Took me a few days to get Internet and thankfully it's terribly slow. I'm not tempted to check in or connect. 🙂 We're having a super time, and have seen wildlife beyond belief. Home in a week with tales!

Now, as to what Paula has contributed, she's spot-on, too, because in my advertising sales training it's touted that the basis for successful ad sales has a direct relationship to the quality of the editorial content in the magazine, newspaper, blog, or whatever.

Chuck

Anyone who suggests "free exposure" is a form of fair compensation is either a snakeoil salesman or a con artist, but NOT good client material.

I love your post, Devon, and would add one more thing to your section about how well-written materials connect consumers to businesses: Well written magazine and newspaper articles, fillers – even photo caps – draw both readers and advertisers. The better your content, the more readers you'll have. The more readers you have, the more advertisers want to be part of your publication, which means you can command a higher ad rate. (It's annoying how ad sales teams usually get the credit for luring advertisers when it's the writers and editors who create the best sales tool they have: great content.)

The referrals never happened and I learned a valuable lesson. Look out for offers that are all flash, but nothing more than a cover up for someone else's shortcomings. 😉