Last month a new Meetup member joined with some fresh ideas. Akshay, a UofM student, approached me after our Grassroots workshop with his concerns over puppy classified ads. I wasn’t sure what to tell him as there are several roadblocks. First, most newspapers won’t prohibit puppy sale ads because they are being paid well for each and they certainly need all the cash they can get right now. Second, it would cost us too much to post competitive educational ads.Akshay, however, wasn’t defeated. He went home, developed his own website over night and showed me knows how to play the game too.
Check out his new website AdoptClassified.org
His slogan is "Save money and a life."
With the goal of educating unsuspecting puppy buyers who seem to start with the classifieds, he created his own classified in the Detroit Free Press. The ad directs puppy buyers to his AdoptClassified.org website with educational information and points them to shelters and petfinder.com. On top of that, his blog is filled with interesting articles.
The payoff was worth the cost. He had over 200 unique visitors in just three weeks and the ad only ran for one week!! I am sure he helped some families steer away from puppy mills.
Akshay and I are working on a strategy to place targeted ads regularly and strategically at the lowest cost. Stay tuned.
If you know someone who is thinking about adding a new member to their family, you can point them to this very helpful site.
Thank you Akshay!