We received the following e-mail from the AHA. Was wondering what people think?
Greetings!
I was perusing around some of the homebrew club sites online, and noticed that your club’s site did not have an AHA web banner, and I wanted to extend the opportunity to earn some extra money for your club.
More information is available here: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/grow-your-business/sell-aha-memberships
Even if you already have AHA members going to your site, this is a great way to have some of their renewing membership dollars go towards the site. When your site visitors click on your AHA Web Banner they are redirected to the AHA's online store. We are able to track this so that any US, International, or Family memberships purchased by that click-through make money for your site. A one-year = $5, two-year = $6 & three-year membership = 7! Every quarter of the year I send out checks and reports to the participating sites for any AHA memberships that were purchased on their site.
If you’d like to participate, please let me know and I can set you up with a custom link. It’s a great way to show support for the AHA while making some extra $$ for your club!
Cheers and happy homebrewing!
Steve Parr
Business Coordinator
American Homebrewers Association
Depends on the size & requirements of the banner and the payouts. In my experience you won't make cash from this unless you're hitting 1000 - 2000 uniques a month with a conversion rate of 0.5 - 1% at most.
This is more about "link juice" than anything else. The more you have a direct link back to your site from others the better ranked the site becomes. Unless they do the same with a proper follow that can be tracked I wouldn't do it unless we love these guys :)
You'll make more from AdSense and partnerships along with other merchants featuring Chaos merch on site and other utilizing other partner programs. For example I have someone coming tonight that makes soap from just beer.
Also with membership growth happening organically, could the club handle a rapid influx of members based on people finding us through them.
Just some thoughts.
Good points.
It was my understanding from his e-mail that we make money even if one person follows the link and signs up for an AHA membership of some sort (different levels = different amounts).
I don't think we're activly looking to advertise on our page in any specific way but I do pass along any e-mails to the club which come to our GMail account.
But, yes, I think we could handle a rapid influx of members.
Might be worth adding it in the "feaured partners" page then. Not necessarily an ad then as it's featured with other places we get discounts and those that support us. I would also say info regarding the BJCP and Cicerone Program would be good there too. The 150 x 150 block banner is a great option for an "Expand Your Brewing Knowledge" information section.
One last thought that it might also give more credential to the organization for additional partner programs and sponsorships if we start driving that section of the site with those links.