We never got a chance to meet; apologies. But I really did want to bump into someone with a particularly local background… and I’ll make you the same offer that I did Patrick at Vineyard Voice re someone else building you an ad network…

Because we’ve just launched our own, self-service text ads service called ‘Addiply’ - you can see it in action on the site http://www.myfootballwriter.com/norwichcity

Having earned diddly squat from you-know-who, we decided to give our own local advertisers the chance to place their ads themselves - albeit with a little gentle nudge in the right direction.

So, there’s five slots there; we’re currently offering the opportunity to advertise there at 3 pence per click; that 3 pence (6 cents) goes to me, the publisher; the little local advertiser likewise only pays his 3 pence (6 cents) as and when he gets a result - ie a click when someone steps into his ‘world’, his website. Otherwise his only outlay is the £10 ($20) we ask him to place in a Paypal pre-pay meter; that just clicks down as and when he gets a click - £9.97, £9.94, etc, etc and then he gets a reminder when he hits £1, does he want to renew…

And if it hasn’t worked, he doesn’t… but as its an open bidding process, so if someone proves wiling to offer you 7 cents per click, they take their place on the site and replaces the advertiser with the lowest click-per-impression rate, ie the one that’s working the least well.

So eventually the market - in your case Martha’s Vineyard local stores or whoever - will find its own level; and I bet you now that if I was a local DIY store in Martha’s Vineyard, I would get ‘drowned out’ of finding a place on your site via Google by the big bucks all the Martha’s Vineyards hotels and B&Bs are paying to catch your well-heeled visitor trade.

This way, they can see there ad, on your site; they’ve placed it themselves; just like you would a little notice in the door of the local hardware store.

As we’re looking for trial partners - and it’s only been on our site for ten days and we haven’t marketed it much - er, at all - here’s something for you think about.

Trial it for me for nothing; all you need to do is build in a ‘box’ to accomodate a feed and that’s it; it runs itself; it’s a ‘fire and forget’ advertising system. The only time you have to ‘manage’ it is when an ad link comes up for approval - ie you get to see what it is you’re about to advertise - and you can approve that link off your mobile phone.

And that’s it. I just need local, little sites to trial it; let’s say for the first six months you keep all the income you earn from it too. Afgter that, you’re doing me a favour… so we’ll do 5% or 10% of your ad revenue. Tops.

You don’t need an ad dept; your little local advertisers don’t need to make up a banner ad; its text ads - direct between you the publisher and your local taxi firm, DIY store, etc, etc. No middle man; just you and them.

Let me know what you think and I can get my software guru, aka Ian, to ping a link across and you can be started tomorrow…

All the best,

Rick