Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
About Local Businesses Advertising on HoL
The comments below have been moved from a post added by a local business as part of an advertising package with HoL.
I wanted to take the opportunity to make it clear where HoL stands on advertising.
We control advertising as strictly as time permits to ensure that the experience of using HoL remains a community one. However from our first day we have always been keen to support local businesses and we have done a good amount of that for free, because supporting local business is by and large a good thing. Many businesses have benefitted from HoL in many ways at zero cost.
As the effectiveness of HoL for this purpose has become evident, more and more businesses have sought to promote themselves on the site. Whilst I'm keen to support local business, I want to retain HoL as a community space. So I have needed to find a way to control the level of business promotion that is allowed. The logical way to do that is by charging. That both controls the amount of advertising and creates an income stream for HoL.
As part of an advertising package, Advertisers are allowed to add a limited number of posts outlining their service. Even without appropriate labelling, those posts would be fairly self-evident. However, we also take the trouble to identify all such posts as 'advertorial' posts through an appropriate footnote.
There are an extremely limited number of posts of this sort and all of them support local businesses to establish, grow and thrive. I do hope that most members will join with me in supporting these businesses in the same way as you would take part in a cashmob, choose to shop local or read my reviews of the market, Moka or a local comedy club.
I can assure you that no sponsored forum posts will appear without appropriate labelling.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Justin Guest on
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Hugh. Is it not also worth pointing out that community resources like HoL are free at the point of use, but there is a cost to running it that has to come from somewhere. I know that HoL relies on donations from individuals (see the Support Us section to the bottom right of the page), but I suspect allowing a relatively limited amount of advertising also acts as a modest income source.
I hate having 'messages' rammed down my throat like the next person, but as long as it remains unobtrusive and it continues to supports access to HoL then fair enough.
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