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This is the 2nd of two articles that discusses a way to get some public school funding off the taxpayer teat. The first article can be found here.

Corporate Advertising on Public School Websites

Funding Through e-Commerce Opportunities

It’s time for school districts to create their own income by using their websites as a tool for generating money without a cost to taxpayers. It only requires they know how it can be accomplished and the earning potential at their fingertips.

Internet retail sales in the U.S. totaled $226 billion in 2011. In 2013 sales are on track for $250 billion and by 2016 sales to consumers purchasing products online are expected to reach $316 billion. World-wide, e-commerce generated over $5 trillion in 2012 and will only increase each year.

It isn’t just retailers making money from the Internet. Individuals have been profiting from these sales by directing visitors from their own websites to retailers websites, earning commissions on every sale they are credited with. In addition, more money is being made by individuals by simply installing Google Adsense ads, or directly selling ad space on their websites to businesses.

This concept, known among those of us who make a significant income by installing advertising on websites we build and own, is called Affiliate Marketing. Though no exact figures are available for the total amount of income that is made from affiliate marketing, because the IRS has yet to provide a tax code for it, it is conservatively estimated that at least 3% of the $226 billion in U.S. sales was paid out in the form of commissions to the many thousands of affiliate marketers running websites as a business, or simply posting to personal online blogs.

That equates to almost $6.8 billion dollars paid out to those who own websites and act as doormen to businesses that pay them to bring them online customers.

Though the exact figures can’t be known for what is made through payouts from retail sales, it can be given for what was earned by affiliate marketers who installed Google Adsense ads. These are the ads you see above and below this article, with the large blue text. If you click on one of them, the advertised business sends me money that is tracked by Google. The same would happen for a school district that installed these ads, using coding Google provides.

Google refers to such affiliate marketers as, “Partners” and payouts are reported as Traffic Acquisition Costs (TAC).
TAC – The portion of revenues shared with Google’s partners, increased to $3.08 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012, compared to $2.45 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011. TAC as a percentage of advertising revenues was 25% in the fourth quarter of 2012, compared to 24% in the fourth quarter of 2011.
2012 Google Earnings Report

The point of providing the previous information is to convey that access to a portion of these billions is available to every school district that understands the concept of creating an affiliate relationship with corporations conducting e-commerce business.

Clarification Regarding Advertising on School Websites

A common question is, “Is a school permitted to have advertising on their website or include Google or Amazon-type links if the school is receiving E-rate funding for webhosting and/or Internet access?”

The following unofficial (verbal) guidance from FCC officials replied to this issue when Ms. Julie Schell, PA E-rate Coordinator, requested information.

The FCC does not believe that advertising on a school’s website is a violation of the E-rate resale prohibition. However, they strongly cautioned that E-rate funded services must be used primarily for educational purposes and therefore if the school’s website is overwhelmed with advertisements, that would be a problem. But modest advertisements would be considered ancillary and would not be in violation of E-rate rules.I believe this is a positive answer and one I’m pleased to check off the “open issues” list! If you have any questions about this clarification, please don’t hesitate to contact me.– Julie

Julie Tritt Schell, PA E-rate Coordinator
(Ph) 717-730-7133       (Fax) 717-730-9060     (email)   jtschell@comcast.net   www.e-ratepa.org

Negative Opinions of the Internet

Sociologists are concerned with the social implications of the technology; new social networks, virtual communities and ways of interaction that have arisen, as well as issues related to cyber crime, pornography, etc. The greater concern is the impact on youth not developing the social skills acquired in face to face interaction that is lost through the use of Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and other digital interaction, such as texting.

The general public, those who use the Internet, are more concerned with the immediate impact of what is displayed on their personal computers, through individual websites that can be accessed in their homes. This access not only includes the subject matter of the website, but all content on the browser screen, including advertising accepted by the website owner.

Hacking of personal information, cyber-bullying, virus downloads, easy access to pornographic images, predator pedophiles, and other dark areas of the Internet have made most responsible parents wary of allowing their children unsupervised use of a computer. The stories of  hazards involving the Internet cause many to be unable to see the positives.

Benefits of the Internet

As most who understand the Internet and computers already know, these tools made available to us can be used for nefarious purposes, but beyond the shocking headlines of a story that relates the bad, the Internet has provided a better understanding of our world and provided more information than would have ever been so easily available without it.

