Sponsor, budgets and how to pay

[Odd Fact]

This goes along with the new design question. How to pay for a new design. You could scrape up the the budget you have or you could look for sponsers. I wondering what others have done. I have nevet soliciated sponsors. Does it work? With sponsorship I could offer more for a better design.

[Scott]

Based your posts here, I would deduce that this is related to this? (http://forumuniversity.com/campus/showthread.php?p=6640#post6640) In which case, if was a member at a forum which had recently been taken over, I wouldn't be too happy to see sponsors suddenly appearing, not immediately anyway. Maybe this is just me, I don't know. It would also depend on the forum. I would therefore be more likely to go for scrounging money.

Whether or not sponsorship works or not, I wouldn't know, but there was some pretty good discussing about it over here (http://www.forumuniversity.com/campus/showthread.php?t=298) :)

[Odd Fact]

Sponsors would be limited maybe a footer image/link and a sidebar. There are ads running now on the site so some promotion is accepted. However I do not want the ads to distract from the community.

Having some extra funds will increase waht we can offer for a design. I would like to get the best possible and not just settle for a quick fix.

[SoftWareRevue]

...Whether or not sponsorship works or not, I wouldn't know, but there was some pretty good discussing about it over here (http://www.forumuniversity.com/campus/showthread.php?t=298):)I'd like to repeat this post (http://www.forumuniversity.com/campus/showthread.php?p=3643#post3643) from that thread. :angel:

Not sure how relevant that is to this situation. But it may be if you're looking for sponsorship of different aspects.

If I were in your postion and looking for a design, I'd contact those that specialize in forum designs and explain how it could be mutually benificial for them to sponsor a design.

No one would benefit as much as a design studio from what I understand of your project. Maybe they get asked a lot. I don't know. But that's who I'd approach first. If that didn't work, then I'd refocus. :)

[TheDPQ]

I have never sponsored before either, keep that in mind when i babble.

What you can offer
Where and how often are you going to mention them? Are you going to mention them on the newsletter? Spsonsor page? Big sponsors going to be shown on every page with maybe a small tasteful image? Are you going to offer ads? What ad software can you use? Are you going to offer banners? Forum-specific Sponsors? Sticky posts? Can you offer targeted ads? If your forum is about animals can you show cat-related ads in the cat-related forum?

Know your Stats
What are your stats like and how can you present them to your benefit? If your stats aren't so great it will be harder to get some people to sponsor.

Know what can benefit them
Perhaps go around figuring your who you'd like to get sponsorship from and give them a custom sort of presentation on how working together will help both of you.

[Odd Fact]

I was thinking of a footer banner type of graphic link on the site it self. Maybe sponsor a section of the community related to the sponsor. I want to keep this seperate from banner ads.

[TheDPQ]

You could try a sponsor page and then have a 'main' sponsor on the footer. I'd limit it to one or two for 'main' sponsors.

[Odd Fact]

I agree limited sponsors. You don't want the site being one big ad.