We have a number of options here and I'd like to know what everyone else is looking for. To have this ring just simply set up does not cost anything. For $1/month, we can have our ring listed at the top of the directory (Religions-Christianity-Homeschooling). For $.50/month, we can have our ring added (near the top) of another directory. (This is probably not a bad idea, since "Homeschooling" is also a subcategory of the "Schools and Education" category.)
We can add a logo to the ring hub page (250x250 px) and/or a logo to the navigation bar (50x50 px. The navigation bar is the box that appears on the member websites when we install the code.) Whether or not we upload images for these purposes is up to you - I'm not particular. If we decide to upload images, we also need to know *what* to upload.
We can use the ring's hub page as the join page, which is how it's currently set up, or we can create another page elsewhere and I can set that as the join page. This could work nicely in conjunction with the other ideas that were mentioned on the list - advertising, etc. My website is currently hosted at a pretty nice, ad-free site at no cost. For $7.95 we can register a domain name through Aplus.net and set up a site with it's own domain name. That could serve as a nice front page, push for purchasing directly from self-publishers, etc., as well as serving as a join page for the hub.
Advertising, obviously, is always an option. IMO, if we want to advertise, we should set up a separate join page/front page, even if it is not a separate site but just a section of someone's current site. I don't think the standard webring hub page is as professional as something we could put together just for that purpose.
I selected the name that I did for the ring because I'm hoping that having "homeschool curriculum" as part of title will weigh heavily in the search engines. It would be very nice if typing "homeschool curriculum" in a search engine brought our hub page up in the first page of results even without any other advertising!
Any other suggestions are welcome. Input about the colors of the search box, the colors of the hub page, how to go about advertising, etc.
Be blessed!
~Rachel R.
http://www.homeworksbest.net
(Current RingMaster)
