Afro-Netizen™ is free. And we'd like to keep it that way -- ideally, forever!
I've been a netizen since 1995, and I've simply grown accustomed to not having to pay for news and other forms of good information. Most of the major Internet studies all confirm that the majority of netizens share my opinion on this issue.
However, the reality is that it costs money to operate this site and administrate our e-newsletter. It costs even more to continue improving it and expanding our offerings to keep you happy.
This being said, in order to ensure our ongoing operation and ultimate success, we only need one thing: numbers!
These numbers can be in the form of dollars or people -- but preferably both! To be fancy, let's call these categories: 1) community and 2) capital.
Community. Presently, Afro-Netizen reaches many thousands of "thought leaders" and other types of afro-netizens across the country and abroad. But until we reach that magic number of 1 million subscribers, we will be under the critical mass of Blackfolk we'd like to have in order to really leverage our influence to secure the autonomy Afro-Netizen truly needs to be a force to be reckoned with.
Capital. We need money to make money. We're not looking for hand-outs, grants, etc. We're looking for small, but consistent investments from our loyal supporters -- those folks who appreciate what we do and how we do it; folks who regularly forward our e-newsletter to all their friends, relatives, etc. and who encourage them to subscribe to us.
One way to invest in Afro-Netizen is to buy something from our webstore. If you don't find anything you like, you can still buy gifts for family and friends.
Another way to invest in us is to click-and-buy any book that looks interesting to you on our site. We get a piece of the action every time someone buys an item on Amazon.com via our site.
Still another way to invest in our success is to encourage your friends and colleagues to partner with us to promote their products, services, books, events, etc. However, bear in mind that Afro-Netizen reaches a national audience. And so the best promotions are ones that seek to reach our mature, savvy, and fairly well-educated readership of Blackfolk.
Additionally, each promotional campaign we do on our clients' behalf includes a tracking report where we provide them with a report indicating how many people opened the e-mail messages containing their promotions and how many people clicked on their links. That way, they will know how cost-effective marketing via Afro-Netizen was and whether or not to do so again.
Also, we encourage you to retain us to develop custom surveys for your work or civic organizations you're affiliated with. These services are ideal for folks who need to survey the opinions, background, and/or behavior of groups consisting of 50 - 50,000 individuals. Moreover, if appropriate, we can combine a promotional campaign on our e-newsletter with a custom survey.
So, for example, if you have an event planning firm, you could have a short paragraph on the Afro-Netizen eNewsletter promoting your services along with a link that will take you to a custom survey. In the survey, you could extract important information from your prospect to see if there was a good fit. And after they've completed the survey, they would be forwarded to your website. (If your firm does not have a site, we can refer you to web designers whose work and professionalism we can vouch for.)
Well, I hope I've clarified things for you. If not, feel free to drop me a line. And, if you haven't read "The Story Behind Afro-Netizen", please click here to learn how and why it all began.
Thank you so much for your interest, advocacy, and ongoing support!
Sincerely,
Christopher M. Rabb
Founder/Chief Evangelist
Afro-Netizen
Est. 1999
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