The community wants to be able to support our own people, but many times, they don't know where to look. If you hang out with me on Facebook, you know I've been discussing this with you for weeks now. I've finally gotten the page up and running. It's being called"The Little Black Book for Pagans". It went up yesterday, and I've had several inquiries about the site already.
I've decided it's easier to blog about it here, since many of the questions are turning into FAQs ;)
1. Yes, I'm charging a fee for this. Why? Because I've seen too many free sites that fail because they have links that aren't legitimate and are featuring shops that go out of business quickly. There is very little upkeep given to these free sites. My time is valuable to me, just as yours is to you, and I'm willing to do the upkeep. So, I am charging a minimal fee in order to ensure that the sites themselves are legit, and that they are serious about their businesses. If you can't afford $10.00 a year for marketing, you aren't serious about your business. That's just a fact.
2. What ARE the fees? They are listed on the site, but I will explain them here as well.
The minimum entrance fee is $10.00 (USD) for one listing. If you want to list in more than one category, you can add a listing for $5.00. I've given a bit of a discount for 3-4 listings. So, if you want to list in 3-4 categories, that fee is only $20.00 for the year. After that, it's 5.00 per listing.
3. Yes, I'm aware that since I started talking about this, some other sites have recently popped up that are free to list. If you prefer to list there, you are welcome to do so. I'm not in competition with anyone. I'm doing this because I've had numerous people ask for it, both on the 'vendor/artist' side and on the consumer side. No, I'm not worried that somehow I'm going to fail because they are free and I charge for it. See #1 for the reason why I am charging a fee.
4. ALL non-profits are FREE. I only ask that the non-profit send proof of their status.
5. No, you do not have to sell "Pagan Products" to list. I don't only use Pagan products in my house, and neither do you. If you are selling things that aren't considered "Pagan", I'd still want to support you over a non-Pagan vendor. And, I know that the community-at-large wants to do that as well.
At this point in time, I'm asking the authors, artists, astrologers, tarot and other divination experts, coaches, counselors, musicians, and vendors of all sorts to join up. This site is less than 24 hours old. I look at this much like any community project. If you are serious about wanting to be supported by your community, I invite you to join up. The community has expressed the interest. Once the site is up and we have listings on it, then it's up to the community to utilize it. It's a symbiotic relationship. Both sides need to work toward getting this realized. So, please- do share with others and let's create something magical :)
Tara Smith (blog designer for all of my sites) will be creating a button for vendors to put on their sites if they choose to do so. It helps get the word out to everyone.
Let me know if you have any further questions about this. I'm looking forward to getting this up and running for all of us :)