Back in June we launched the initial beta for our advertising system on the site, inviting local business and groups to test out the system by placing advertising for free.   The level of interest was greater than we ever imagined, with 35 advertisers creating almost 100 ads on the site.   In that time, those ads have been shown to visitors more than 500,000 times, and they’ve generated more than 1,200 clicks back to the advertiser’s websites.

With that first beta complete, we’re now ready to move to the next phase and start accepting paid ads.  It’s a simple system:  advertisers can pick their daily advertising budget (as low as $.50 per day), and we’ll deliver the perfect mix of viewers to fit that budget, and bill the advertisers for the balance at the end of each month.   Advertisers can create as many different ads as they want, and they’ll all work within their pre-selected budget

If you’ve already placed free ads on the site, you can upgrade to paid ads very easily.  Just click the “Your Page” tab, navigate to the ads page from the “Ads” link near the top-right of the page, and then click the “upgrade” link for any ad you want to convert to a paid placement.  It will take you through the process of selecting a budget, entering your billing information, etc.

And don’t worry if your budget it stretched too thin to buy an ad.  We’re dedicating 10% of our advertising inventory to free ads to help local small businesses and non-profits spread their story to the neighborhood.  But you will notice the number of free impressions drop as the number of paid placements increase, so please consider upgrading if you want to maintain or increase your visibility on the site.

If you’ve got a local business and haven’t placed an ad yet, consider giving it a try.  Each week we have thousands of unique visitors from the neighborhood, so it’s probably the best opportunity you have to reach new people just right around the corner from you and to remind existing customers to come back again.   And the cost of it starts low and can accommodate almost any marketing budget.     To get started, just go to:  http://www.centraldistrictnews.com/ads/setup/adcreate

Thanks to everyone for supporting the site and thanks to all of our beta advertisers for helping us test out the system!