Ireland’s Wildlife — paying its way in 2013

When I set up the Ireland’s Wildlife Facebook Page in 2009 and launched this website in May 2011, the intention was to create an independent hub for informative and engaging Irish wildlife and nature content on the web. Up until now that has been achieved with no external investment, on a purely voluntary basis with a meagre budget.

I’m quite proud of what we’ve achieved… but I’m under no illusion. It could be much, much better.

And that’s what this post is about. Making the Ireland’s Wildlife website and associated online community a better resource for everyone. I have plenty of ideas for how we can make that happen, but all of them demand more time, resources and, let’s face it, money. None of which are readily available.

So it’s time for Ireland’s Wildlife to start paying its way — to become self-sustaining, and give me the scope to dedicate time and allocate the resources that it both needs and warrants. That’s why you’ll see a few new options under the “About us” link in the menu bar.

• Advertise your Wildlife Business: by offering relevant, targeted advertising on the site we can do two things: we can generate a bit of revenue to reinvest creating great content, AND we can introduce you to some great wildlife related products and services
• Corporate Sponsorship: Ireland’s wildlife is about encouraging conservation through engagement. Our corporate sponsorship option gives larger businesses the opportunity to sponsor sections of the site, and provides us with the resources we need to reach more people with high quality willdife content.
• Wildlife Communications and Marketing: this is simply me taking the day-job as an online communications consultant and content specialist, and applying it to the wildlife and conservation sector through Ireland’s Wildlife

None of these options will materially affect the way content is delivered on the site, or your day-to-day use of the site, but together they can hopefully generate enough revenue to cover the cost of running and maintaining the site as it continues to grow. With a bit of luck they’ll go a bit further than that, and allow us to re-invest in developing the site into the content-rich wildlife resource it’s always had the potential to become.

How you can help

Here’s what you can do to help:

Spread the word.

If you know of a wildlife related business that could benefit from advertising on Ireland’s Wildlife then please pass on the link. Likewise if you know of someone who looks after the Corporate Social Responsibility Programme for a larger organisation, and think they could be interested in sponsoring Ireland’s Wildlife, again, please pass on the link.

Together we can all help make Ireland’s Wildlife better.