If you're interested in becoming an Indie Ad Sponsor...

First, I'm not going to ask you for any money -- There are already others who could out-spend us even with your generous help. Besides, I don't need any money to keep this campaign going in the first place.

Because what we DO have on our side is numbers. Artists by the thousands upon thousands who only need to spend a few minutes each to pull this off. Even fans (fanatics) who will co-operate in this grassroots endeavor to promote Independent music.

What I DO want from you is your true support in two ways:

First, I want you to email all your clients, members, customers, fans, or what have you, and ask them to participate in this campaign.

You can write your own custom email, or just copy&paste this:

Hello

There is a great campaign going on to
promote independent music artists
by placing FREE advertisements
in newspapers.

Get more information here:
http://indiead.org/
			

The second thing I want is blanket permission for other participants to use your company name in their advertisements.

"The best music is in your own back yard.
Go see an indie band.
Tip well.
They deserve it.
Courtesy __your_company_name_here__
and __their_band/name_here__"
			

This can be an "unrestricted" permission, or, if you are willing to set up a simple page on your site detailing your specific restrictions, a "restricted" permission.

Restrictions can range from "members only" (members of your organization) to "no compete" (only if no direct competitors are in the same ad) to "sole sponsor" (nobody else except you and the advertiser themselves can be mentioned).

Actually, you can make up any restrictions you like -- These are just some of the restrictions I have anticipated to be common.

Note that we have no real way to police, much less enforce, your restrictions -- You'll have to extend a certain amount of "trust" to your colleagues here.

And, in order to be a "restricted" Sponsor, you have to build a web page detailing your restrictions, whatever they might be.

Unrestricted sponsors will be listed on our Sponsors page in Bold.

Restricted sponsors will have the notation "(restrictions)" appended, and the URL you provide as a link must include the actual restrictions you wish to impose.

If we have more than 30 Sponsors, the page will automatically select 30 Sponsors semi-randomly from the database. But Visitors will be able to search for your name as a Sponsor.

By semi-randomly, I mean that the odds of your appearance in the list will be directly proportional to your circulation -- how many emails you sent out.

For example: A Sponsor that has a mailing list of 60,000 is twice as likely to appear as one that has a list of 30,000

We reserve the right to increase, without notice, the number of sponsors listed in any given visit from 30 to whatever seems reasonable.

Most importantly, you'll (hopefully) have an "army" of artists out there who are plugging YOU in their ads.

You don't have to do any work or pay any money -- Just fill out the form below to grant them permission to "plug" you!

And, of course, you also have the pleasure of participating in this grand scheme!

Hey, what do you want for free?

To sweeten the pot for Unrestricted Sponsors, I'll also be providing you with a monthly report on where Indie Ads with your Sponsorship were "spotted" So you'll be able to track the effectiveness of your Sponsorship, and know who's out there "plugging" you and get an idea of where your customer base is -- not only from the artists who choose you as their Sponsor, but also any fans of theirs who report back here that they "Spotted" the advertisement.

I can't pass on their emails or anything, but you'll get summaries like "1024 in zip code 10009, 1037 in 90210" etc

You probably already know where your customers are, but their fan-base may be a little different than that.

You do not have to both send the email and give the permission for the use of your name -- You can freely select to do either or both. But obviously I can't report back to you on the use of your name as a Sponsor if you don't grant permission in the first place.

And I'm only reporting back to Unrestricted Sponsors for now, mostly as an inducement to encourage no restrictions. I like to keep things simple.

If both of these seem like too much to ask, feel free to just place an advertisement!