The cost of advertising on the Delvin Village Website has not been increased in the nine years that the site has operated. Following some misuse of the service, I will be introducing a registration fee for new and lapsed advertisers, plus a small charge for some amendments on “live” profiles.
In the past, I prepared draft profiles for new advertisers on receipt of their registration forms and only requested payment of the €50 fee when they approved the draft for publication. Due to the number of time-wasters (and I make no apology for calling them that), the annual fee will now be required in full at the point of registration. This temporary measure is being introduced with immediate effect.
With effect from the 1st December 2018, a €25 registration fee will apply in relation to all new signups. This fee is in addition to the standard €50 annual fee applied to all advertisers but must be paid on submission of the registration form. The remaining €50 will then be required on approval of the draft profile.
All payments are non-refundable.
Under existing terms, a profile will be suspended ten days after an invoice is issued if payment has not been received. However, that profile can currently be reactivated at any time on receipt of the fee*. With effect from the 1st December, any suspended profiles that are 30 days overdue or more (including those that are currently “lapsed”) will be deleted from the server. Should that advertiser wish to reactivate their profile after that time, they will be treated as a new advertiser and the €75 fee shall apply in year 1.
*If you are a lapsed advertiser and your profile expired before 1st May 2018, it will have been deleted from the server and you will need to re-register before December 1st to avoid the new registration fee.
I reserve the right to charge an amendment fee where an advertiser requests a change to their profile. Minor changes will not be affected but significant changes to content or structure which requires re-optimisation, will incur an additional cost.
The Delvin Village Website costs approximately €1,000 per year to run through domain, hosting, security, licensing, advertising and other costs. It does not receive any public funding so every single advertising profile counts. The site is run on a pre-dominantly voluntary basis, and for those that think this is not a great deal – there is also a busy Facebook Page which requires ongoing attention, plus a newsletter and various other add-ons. The advertising fee represents great value for money and it is disheartening when business folk sign up and then do not pay the modest bill.
The website is professionally managed and maintained. I hope that local businesses will understand that my time and my skills are every bit as valuable as their own and that respect runs two ways.
