We've been cowering down in the basement doing this gig for a couple months now and thought we'd share some insights as to how you can make this site work harder for you ... so we can together kick creative mediocrity in its collective @$$.
1) Become a Member. Membership on the site is FREE. We don't mass market to our members. Membership is just a way for us to provide additional benefits. When you become a member, you have access to job postings 3 days before they go public on the site. You also get your own profile page that lets people learn more about what you do and how to contact you. Make sure to include a photo and any social media, website or other contact information. One more hint: If you submit or update samples of your work on your profile page, they will automatically display on our home page with a link until others submit newer samples. That's valuable real estate, baby!
2) Submit Content. There's no rule that says we need to provide all the content on the site. If you see an interesting ad or marketing idea, send it our way and we'll give you credit. If you have opinions on the creative world we live in, send us an editorial piece. We'll even give you the choice between submitting with your name - or anonymously (so you don't piss off your co-workers or clients).
3) Comment on Others' Content. We know you've got opinions. Share them. This industry has thick skin, so nobody's going to be offended if you provide an honest critique. Just keep it above the belt.
4) Become a Regular. We're looking for people who want to be regular contributors. If you've got strong opinions and interesting insights, we're more than happy to share the content load. And, after two months, we're probably already getting more traffic than your blog ... so you might as well go where the eyeballs are going.
5) Submit Your Work. We make it really easy to show your latest print, video, tv spot, photo of your work. Submit it to us. If it's good work, we're all about putting it in front of the creative and marketing world so your clients and prospects can see it.
6) Submit Your Event. Got a company event? A group? Member of AMA or AAF or NAMA or PRSA or PCC or WTF? Add us to your list so we can help spread the news. Worst it could do is get more people involved, right?
7) Search for Talent. We're growing a membership base that is easily searchable. If you're looking for a freelance copywriter or photographer. Or a voice talent or printer. Slowly but surely, this is becoming the place to find them.
8) Post a Position. For a mere $150, we'll post your full-time opening on our site for a month! We've got hundreds of people from the local creative and marketing world visiting our site daily. Pretty cheap investment for a good talent. And you can bet your ass we're going to pimp the hell out of your posting to our community so you get some good candidates.
9) Post an Internship or Part-Time Position. Same message as above, but we'll post these for ZIPPO. That's right, these postings are free. This is a great way to test our job postings without having to pay a nickel. See what kind of talent you get when you post with us!
10) Chat in Our Forum. Our forums are open for members to ask questions and provide answers. If you've got expertise to contribute, being a regular poster in our forum could make you look like the expert you probably are.
11) Advertise. We make it really easy to stand out. See that column on the very right side of our site. That's where all of our advertising takes place. You can have a small ad for $75 per week that will display right above the Google ads. Or, you can have a larger skyscraper that will replace the Google ads for $150. And, you're guaranteed to not share the space with any more than 4 other advertisers. No clutter on our site means your ad will stand out - especially with a little color.
12) Sponsor. Got an idea of something you'd like to sponsor on the site? A regular column? We're open to you're ideas and we'll be happy to work something out that will work for you.
13) Get Creative. At the Mothership, the Denver Egotist, they've sold control of the site content for a day several times. This is a creative business. If you've got ideas, we're all ears. We want to make things work for you.
