I’m flirting with this idea of maybe having “sponsors” for the Newburyport Political Blog.

Someone told me recently that they thought the blog was “classy.” Now I’ve thought of a lot of adjectives for the Newburyport Political Blog but that one never occurred to me. And I thought, well, if one person thinks the Newburyport Political Blog is “classy,” maybe other people do too.

The blog had 10,000 readers in the month of June. Which might not be a lot for some bloggers, but I was pretty surprised by that number. The readership appears to be mostly local, but has a small but growing national following.

The blog is what it is. I don’t exactly think the banks would be real interested since I keep harping on the fact that the Five Cents Savings Bank demolished an historic building in downtown Newburyport. (Although they appear to be making “restitution” by helping the Newburyport Historical Society rescue the Perkins Mint.)

I imagine local business might be wary, the blog is somewhat controversial and who wants to lose any business at all if you’re a small business owner. Although there is a lot of chit chat about not having chain stores in Newburyport on the Newburyport Political Blog.

Mr. Karp isn’t exactly getting wonderful press here.

Forget developers and realtors who sell their projects. I think those folks are definitely out.

So I’m not exactly sure who’s left for this nifty idea of sponsorship.

But, the blog does champion historic preservation, speaks up against inappropriate infill, appears to be a big fan of open space, champions the Newburyport Master Plan, gives folks a voice who otherwise can’t find one. It does give our mayor a hard time, but on the other hand the editor of the Newburyport Political Blog does not want to see him fail. And the blog does have a certain perspective that might not jive with everyone who is in the political arena, although it does try to be fair and balanced, and may or may not succeed.

So this is what I was thinking.

$10 a week or $30 dollars a month to be a sponsor on the sidebar of the Newburyport political Blog. Chabot Web Design is a good example. It’s their logo, made to fit in with the look of the blog. (And let’s face it, there’s no bigger sponsor than Mary Baker Art, that one was easy.)

$25 a week to have a banner across the main page of the blog, where the Google ads are now. $25 a week to have a banner on all the individual pages that show up in the individual search engines. (And the Newburyport Political Blog appears to show up on the search engines a lot.) I’d work on something classy but effective, Chabot Web Design again being an example.

And for $10 a pop, a sponsor could have a space in an individual post that would then zip out with the RSS feed and appear all over the place. Seems like a pretty good deal to me.

So I’m floating this idea of sponsorship for the Newburyport Political Blog. I think it has to be a pretty good place to let people know that they and their business exist.

Thanks so much,

Mary Baker Eaton
Editor of the Newburyport Political Blog