From time to time, we get asked by people why it costs to promote their business with North Shore Mums. To help you understand how
The answer is really quite simple. Because a huge amount of work goes into creating a parenting website that features articles, event guides and local resources that are relevant and appealing to local families.
To create the platform, we need to hire website developers to build and maintain the website. We need to employ journalists and writers to create the content. We need to pay all the normal business costs as well – wages, legals, insurance, software, accounting, tax, website hosting, marketing, graphic design, education & training, plugins and systems to keep things running smoothly.
To support the community, we use local mums for these business services where possible. The three ladies who work on the website, are all local North Shore Mums. Our website developer is a mum-of-three from Turramurra. Our accountant is a mum-of-two teenage boys in Mt Colah. And on a personal level, I always use local businesses!
Creating and maintaining this website not only costs money, but it also requires experience, ongoing training and a lot of hard work. But, we absolutely love it too! We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t…
Our website is continually updated with new articles & events, and it’s here that businesses can also showcase their products and services to our readers in a way that is clear and transparent.
We know that our readers (that’s you!) are intelligent, educated and passionate women who can see through SPAM or people ‘fake friending’ them within groups in order to secure a client. Our Facebook group is primarily for connecting mums, not providing people with a free platform to promote their business.
Recommendations for local services is a much-valued part of the Facebook group, so we want to ensure these are genuine recommendations from real customers (not from their wives, sisters or friends), so keep an eye on repeat recommendations. And if you advertise on our website, one of the benefits is that you can suggest your own business on any recommendation posts. It’s not really fair to the paying advertisers, when people who don’t advertise get free exposure.
We’ve seen some complaints from some people who think it’s unfair we charge to advertise on our website. So we just want to address that, and explain how it all works.
What about supporting charities?
We also do a huge amount of extra work to support local charities, not-for-profit organisations and social causes, and sponsor many community events. Over the years, we have helped raised money for bushfire victims via Australian Red Cross, Cancer Council, Streetwork, Neuroblastoma Australia, Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Women’s Shelter (HKWS), Mums 4 Refugees, The Kids’ Cancer Project, The Novus Foundation, Empty Esky, Spend With Them (to name a few) and supported many local families who have faced tragedy. We’re also the principal sponsor of North Shore Mums Smiles2U, and support all their fundraising initiatives to help them deliver as many smiles as possible to families going through challenging health issues.
Unfortunately, we can’t support every charity or cause who approaches us. We wish we could, but there are only so many hours in the day.
So, why does it cost to promote your business on North Shore Mums?
Because North Shore Mums is a business. A business that has been running for the last ten years. It’s not a hobby and not a side hustle.
We’ve created a platform that provides local families with information they want, when they want. This platform also enables local businesses to reach the customers who need and want them. We don’t hide our articles behind a paywall, so we need these advertisers to ensure we can keep the content free for our readers.
Advertising on North Shore Mums helps businesses to grow!
Many businesses have flourished from their presence on North Shore Mums, and this warms our hearts. It gives meaning and purpose to what we do. We’re always thrilled by the positive feedback we get from readers and testimonials from business owners. Our #1 goal is for everyone in our community to benefit from North Shore Mums.
Like all other mums, we have families to support, and need an income in order to do this. We have qualifications, experience, career paths and want to have our own accomplishments like everyone else who has work goals.
If North Shore Mums isn’t for you, that is totally fine too. We aim to delight, but appreciate that we can’t be everything to everyone. We take all feedback and suggestions on board, so we can continue to improve and get better every day. If you ever want to get in touch, please do.
We hope to support you on your parenting journey for many years to come…
