Gift Guide?

Is there a gift guide out there for (very) small businesses to advertise in?

I don’t have much of a budget so I can’t buy into big fancy ones, but there must be something out there for the little guys. Help?

(This is not a ploy to get free advertising. It’s a real question.)

23 Comments

Paul Lundgren

about 10 years ago

Perfect Duluth Day's Gift Guide will be published on Nov. 25. It's like any post on the site, so you can't buy advertising specific to that post; the ad would run on every page of the site.

Pretty much every print publication around has some sort of gift guide, too, but advertising costs money. Ain't nothin' cheap.

emilymoesewco

about 10 years ago

There's budget and then there's BUDGET. 

Small small business v Barnes and Noble.

emilymoesewco

about 10 years ago

I'd love to buy advertising here, but it's out of my budget. Look at who you've got. Those people have deep pockets. If you could find a way to make it possible for small small businesses to buy advertising, that would really be great. 

Maybe the ad doesn't run every day or the ad only runs for a specific hour. I dunno. There's got to be a way to make it possible.

TimK

about 10 years ago

Deep pockets is a relative term here, but it is hard for those of us with a hole in our pocket to make a marketing dent. I like the idea of more ad buy options to include lesser frequency insertions.

BadCat!

about 10 years ago

Agreed on allowing options for smaller advertisers on PDD. Yes, allowing cheap ads "devalues" your advertising, but this is a community blog, it'd be nice if the community can afford to place ads on it.

I'd love to see options for fewer rotations, smaller ad size, or tiered pricing for large/small businesses.

Paul Lundgren

about 10 years ago

Everything is expensive. Emily's hats are expensive. Tim's records are expensive. Ads on PDD are expensive. Ads everywhere else are expensive. We're all trying to pay the bills, yo.

Emily and Tim can explain how much work they put into the stuff they sell and what a struggle it is to make a livelihood doing what they do. Ain't no different here.

emilymoesewco

about 10 years ago

I know you're trying to pay the bills. Really I do. In fact, I'm trying to talk you into another income stream. Look at the ads you have. Do we fit? Are our ad budgets the same as Lucé? How could they be? 

Our stuff might be expensive but we don't have the volume that generates ad budgets like Tycoons, St. Scholastica or Lake Superior College have.

Paul Lundgren

about 10 years ago

Right. I'm not suggesting you should buy an ad, I'm just saying that there's a certain amount PDD has to charge for advertising in order to make it worthwhile to sell it.

PDD could reorganize its system and sell you a thumbnail-size ad at the bottom of every tenth page for $10, but that wouldn't do anyone any good. 

If I told you I have a low income and only need a hat on Tuesdays, you wouldn't offer to drive out to my house and drop off a hat on Tuesdays and pick it up on Wednesdays at the rate of $10 a week in order to create a new revenue stream for yourself.

PDD already has some of the lowest advertising rates in the market. Dropping them any lower would kill us.

TimK

about 10 years ago

My records are not expensive! They are "collectible."

BadCat!

about 10 years ago

There could be a whole industry in buying a PDD ad, then sub-leasing it out into four smaller ads.

TimK

about 10 years ago

I think what we're asking for is a cheaper insertion rotation,  not smaller ads- a lower rate for an ad that doesn't show up as frequently. I know, it's hard work to make the computer code do something a different number of times.

emilymoesewco

about 10 years ago

That's exactly what I'm suggesting. I buy the first week of the month. Tim gets the second. et cetera. I pay $25 a month, so does Tim and two others. There. You've got the same rate as if one business had one ad.

Paul Lundgren

about 10 years ago

If one of you would like to buy an ad and sublease it out, that would be fine. But if you are all chipping in $25 you would have to divide the ad up into 20 parts in order to run it for a month. I don't really see that working out.

TimK

about 10 years ago

Your explanation lacks clarity. What do you mean by dividing the ad into 20 parts? Isn't it just a Wordpress plug-in and you set the refresh rate?

Paul Lundgren

about 10 years ago

If you are going to buy a $500 month-long ad and chip in $25 each, as Emily suggested, it's going to require 20 collaborators, no matter how many graphics are used or how they are divided up or how its programmed to refresh.

TimK

about 10 years ago

Okay, I think we've been throwing around different times (month or week). In any event, why do YOU think it's such a bad idea for someone to purchase fewer "impressions" per week or month. We're not asking you to kill puppies. It feels as though your objections are not technically-based. I remember at show there was this guy who bought a record from me and I KNEW he wouldn't enjoy it when he got home. I sold it to him anyway....

emmadogs

about 10 years ago

Um, you guys....Emily's hats are so wonderful, beautifully made, and let me take this moment to encourage everyone to buy one for your gift desires....ditto Tim....but PDD is a small business too.  Obviously the owners are interested in our community.  They're not out screwing over other small business types.  If they are to succeed, they have to make a profit.  Ads are how they do it.  They're supporting us all by virtue of this blog, don't give them a hard time for needing to make some money doing it.

TimK

about 10 years ago

You're missing the point. We would like to give them money. We are suggesting a new income stream based on modifying the increments they sell. (and Paul started the snark). I love PDD. Here, take my money.

Paul Lundgren

about 10 years ago

Tim and Emily, I will call you both tomorrow and sell you exactly what you want. Over the phone I will seem less snarky.

emilymoesewco

about 10 years ago

I would really prefer it if whatever you're going to offer us could be put into the general description about purchasing advertising. I'm sure that the two of us aren't the only ones who need this.

BadCat!

about 10 years ago

Not to add more drama to this conversation, but you could charge less "bottom ad" slot (add an extra ad on the right pane, then have it randomly select from the cheap ads). Many of the bigger advertisers want to appear at the top of the webpage, but smaller advertisers are just happy to be anywhere.

MomAH

about 10 years ago

Another idea for advertising could be to buy inclusion into a local coupon book. The Rotary Rose Day coupon book is an example. Businesses can buy an ad in the book, or offer a coupon in the book (which I am guessing costs less than an ad without a coupon). There are other coupon book opportunities, too, like the ones sold by schools. We bought a school fundraising coupon book published by Integrity Fundraisers and also have a Rotary coupon book for this year. I think the Rotary books get especially good exposure. Many of these are already published and out the door at this time of year, but for next year it might be a good opportunity. I guess I don't know what it would cost, but is probably worth looking into.

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