Today there are encyclopedias, dictionaries, translation sites, news from other countries, art, literature, science, health advice, and more available to us within fractions of a second to improve our knowledge and understanding of any subject, or other cultures.

Jack Andraka, a 15 year-old freshman in high school invented a ground breaking cancer detection method from information he found through the Internet. He has said that he could never have achieved his discovery without the Internet.

With the good and bad of it, what most people fail to see is that the Internet is a tool that allows anyone (or any organization) to profit monetarily by creating a continuous source of passive income that can be used to supplement a dwindling paycheck, or a lack of funding – without burdening the taxpayer.

School district websites are mostly visited by the demographic of 24-45 year-olds. The cream of the population targeted by corporation advertising and a selling point that should be used when approaching these corporations for advertising revenue. Other highlighted selling points should be the school district enrollment, total district population, and the square miles of the district area.

Sadly, many school districts are closing their technology and computer departments at a time when they should be expanding. The demand for Internet Technology (IT) professionals has risen in the last decade and other than the need for those trained in the field of geriatric care, because of the aging baby boomers, IT will be one of the few employment opportunities that will see an increase in high paying positions available to qualified applicants.

A further benefit of districts districts generating Internet commissions and advertising revenue may be that they will use some of this newly found income to restart or expand their computer and Internet technology programs for students. Schools would then be in a better position to convey the hazards of  personal information and images being transmitted through cyber-space.

A few school districts throughout the country are only now realizing the potential of earning a significant amount of income using their existing websites and it‘s making news. Those that have chosen to apply income generating additions to their websites are seeing that it is possible to partially fund their schools with this advertising revenue.

A Michigan School District among many turning to website advertising.

The Cost of Internet Advertising On District Websites

There is no major cost to a school district that allows advertising on its website.

All that is required is an IT individual who knows how to install the snippet of coding to the area where an ad is to be placed.

That snippet of coding is provided either by the company wishing to advertise who pays a flat rate for the advertising space (provided in pixel dimensions) with no commission on sales awarded, or is provided through an “Affiliate House.” An Affiliate House may handle thousands of advertising clients and handles all aspects of tracking sales and awarding commissions to website owners. In addition, some larger Internet companies run their own affiliate programs, such as Amazon and eBay.

A typical snippet of code and the one behind the Amazon banner ad that appears near the beginning of this article looks like this (my account number has been removed):

 

<iframe style="border: none;" src="http://rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com
/e/cm?t=xxxxxxxxx-xx&o=1&p=26&l=ur1&category=cdbfdeals&
banner=19Q0YM73X94EV65QX502&f=ifr" height="60" width="468" 
frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Within the code above is all the information that allows Amazon.com to track where a click came from (this website) and the account holder of this particular ad (me). Amazon would then add up all commissions from every site I own and all the sales attributed to me. The total is directly deposited into my bank account every month. It’s something any school district could add to their website in just a few minutes. It took me less than a minute to include this code on all my articles, as I set up my website to automatically display numerous codes that I can change in the future with little effort if I decide to promote a different advertiser.

The IT person would also have to be familiar with Internet laws imposed by the FCC and rules of use set by individual corporations regarding their advertising policies, such as those set by Google and Amazon that includes privacy policies and disclaimer notifications on the website.

They will also have to learn how to apply for affiliate accounts with those businesses that offer such programs at no cost to those they accept into their affiliate programs.

None of it is difficult and they, being educated with skoolin’ and such, should be able to figure it out, just as I did.

The Key To Increase Earning Potential For School Districts

School district websites don’t get a lot of Internet traffic (visitors). A concerted effort must be made by the school district to inform the public that their website is providing links to businesses advertising on their website and that subsequent purchases made by the public after clicking that link will result in money being awarded to the district from the corporation advertising.

Constant reminders must be sent to parents and faculty that if they intend to make a purchase on the Internet, they should first look to the school district website for a link to the retailer, such as Amazon.com. Amazon pays an initial 4% on any sale attributed to an affiliate marketer. Subsequent sales made within that month will increase the total commission on all sales. Commissions top out at 8.5% if enough sales are made.

Parents and faculty should be encouraged to forward information to friends and relatives about the school district being awarded money from corporations when a link on the district website is used. The aim would be to get as many visitors as possible to the district website in order to generate income from Internet sales.

There is also no need to hire a company that takes part of the profit for finding advertisers. It simply requires an educated IT employee.

Advertisers are available by the thousands and they are all champing at the bit to advertise on school websites.