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This section is for businesses who would like to use Conscious CT to advertise or promote their business or events. If we don't answer your questions here please contact Jon Roe at Jon@consciousct.org or (860) 875-4101.
Why create Conscious CT?
The purpose of this website is to build and focus the East of the River Conscious Community. There is a lot going on in our area and a lot of resources available. We've often heard the complaint that there is so much in The Door Opener that it is hard to find things pertaining to just this area; or that events come up after publication. This site is an answer to those concerns, but will provide much more because we don't have the size constraint of a magazine.
We will also ‘push' information to those interested. With so much going on it is easy to forget the holistic side of life. Regular emails will be reminders that we are here and bring people back to the site.
Our second goal is to reach out to people in the community who would benefit from our workshops and services, as well as to the people who made "The Secret" number one on the bestseller list for 4 months. This will require a special site that peaks curiosity and leads people to the community site. This site will be created in 2008.
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What's in it for my business?
Low cost advertising targeted to people in your area. And in this section we hope you'll also find ideas to help with your business.
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Why are you affiliated with The Door Opener and what does it mean to me?
As most of you know Jon Roe was the founding publisher of The Door Opener and nurtured it through its childhood and adolescence. Even though the child is grown and has left home, like any other parent, he continues to be interested in its success. As The Door Opener was intended to build and support Connecticut's holistic community, this website is intended to do the same for our region. In many ways it is a subset of The Door Opener, but because of the immediacy and flexibility of the Internet can do some other things.
The intent of this website is to complement The Door Opener, not to compete with it for area advertising. It also makes little sense to duplicate what is already in place on The Door Opener website. One of the tenants of holistic business is cooperation, not competition and we hope to be an example of that.
We are a separate corporation and Jon is no longer part of The Door Opener, but we have developed an affiliation that we think will benefit both businesses and will let us focus on content rather than on the business side. The Door Opener gathers information for its listings, advertising and directories. We will use their information to focus on and highlight resources and activities East of the River.
For events this means you need to be in The Door Opener. Although our calendar is set up entirely differently and can contain more information we'll use the input you send to them. There is no additional cost to be in our calendar so we don't have to get involved with billing. Think of it as an additional listing in our East of the River calendar for no extra cost. And for things that come up between magazines The Door Opener will add your event to their website at any time, so we can too.
For practitioners we'll use the listings from The Door Opener's Holistic Health Practitioner Directory. Again no additional cost for the dual listing. We'll do something similar for readers, retailers and vendors.
Since this is all new ground there will be fine tuning and adjustments as we gain experience. We welcome your feedback.
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What towns are considered in the East of the River community?
To keep things manageable we had to limit our focus to just our section of the state. We want to be able to know and visit all the businesses in the area. Only those working or holding events in this area will be able to use this website. If we don't draw firm boundaries on the area and use of the website it will defeat the purpose. We tried to define what would make sense should the state be divided into regions. Basically we included all of Tolland County and Hartford County east of the river.
That includes the following 15 towns: Andover, Bolton, Coventry, East Hartford, East Windsor, Ellington, Enfield, Glastonbury, Manchester, Somers, South Windsor, Stafford, Tolland, Vernon, Willington.
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How can I be included on Conscious CT?
First you must work or hold your event in one of our 15 towns. Second you must have your information included in the latest issue of The Door Opener or its latest Holistic Health Practitioner or Spiritual Guidance Online Directory. That should put you on our website. If you don't find yourself there please contact us.
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What will it cost to be on Conscious CT?
What is in The Door Opener will also be carried on our site for free. To include listings on our site this year we will ask only one thing of you.
We ask that you include in any mailings to your email list an announcement about our site as a resource with a link to us. In that way you maintain the privacy of those on your list and those that are interested can sign up for our list.
For the remainder of 2007 we don't plan to work the advertising side, but just get the site developed and build awareness and our email list. In 2008 we'll get into advertising.
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How can I get greater exposure for my event or business?
We'll look for some sponsors or partners who are big users that will be featured in a number of ways through profiles, banner ads and inclusion in our monthly emails. For those who would like a larger presence on the website we'll develop expanded profiles with photos for a fee. This may take different forms for different types of business. We will also develop banner ads or other methods for giving your special event added visibility. This is how we'll raise money for advertising our presence. Rates have not yet been determined.
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How will you spend the money you raise?
Costs for putting up and maintaining a website are not too high. Currently all the labor for building and maintaining Conscious CT is donated. One of our goals is to reach out to people not currently aware of what we do and what we offer and encourage them to get involved. This will take education and advertising as well as development of an online slide show or movie. Everything we raise beyond bare maintenance cost will go here for the first couple of years.
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