Win-Win
It’s all about collaboration
Ham Alliance is a unique, free-to-join, selective alliance created to help amateur radio-related organizations and businesses who wish to co-promote each other in a selfless, collaborative, mutually beneficial manner at no cost and with reasonable, some would say, minimal effort.
“I promote you, and you promote me.”
Eight great reasons for joining forces through Ham Alliance
| Marketing and promotion are expensive. | |
| Smaller businesses and organizations do not have the time or personnel to promote themselves effectively. | |
| There are relatively few means of marketing ourselves to amateur radio operators. | |
| Partnering with other high-quality organizations reinforces one’s own standing. | |
| Partners can learn from one another by sharing marketing advice or support | |
| The more we encourage amateur radio operators to visit each other’s sites, the more likely they are to keep an elevated degree of enthusiasm about the breadth of the hobby. | |
| Ham Alliance is free for all those who qualify to join. | |
| Ham Alliance favors no single partner, we are all equals. | |
| In short, we believe that working together is a win-win. |
Reaching out to amateur radio operators is difficult; it can also be expensive. Those of us who love the hobby and also make a living with it, know this all too well. Agreed, some have done better than others. For instance some YouTube producers may have hundreds of thousands of subscribers; some hamfests attract tens of thousands; the big retailers have hundreds of thousands of clients; others are not yet so lucky. What if we some of us agreed to co-promote one another? What if I encouraged my members to support you and vice versa? Understandably, someone with 250,000 followers, clients or members might wonder why they would possibly help someone smaller; someone who might even be a competitor?
The answer does not lie in total numbers, but rather in growth potential. Sure, one of us may currently have more constituents than another, but not all partners will have the ‘same’ constituents.
And what about downturns? What happens the day that the big site starts to lose members? That is the day that they will be happy to have other members of Ham Alliance standing by their side.
And then there is the question of diversity and breadth. Every new partner brings their own particular grouping of users, the overlap makes us stronger.
The good news is that the concept of a cooperative is both mature and tested, it is as old as grain itself. Farmers, to name but one group, have done it for centuries. A quick search engine query will turn up dozens. A farming cooperative brings together farmers of all sizes and markets their harvest equally – no one gets an advantage and everyone wins. What’s more, each farmer proudly displays their membership in the cooperative, just as we do. Car dealers do it too by setting up next to one another. If you think about it, even a hamfest is a form of cooperative promotion.
How do we share?
What we will do is simply place banners or badges of the Alliance on our own websites, and will do so as prominently as can be expected without being ridiculous. If we do it both selflessly and effectively, visitors may choose to visit the Ham Alliance website. And if they do that, yes, they may find another partner with something interesting to say or sell. The reverse is obviously true as well.
We are joining a cross-pollination effort.
These are the proposed banners. Some are vertical, some horizontal. They vary in size and proportion. And if you have a special need, an odd size that would work just right for you, we will produce it for you.
Hover over (or touch] each image to see it clearly.
Examples
Who should join?
This is a selective partnership for businesses, non-profit organizations, and individual entrepreneurs who sell products or services, produce media or internet content, organize events, publish, or otherwise contribute to the field of amateur radio. We are still determining the ideal admission characteristics but broadly speaking, we seek partners who have large – or growing – memberships, followers or clientele.
Ultimately, the key criteria for joining Ham Alliance are:
- to be proactive about one’s own visibility,
- be agreeable to and aggressive about co-promoting all other Ham Alliance partners, and
- perhaps most importantly, be sincere about growing the hobby of amateur radio.
Any future plans?
Initially, we will co-promote in ways that encourage our visitors, subscribers, or members to voluntarily support each of the partners. But later? Later, if this Alliance works as it can, we may want to combine our purchasing and promotional power. Who says Ham Alliance cannot have a super booth at major hamfests? Or, imagined the ability to combine forces and have a delegated, joint presence at smaller hamfests? Who says we can’t produce collective events of our own?
The future is ours to decide, collectively, working for each other’s interests.
And if we really do our job right, we may have the leverage to further raise the profile of amateur radio. Who knows how far we can go if we all combine efforts?
Remember, this is truly a joint collaboration, the goal is not to benefit one – it is to benefit us all.
Why did we join Ham Alliance?
