Site of the Month.

[george]

I've been asked by a national (internet) magazine if we'd like to be their Sports Site of the Month for April. This comes with a favourable review and a mystery shopper report, which they've already done apparently, and showing me the draft before it goes to print.

Now. Sounds good. But they want money for this. I'd rather not give too much detail for obvious reasons but is this standard script? Or is it just a glorified advert? I dare say it would be good for us, but I'd rather EARN an `award` and not pay for it. I don't advertise with the magazine at all btw.

Any thoughts?

[pinbrook]

Being a complete cynic I wouldn't be prepared to pay.

I know a lot of magazines only give good write ups to people who pay, but for me that goes against the grain.

In your case i'd take a look at previous Site of the Month features in the mag and decide if it is worth the money they are asking for, bearing in mind it is simply an advert.

If the mag phoned you and asked you to advertise in their mag would you? If the answer is no, then consider is Site of the Month just a ploy?

[jont]

Sounds like a familiar scenario as practiced by the printed media. With the printed media it is often obvious to see that it is an advertorial or such and the feature has been sponsored in someway - with an internet recommendation it will be hard to spot it has been paid for if the page is created and worded properly.

As for paying you need to decide:

1. how much are they asking
2. are they a reputable web site / leader in their area
3. throughput to your site - they should be able to monitor this
4. is your site ready and able to cope with added visitors
5. why are people using their site in the first place
6. are your products likely to appeal to their visitors

Once the month is up there is nothing to stop you using their quote regarding your site as part of a testimonial

I am personally very wary of such online advertising as the costs involved can be quite high and you can not necessarily recoup the investment - especially with tight online margins.

[jont]

If your site is as good as they claim then you are adding added value to their site and they should not be charging you. You also have to ask yourself how they found you in the first place - probably via search engine - which is free to all the internet to find you and not buried on some internet magazine site.

[freakmode]

And next month you may win a Golden Web Award - LOL

[pinbrook]

[QUOTE]internet magazine[QUOTE]

is it a magazine which is a website ie e-magazine as Jont seems to think or is it a printed magazine about the internet (which is what my reply was based on).

if its only web then you are probably throwing your money away, if its printed then its worth considering, ask them how many mags they print.

But i think that freakmode has probably summed it up well

[Jan]

My sister runs a soft furnishings business and had a similar call from a magazine, it ended with her paying for an advertisement 'feature' and she made no money from it at all.

I guess that you need to ask yourself wether you would pay to advertise with that particular magazine if they hadn't asked you to.

Also ask for 3 or 4 references from previous sports sites of the month and give them a call and ask how it went.

Then again, I would probably go for it so that I could show it to my mum :-)

Cheers,

[garyhay]

George

I'd rather not give too much detail for obvious reasons but is this standard script

Might as well tell all now so at least we can make a proper judgement.


What Jont & freakmode are saying is that these things (if they are web based) are are really good way of getting links and taking payment for it too.


HOW IT WORKS

I phone 6 companies in the local/international area (I say local because its more plausible for me) tell them they have won a Grampian Area site of the month award and will be listed in my site. Hell I dont even need payment but could take one if I was really going for it. I send them a graphic/code that links back to my site. 6 reciprical links. You have one on each on thier homepages and they have one buried away in some meanlesss part of my site.

Please tell us as Web Designers/Users/Businesses we need to know these things. If you would rather not post use my e-mail link and send direct. At least I can have a proper look.

[george]

Its a printed magazine with pages, staples and ad things that fall out.

[garyhay]

That might be okay depending on the mag. Get last months issue and visit site of the week and ask if they thought it was value for money

[dscontroller]

Hi George,


My site has appeared in quite a few high profile magazines and at no time have I ever paid for the privelege. They help a little, but I'm not in the Bahamas as I write this!

David

www.smithscountrypursuits.co.uk

[OldWelshGuy]

A couple of points here. I have to say that if you are paying to be site of the month, then BY LAW the words 'Advertising Feature' have to appear in a prominent position at the head of the pagecontaining it, or the head of the feature if it is not a full page. This is a condition of the advertising standards agency.

Here is the CAP rule
------------------------------------------------------
(see CAP Help Note on Advertisement Features)

23.1
Advertisement features, announcements or promotions, sometimes referred to as "advertorials", that are disseminated in exchange for a payment or other reciprocal arrangement should comply with the Code if their content is controlled by the marketers rather than the publishers.


23.2
Marketers and publishers should make clear that advertisement features are advertisements, for example by heading them "advertisement feature".

-----------------------------------------------------
Note that it says in 23.2 MARKETERS & Publishers, you are the marketer, if it is not ther then YOU can get hit by trading standards, so be wary.

The moment this law is complied with, you lose all the benefit of site of the month, and become an underhanded advertiser (IMO). Why not ask them if they will run an advertising supplier support feature and contact your suppliers to support it?

[jont]

Why not ask them if they will run an advertising supplier support feature and contact your suppliers to support it?

This can be a double edged sword - if you go down this route make sure the suppliers adverts do not say something like "We wish Joe Bloggs & Co all the best" - ie: there should be no reference to your company or again you will lose credibility as OWG suggests - being Site of the Month should be there by merit alone.

[cbarling]

I've had loads of these types of approaches over the years. The worst are the US business TV programs. They've "specially selected" you because you're such an interesting case. You pay them a "small production fee" of c $20,000 and they produce a program on you, probably shot on a hand-held camcorder, and that goes out at 3am on a cable channel only received in North Dakota.

I now have a standard response which basically comes to this. "Thanks very much for this opportunity. Unfortunately, we have an iron rule that we've developed from experience. We never advertise (which is what it is if you're paying) until we have received leads as a result of unpaid coverage in your publication. If your editorial staff don't think their readers/viewers are interested in us on our merits, we will submit to their judegement and not waste our time".

Chris
Actinic

[OldWelshGuy]

Absolutely, when we had a paper, we would often run stories about new businesses, or interesting companies, and always placed contact details in it. We knew that the company would get a responce, and we also knew then that they would be more receptive to us talking about advertising in the publication, as they had already had a toe in the water for free.