Cheapskate Advertisers offering Discount Subscriptions

Meetup.com is a valuable place to advertise.

By C.M - June 2nd 2017.

Earlier today I received an email from a person wanting to become a sponsor for a Meetup group I manage.

However she wasn't offering money (the standard fee is $30 to sponsor a meetup group - some groups charge more), instead she was offering:

• A discount on subscriptions for a publication she was selling - to meetup members - which means zero of that money goes towards the meetup group.
• A monthly contribution to the meetup group based on the percentage of meetup members who sign up - which for a club with 2,427 members, which means at least 24 people would have to sign up to her publication just for the club to receive a 1% contribution.

Plus there would be no way for me to determine how many people signed up and I would have to take her word that she was telling the truth that only 23 people signed up and therefore that did not warrant her paying a single cent.

So the only way money goes into the club's coffers is IF people sign up for her publication and only IF she is honest about the number of people signing up and only IF she actually pays up as agreed upon.

As opposed to paying the $30 standard fee for 1 year of sponsorship.

So here was my response:

Hello Natalie!

The $30 is a standard advertising/administration fee - money paying for the meetup groups annual fee + paying for my time used to implement the sponsorship advertising by adding:

• Link and image to the sponsors section.
• Sending members a notice of a new sponsor.
• Changing the layout template for events so that every new event mentions the sponsor at the bottom.

Your sponsorship will last one year for the fee discussed. After which you will be expected to renew the fee at a cost of $30.

Whether or not you get subscriptions, how you track subscriptions, how you report subscriptions, etc is all beyond my knowledge or control. I will have no idea of how many subscriptions you may or may not receive. There is no way for me to track the fidelity of such transactions and their reporting thereof. Therefore it makes logical sense that we take a hands off approach to that method and instead use a method that works: The standard fee.

Personal Note

As a parent, my time is precious to me. I do not give it away. Anyone who has children will understand this.

As such the standard fee is non-negotiable, because as a parent I don't waste my time with people unwilling to pay for service. If the service is worth money then it deserves to be paid, and any form of for-profit-advertising thus falls into category.

Have a nice day!

 It irks and annoys me that I have to even explain this.

Advertising = Money.

People should not be giving away advertising to another person unless that person falls into one of the following categories:

1. You really love their product/service and you are being a Maven*. (A Maven is a person who freely promotes a product/service they already know and like. eg. I love Chocolate Milk and I enjoy promoting chocolate milk as a milk product.)
2. The product or service or organization you are promoting is for a non-profit charity or proverbial good cause. eg. The TakeYourShot program for Princess Margaret Cancer Research.
3. You are promoting the business / organization of a friend or family member. eg. Check out my friend's new compostable clothing / fashion line by visiting her Facebook page Havah Designs.
4. Political Cause or Politician. I honestly cannot think of any politician I would endorse, so I will skip giving an example for this one.

Anything else, they should be paying you. Especially if you are going to be doing any of the following:

• Using your time -which is valuable!
• Using your money for their benefit. Because money = time = valuable.
• Using any resources which cost money. Because resources = money = time = valuable.

I was listening to CBC Radio two days ago while the wife and I were out driving / shopping (we got a new air conditioner) and on the radio they were talking about how Ontario recently raised the minimum wage to $15 per hour - which will gradually phased in. It was a call in show, so people in Ontario were phoning in and talking about how the minimum wage increase would effect them.

At present the minimum wage is $11.40. The new minimum wage will become $14 per hour on January 1, 2018, and $15 per hour on January 1, 2019, followed by annual increases matching the rate of inflation.

One woman who works minimum wage part time 20 hours per week will be going from $228 per week to $280 per week, and eventually $300 per week. However for her the biggest change for her will be how she monetizes her time.

For example if she goes to Tim Hortons and buys $5 worth of coffee and food, at present that is almost an hour worth of work for her. If we do the math it is 26 minutes of her time spent away on coffee and food that she could make herself at home.

However with a $15 per hour minimum wage, suddenly that $5 is 20 minutes of her time instead. Suddenly having the option to buy coffee/food and let someone else do the work seems more reasonable.

Speaking for myself, I value my time to a higher standard. $30 per hour is the MINIMUM that I will work for. On a regular basis I am working for $40 per hour, $60 per hour or even $100 per hour - because I have a job which allows me to do so.

Because I am providing a valuable service and people are willing to pay $40 to $100 per hour for the services I provide.

Having that higher wage also affords me more free time - which is still valuable to me - which I can spend as I see fit with family, with friends, exercising, making artwork, writing, or even blogging about why time is valuable.

Which brings me back to the point I made to Natalie up above. I am a parent. I would rather spend an hour with my son than spend an hour doing work for free for some person who just wants free advertising and is apparently too cheap to pay for it.

And if you just spent an half hour reading this blog post and you have kids, you should by now realize the same thing. Your time is precious. Spend it wisely on the people and activities you love. Anybody else should have to pay for your time.