Re: [GSAS-board] Web site stuff

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

On Sat, 28 Feb 2009, Shango Los wrote:

> I'm going to skirt this a bit.  I agree that that the colors to the logo are
> not to my liking either, however!, I don't really think it matters all that
> much.  There are a lot of folks who have different tastes than I.  If we
> were a for profit company I would put on my 15 years of brand strategy hat
> and give a dissertation but <shrug> I'm just glad to have someone like Phil
> willing to do the very important work of the flier creation.

...Which is why I didn't make any comments about the logo on the flyer. 
Figured Phil was enduring enough criticism about the log jokes and other 
minutea to bug him about it.  But a web redesign is a bit more permanent.


> I think it makes sense to put the sponsors on the front page or make a new
> section called "sponsors."  If we want them to consider our needs I think it
> makes sense to consider theirs.  I wouldn't want my sponsorship to be hidden
> if I was making a donation, especially if it was a significant as some of
> the folks do.

I DON'T think we should consider ourselves so beholden to the sponsors 
that we put all their logos on our main page.

They are a bunch of manufacturers and local stores, most of whom send us a 
few items of merchandise that isn't moving for them once a year, in 
response to a lot of letter-writing and arm-bending that club members have 
to do.  There are some notable exceptions, such as A Place For Pets (Kevin 
goes out of his way to help out the club).

If you look at who's supporting the club right now, it's the MEMBERS. 
It's members donating or selling their interesting old hardware, fish 
spawns and plant cuttings at the little auctions every month & also the 
two big ones.

Consider last year's general auction, for instance.  Let me show some 
numbers:  The club *netted* about $1460, about half of that from items 
SOLD by members. (Two of every three dollars spent were from split items, 
but you also have to count that seller gets 60% back.)  We don't know 
exactly how much, but there is also a fair amount of income from donations 
members brought in.  That means the club only brought in $500-600 due to 
donations from stores and manufacturers in the last year.

I'm estimating that the club brings in between $5000 and $6000 for its 
annual operating budget, between memberships, the two auctions, and the 
micro-auctions.  This means that the manufacturer and local store 
donations accounted for about 10% of our total operating revenue last 
year.

I do think that's worth a listing of the donors, and it's worth a separate 
thank-you/sponsor page with logos and links.  That is what I 
think Phil is proposing.

But I do not think it's worth increasing the length of our main page by 
50%, nor do I like the implication it will have that we somehow endorse 
all the products shown.


Finally, look at some other aquarium club websites.  Which ones can you 
navigate through?  Which ones are a tangle?  For instance, here's a 
listing of some clubs on the east coast:

http://northeastcouncil.org/nec/

The majority of them do not have sponsors plastered all over their main 
page.  The better ones (in my opinion) have an easy navigation menu on the 
left side, including a "SPONSORS" page.

   - Erik

-- 
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com
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