Zip Code Manager |
What is a Zip Code Manager? |
A
Zip Code Manager (ZCM) is a member of the community. The
ZCM is responsible for gathering and publishing
news about
the community and selling advertising. The ZCM determines the
personality of their zip codes site. Other than a restriction
against "adult"
and "un-american" content, they are able to write
and publish what ever fits their community. |
How are Zip Code Manager paid? |
ZCM's earn commission on advertising they sell
as well as on ads that others sell for their site. |
Are Zip Code Managers employees? |
ZCM's are not employees of Connections Planet.com.
They are independent contractors - which means that they are in
business for themselves. They determine what they are going to
publish to their site, how often to update materials, what hours
they are going to work. |
What does a person need to do to become a Zip
Code Manager? |
There
are only a few simple requirements..
-
You
must live in the zip code you want to represent.
-
You must be age 18 or over.
-
You must have Internet access. A high speed connection is not
required.
-
You must have a desire to serve your community.
Additional information is at http://connectionsplanet.com/zcm.htm . |
Can a Zip Code Manager
represent more than one zip code?
|
Yes.
Initially they are restricted to the zip code they live in.
Once they have that site mastered, they are
free to request additional (adjoining) zip codes. |
Connections Planet
|
Why was this site created?
|
This
site was created to serve our communities, at a "grass roots" level.
It is a chance to show case our communities and those things
that make us all unglue. |
What is the mission of Connections Planet?
|
The
mission of ConnectionsPlanet.com is
to:
Provide
a source for home town news and
advertising, for every zip code in the
United States, written by a member of the
community, to fit the needs of the community.
|
Why is the site design so basic?
|
There
are several reasons for keeping the design of this site simple.
The
size of web pages needs to be controlled. The site contains
over 500,000 pages and even a little "extra" size to
the pages will effect the speed page load for everyone.
Content is more important that design. Sites that go overboard
on design are generally harder to navigate and serve little value
other than showing off the skills of the designer.
|
Advertising
|
What advertising opportunities are available? |
There
are several advertising opportunities available. Text based ads. All zip code pages have spaces room for text
based ads. These ads can contain a title of up to 50 characters
and up to 500 characters of body text. An ad this size in your
daily newspaper would be about 1 column by 3 inches. Prices for
ads are quoted by your zip code manager. Display ads. We can scan your business card and turn it into
a banner ad. We can also create a banner ad for you to meet your
specific needs. |
Are there any Multi Site discounts? |
Multi
site, multi month and multi page rates are available. For
example, you might want to advertise on the home page for your
zip code, the health care information page, and all home pages
within 50 miles. If you want to advertise on all home pages in your state in
which there is are at least 50 people over age 70 - we can do
that. If you want to advertise on all home pages in the USA in which
there are at least 10 farms that raise hogs - we can do that. |
How many pages are available to advertise on? |
There
are 33,507 residential zip codes in the United States. Unfortunately
for the time being, we are limited by our web server to 32,760
zip codes. Each zip code has 15 page, so there are 491,400
pages available. In addition, if you want to run a full page
ad, we can do that too. |
Site Statistics
|
How much traffic does this site get? |
In February 2009, we achieved the milestone of 50,000 page views
in a single month (and a short month at that). For the past few
months we have been doubling the page views every month. Want to
see a graph of the sites page views? Click here. |
Why
report "page views" instead
of "hits"? |
"Hits" are
a deceptive way of measuring traffic to a site. If you open
a page on a site and it has three pictures on the page,
the server log reports 4 hits. If
a web master wants to inflate the traffic to his or her site,
they just
have to put a couple
hundred very tiny pictures (clear and too small to see) and they
can
report
tens of thousands of "hits", and their web server
log will agree. Page views in contrast require that that
page be opened to
count
as
a page
view. |
ConnectionsPlanet.com