Hello Everyone,

The administrative team at IWDN recently implemented a sponsorship program to help ensure the continued growth of the International Web Developers Network. We are not looking for advertisers! We are looking for sponsors. What's the difference you ask? To quote our TOS:

IWDN administrators have carefully chosen to refer to messages as sponsorship messages and not advertisements. This is because sponsors of IWDN are implying their endorsement of the forums from a professional, ethical and/or personal perspective. Conversely, this relationship implies IWDN acceptance of the sponsor's endorsement.
We consider sponsorship of IWDN to be a philanthropic gesture on the part of the sponsor, though the benefits of sponsoring IWDN will likely make your endowment worthwhile. Here is a statement also from our TOS regarding the value of sponsoring IWDN:

The value in sponsoring IWDN is expressed in a few different ways. First, it is expected some value will come from persistent exposure of a sponsor's linked name and marketing message to forum visitors. Second, it is expected some value will come from persistent exposure to search engines, leveraging IWDN's constantly fluctuating popularity in search results and page rank. Third, it is implied that a sponsor recognizes the impact that the advice and discussions have had on his or her business or abilities and to an extent is returning that value to IWDN. Fourth, it is implied that a sponsor recognizes the value that IWDN brings to the development community in general and is honoring that value with his or her sponsorship of the discussions.
Even if you are not an IWDN participant and you have not personally benefited from the advice and discussions that take place there, the first two components of this value statement can be powerful ones for you, given our recent activity and recent increase in page rank:

May 2005 unique visitors: 1342
May 2005 total visits: 4081
May 2005 total page views: 62532

April 2005 unique visitors: 1394
April 2005 total visits: 4149
April 2005 total page views: 86214

forums.iwdn.net has PageRank 5/10.
iwdn.net has PageRank 5/10.
iwdn.net/index.php has PageRank 5/10.

These are stats are the result of seven months online as phpBB forums. We recently migrated to vB, and we expect this platform, which is even friendlier for search engines, to help us steadily move up in our rankings over time.

Keyword relevency includes companies in Web hosting, Web design/development, search engine optimization, graphic design and related industries. These companies will benefit most from exposure on IWDN.

For more information, please use the following links:

http://www.iwdn.net/showthread.php?t=2334 - forum announcement.

http://www.iwdn.net/showthread.php?t=2174 - open discussion with all members about implementing this system. We went a step further by getting approval from our members and taking suggestions for making this as welcome an addition to IWDN as possible.

http://www.iwdn.net/sponsor.php - Sponsorship information page.

If you have any questions, you can reach me by posting in this thread or sending me a private message. If you'd like to talk to me directly, send me your phone number (U.S. only please!) and I'll call you at a time convenient to us both.

Thank you in advance for your interest. Long live WHT and IWDN!