What would happen if 1000 embedded systems experts would be offered a small chunk of the advertising revenues generated by EmbeddedRelated?

We are about to find out.

Introducing the Partner Members experiment

For the next twelve months (starting July 1st), I will share 10% of the advertising revenues generated by EmbeddedRelated with up to 1000 embedded systems experts, whose membership status will be upgraded to "Partner Members".

In exchange, the 1000 selected experts won't be required to do anything special. They will start receiving emails from me from time to time with updates on how the site is doing, and once in awhile, a payment through Paypal to cover their share of the advertising revenues. Not much, but enough maybe for a beer (or soft drink?) here and there.

So what's the catch?

Well, there is no catch really.

But I am hoping and betting that this modest incentive will encourage the partner members to care at least a little for the success of EmbeddedRelated, and maybe from time to time do some of the little actions that can make a positive difference in the progress of the site, like:

- Visit the site on a regular basis

- Rate stuff, give feedback

- Report bugs and error messages

- etc

So there is no risk whatsoever for the partners, all the risk is on me.

I should mention that if this revenue sharing experiment is successful, I will of course consider extending it and maybe even making it permanent, but for now, let's make this a one year experiment and see if it builds momentum.

And although 10% of the revenues might not sound like much, this is only a start.

For instance, I am currently planning on a second level of Partner Members, which would see 100 members (as opposed to 1000) share an extra 10% of the advertising revenues. My current plan is to cherry pick from the first pool of 1000 Partner Members those individuals who will stick out and be particularly eager and helpful, and offer them an upgrade to what I will call for now the "Level 2" Partner Member status, where obviously, the share of revenues will be more generous.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves and let's focus on step 1, which is to find 1000 talented embedded systems experts who'd like to be part of this twelve months experiments - with no strings attached - and let's see where this leads first.

To be considered as a Partner Member, please fill the very short application at:

http://embeddedrelated.com/new/partnerapply.php

It should take you about two minutes to complete. Filling the form properly will GREATLY increase your chances to be selected.

And to make this even more interesting, the first 100 individuals to fill out the application form will run a chance to win the book 'Demystifying Embedded Systems Middleware', by Tammy Noergaard.

In the hope to share the revenues with you in the near future,

Stephane Boucher