attention. Ads worked, so the more ads you bought, the more money you made, thus marketers took all they could get.


This attention shortage drove our economy.


The internet has done something wacky to this situation. It has created a surplus of attention. Ads go unsold. People are spending hours on YouTube or Twitter or Facebook or other sites and not spending their attention on ads, because the ads are either absent or not worth watching.


When people talk about the problem with free online, they're missing the point. Free is creating lots of attention, but marketers haven't gotten smart enough to do something profitable with that attention.


Hint: funny commercials with chimps won't be the answer.


It turns out that the almost infinitely long tail of attention varieties is what will kick open the monetization of online attention. Yes, I will give my attention to an ad, but only if it's anticipated, personal and relevant. We still give permission to marketers that earn it, but so few marketers do.


Simple example: Ten years ago, there was nowhere for a company like Best Made Axe to advertise. Today, with billions of tiny micromarkets, it's not hard to imagine many audiences of one or two or three or ten that would be delighted to know about their products. Right now, there's no easy way for a marketer to conceptualize that effort, never mind execute it, though it's surely coming.


Big companies, non-profits and even candidates will discover hyperlocal, hyperspecialized, hyperrelevant... this is where we are going, and it turns out that this time, the media is way ahead of the marketers."

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