Kurt,

With regard to the coop situation, here is what I am planning with the help of a local newspaper:

1) Create a template for an entire page. That page includes a key article of interest to the community surround by small business card-size ads and prehaps one or two large ads.

2) Every business running an ad pays the newspaper fee for their ad space to me. I forward the total cost for the page via Paypal to the newspaper.

Question: Who owns that page? Answer: all those who advertised - including the company that provided the key article.

3) After the article runs in the newspaper, I get sent by the paper a PDF of the entire page. I send a copy of that PDF to all the advertisers and the company providing the key article.

4) Anyone can take the PDF and use it as an advertising tool online through an extensive range of resources - websites, lenses, blogs, citizen journalism sites, etc.

5) Now, it should be pointed out that I encourage every company participating to create a Squidoo page and include a link to it in their ad. In this way, they have created a landing page for interest feedback. Every advertiser needs to know if their ad is attracting any attention. Squidoo does this automatically and for free. If the newspaper sends me the ad page as a PDF, all the links included in it should work for anyone who see it online and wants follow-up information on any one advertiser.

This way, I have more ways to advertise in an impressive manner without needing to spend more cash and at the same time I can freely track my advertising effort's effectiveness.

Lamar Morgan
CDMM
http://www.squidoo.com/CDMM
Attract more customers!

Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 (new win)