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Promote Your Local Nonprofit Or Community Event On UrbanReviewSTL.com For FREE

September 29, 2012 Featured, Site Info No Comments

Do you run a nonprofit or an event in the St. Louis region? If so, I want to talk to you about giving you free ad space here to help promote your event or organization. You read that correctly — free.

A recent ad for the Shaw Art Fair (click image for website)

The St. Louis region has so many nonprofits doing great work to better the communities they serve, I just want to help make sure more people are aware.  Same with events, from the Festival of Nations to MetroEast Pride, we have great events more should be aware of.

So what’s the catch? Just a few but they will hopefully make sense:

  • Event/organization must have a unique URL so when someone clicks the ad they’ll get the page for that event/org. This means if you have a website (mynonprofit.org) and you temporarily put up the event info on the homepage without a unique URL (mynonprofit.org/greatevent) then I can’t help you with free ad space. I don’t want anyone clicking the ad to have to search for event info. Ads will not be linked to a Facebook event or page since not everyone is on Facebook. If your nonprofit doesn’t have it’s own web presence yet then getting that done should be a high priority — it’s almost 2013! I am happy to meet with you to discuss getting to a modern website.
  • You must supply the actual ad image(s). Two sizes are available — 728×90 at the very top and 300×250 in the right sidebar.  Accepted formats are JPEG, PNG, or GIF. Flash isn’t accepted but animated GIF files do well.
  • Black text on a white background  is too boring, use color and good graphic design to catch the eye.
An ad created from a Facebook image promoting an upcoming event, click image for website.
  • Contact me via email before creating the ad(s) to make sure your organization or event is one I’m willing to promote here, please include the URL the ad should link to. The region is large and in two states so I want to include everyone. That said, I wouldn’t be interested in promoting a Ladue orchid club, for example. A youth bike program in East St. Louis, however, would get my attention. Your church isn’t a nonprofit so don’t even try that. Regular readers know I lean to the left so a right-wing organization/event (i.e: gun training for babies) doesn’t stand a chance — my site, my time, my rules.
  • Once ok’d the ads need to be submitted at least a week prior to the event date, 3-5 weeks is much better so the ads can be viewed by many more people. Ads for organizations should be able to be run for a full year without becoming outdated.
  • Just because your business hasn’t made a profit this year, or ever, doesn’t mean it’s a nonprofit.  For-profit businesses can purchase ad space at very low rates but I have given ads to startup businesses. I especially want to help minority-oewned businesses  providing employment in the community. Let’s talk.

Why am I doing this? I often get requests to write a blog post about an event that hasn’t happened yet but for the most part I write about an event I attended or a place I visited — I like to use images I took myself and share my personal experience. Better than a single post about an upcoming event is weeks of exposure to thousands. I may still write a post about the upcoming Shaw Art Fair or MetroLink Prom because I’ve attended both in the past and have images to use, but if I do it’d be no more than a day or two before these events. Giving away ad space allows me to promote great events & organizations without dictating the schedule of my blog posts.

I hope to hear from many of you soon.

— Steve Patterson

 

 

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