CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
resolvedI've been mulling over what to do with citycycling almost ever since I pulled it as a monthly magazine. The intention had been to turn it into a blog. Yet another blog. And I've really gone off the idea. Besides, I liked the free monthly magazine format.
So I'm planning a Feb '11 resurrection, but I want the site to pay its way. I've tried at getting advertising and sponsorship before, but it has always been a bit hamfisted. Any tips?
I suppose it depends what sort of money you're talking about - did it cost £5 a month to host or £500?
What ballpark you're in will dictate whether you're likely to get much mileage out of, say, PayPal donations from readers VS asking local business magnates like LaidBack and the Bicycle Chain for hefty sums of cash ;-)
Google Ads?
Local Bike shops as a banner Advert.
Subscription? Users allowed to view content after paying for a users account? Perhaps a cut down 'Abstract version' for public with users having access to full content.
Would charging for content lead contributors to expect payment too?
Sell shares to people in return for giving them chance to put an article in every so often or publish photos? Tell them they're paying for the chance to reach xxxx number of enthusiastic readers and potential consumers.
"City's latest bright idea to make a little cash"
"ADVERTS are set to hang from Edinburgh's lampposts in a trial scheme which could bring the city council £100,000 in just one year."
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/topstories/City39s-latest-bright-idea-to.6661359.jp
Are you suggesting Anth hangs adverts from himself?
He certainly gets 'spotted' enough.
Sponsorship, patronage ? Many grants and awards are out there, trick is knowing where to look. My involvement with Air Cadets opened my eyes, the amount of money floating about for the asking is incredible ! You need to find some one who knows how and who to approach, and have a reason why they should get involved with your cause. Lottery grants, local authority grants, RBS help a lot,contact employers and beg borrow or ,you know what from them all. If you can convince edinburgh council that the idea can hrelp deliver just onwe part of their aims or goals then you might have access to their fund raising people. Radio Forth, might not give you any funds but again might put you in touch with the right people. Depends what you really want to do !
Best of british !
I can do basic hosting for nowt :-)
Count me in. As long as we are sole bike shop sponsor mind ;-)
Me too. Not sure about the hefty sums of cash bit though...
Cheers for the suggestions folks, some good stuff!
@BicycleLegal, you have PM.
@thebikechain, I had plans for you.... We'll talk...
We will.
Hope you can get your sponsorship and I know the thread's resolved but to save whatever you can obtain…
You can get free hosting with PHP5.2 and MySQL databases (meaning you can install almost any CMS you want) at 000Webhost, Zymic and Bytehost. All these are ad free - your site will look exactly as you want - no taglines, pop-ups or anything else for the viewer.
All are OK with decent storage and monthly bandwidth allowances. Just ensure you're assigned one of their better servers otherwise certain things like webmail or other http calls don't work very well - just set up a fresh account if you find you're on a recalcitrant one. As with any web hosting, ensure you make regular, local back-ups of your databases and files.
The hosting based auto install function for content management systems doesn't usually work every time on free hosting but that's not much of a drawback. I've had Drupal with loads of modules installed (all free - drupal.org) and working flawlessly on all of these three although, at the moment, I prefer 000webhost (just check you've been allocated one of their good servers - there are simple scripts you can call to test this).
Of course, if you're going to want a secure server/certificate for sales you process yourself (rather than letting PayPal or another third party do it for you as you did before with your lovely Ts) then you're probably going to be looking at paid-for hosting.
Anyway. I've finally taken delivery of the knobbly tyres I ordered a couple of weeks ago to temporarily replace my fun-in-the-snow-but-severely-scary-on-ridged-ice as I've recently found out slicks so I'm off to head into town now the worst of the traffic's over. …Or have another hot chocolate now that the blood's returning to my fingertips, toes, nose and ears and wait till tomorrow and hit the North in daylight when it's just a wee bit warmer.
You must log in to post.
Cycling in Edinburgh Flickr group
Video embedded using Easy Video Embed plugin
posts