Some of you are probably aware that RWD has been accepting advertising for a short time. Others may NOT be aware because the advertisements ONLY appear to Guests and Visitors to this site (RWD) - not to registered members, hence, they are pretty innocuous to those of you who have been around here a while and have configured your browser to auto login.
Over at Planet-Love.com, our sister site with a focus on Asian and Latin geographies, the ads appear throughout the site, including In-Thread ads, and to everyone. While some may argue the ads are distracting - at P-L they have not proven to be a problem, and in fact, have been received well by the members there.
Further at P-L, there is an "Advertise With Us" link in the Menu which is not found here at RWD. If you are curious to see more about the ad placements and what is going on at P-L, and to a lesser extent here at RWD, here is the link to the page which describes the advertising options at P-L --
http://www.planet-love.com/index.php?pid=19. Those same ad placements (EXCEPT for the "In-Thread" ads) are available and functioning here at RWD.
Since the advertising became available, we have been receiving quite a few inquiries from agencies and others who wish to advertise at RWD and P-L. In fact, some of those potential advertisers are among those which do not enjoy the most ethical reputations. To address the anticipated questions and resolve potential conflicts, we have instituted several policies for advertisers which I wish to bring to your attention.
First - IR (RWD) will not discriminate against ANY prospective advertiser. Any advertiser who wishes to advertise here is welcome to do so.
Next - IR (RWD) has published a specific Terms of Service agreement which ALL advertisers are required to accept before their orders will be accepted. You may read those ToS here --
http://www.goodwife.com/payment/mod.php?mod=siteinfo&id=7. In summary, an advertiser must agree they will not use objectionable or illegal material of any sort. Oh... and you may note the URL for the Payment system is hosted on the OTHER International Relations site - GoodWife.com. That has been pretty quiet lately - but look for some future announcements on how GoodWife.com will fit into the overall plan.
Finally - IR (RWD) will NOT be beholden to a company or individual simply because they pay for advertising on our site(s). These sites were established for the unfettered exchange of information amongst our members, and that objective will persist. If an advertiser feels they are treated unfairly here - they are, of course, free to take their advertising dollars elsewhere.
The reasons for accepting advertising on RWD and P-L was/is to:
* Pay for ongoing operation of the sites. It has gotten more expensive as the site has grown.
* Fund the development of important new initiatives, such as the ACoE.
I hope this serves to clarify any questions you may have had, or heard, about the advertising program at RWD.
- Dan
