The Smoking Poet

Marketing, Advertising and Donations
Home
Puttin' On the Dog: TSP Celebrates 5
The Winners' Circle
A Good Cause
Kalamazoo and Beyond
Talking to David Small
Talking to Derick Burleson
The Poetry of Derick Burleson
The Art of Sniedze Rungis
Talking to Kip Kreiling
NonFiction
NonFiction II
Fiction
Fiction II
Poetry
Poetry II
Cigar Lounge
Andris' Blue Note
Zinta Reviews - Prose
Zinta Reviews - Poetry
Jeanette Reviews
Kate Reviews
Links and Resources
Archives
Submission Guidelines
Marketing, Advertising and Donations
The Editors

.

It’s been a dream for quite some time now—to make The Smoking Poet (TSP) into a business, a revenue source, one which can pay at least a small wage to our hard-working and talented editors, and a small stipend to our many contributing writers and artists.

Recently, when sending out cash awards to the winners of our third annual short story contest, one of our winners graciously returned a sizeable portion of the prize money with a note: “In support of The Smoking Poet.” What a compliment! Surely a sign that it is time—time to repay the faith our growing number of readers have in TSP to continue to offer the highest quality art, both visual and literary, along with insightful book reviews, music reviews, cigar reviews, an expanding page of links and resources, and a spotlight on the arts community of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and beyond—covering the entire Great Lakes state. We also spotlight good causes, people and organizations working to make a positive difference in our world.

It is indeed time. With that seed money from one of our writers, we opened up our pages to donations. A “Donate” button now appears on the home page and other pages throughout the ezine. It is a safe and secure way to make donations to TSP, using PayPal, cash, or a major credit card. Each and every gift goes toward creating higher quality pages that reach an ever expanding audience. Each gift contributes to a pool from which we hope to soon begin paying a stipend to everyone who contributes as a writer, editor or artist to our pages.

Right away, a second matching gift came in from another contributing writer. We were stunned—and deeply honored. So where do your gifts to TSP go? First, we purchased a second domain. Now, along with our well-known www.thesmokingpoet.net , we can also be found at www.thesmokingpoet.com . Gradually, we plan to convert to that domain entirely, but for now, both links will take you to our pages. Second, we are currently in the process of acquiring LLC status—as a limited liability company. That will enable us to operate as a business, and to make investments so that we can begin to pay our staff and contributors.

With the LLC status in place, we will begin to accept advertising. Our goal is to include relevant and appropriate ads on our pages without interrupting the flow of the creative work we feature here. We hope to enhance our readers’ experience by offering a connection to products and services that may be of interest.

If you are interested in featuring your product, service, or Web site on TSP, please contact our editor-in-chief, Zinta Aistars, for pricing information and to discuss placement and format.

We hope our readers and writers will be as thrilled about this next important step in our growth as we are. We hope you will consider a gift to The Smoking Poet. Or, to become a quality advertiser on our pages.

What kind of ads will we consider? Examples include fine cigars and products of interest to cigar aficionados, and products or services that are useful to writers and artists. If you're not sure if your business, service or product are a good fit with TSP, ask! We'll be happy to tell you about our readership and traffic statistics. We will not feature any marketing that is discriminatory to gender, religion, or ethnic background.

Your gifts to The Smoking Poet will help finance:

  • LLC status, so that we can begin to operate as a business
  • Maintenance and expansion of the Web site
  • Investment pool from which writers and editors can be paid for their work
  • Marketing efforts to promote TSP across the Web and in southwest Michigan
  • Readings by contributing TSP authors
  • Anthology in print of TSP's best work, targeted for our fifth anniversary in 2011

Thank you for helping us to achieve this next important step in our continued growth. How heartening to know that others are as enthused and committed to supporting the arts as we are! With your gift, we intend to continue into our fifth year of providing a respected platform for the finest writers and artists to share work with a global audience.

 

TSP Editors

 

 

THE SMOKING POET is raising funds to become an LLC, a limited liability company, so that we can begin taking in revenue from appropriate ads and, from that revenue, to pay our hardworking editors and excellent writers. Thank you to all our writers, editors and readers. You are helping us grow. You are helping us continue to develop a place where we can help your art shine.

We appreciate your gift.

 

thedog.jpg

Feedback, submissions, ideas? Email thesmokingpoet@gmail.com.