Yesterday we kicked off a series of articles at YMX. Let me tell you why I’m excited about this series. It is practical, between the eyes, encouragement to youth workers.
One of the main goals of YMX is to be an encouragement to the Youth Ministry community. So I have been asking our forum moderators and a few other folks to write brief notes of encouragement to the community called “You Matter.”
For at 6 months I’ve been toying with an idea that launched today.
Networking youth ministry bloggers is nothing new to me. In fact, back in 2004-2005 this led to the creation of the “YS forum members blogring” which later morphed into what is today Youth Ministry Exchange.
As I’ve gotten to know much more about how the internet works I’ve seen how advertisers are always looking for ways to connect with the blogging community. Increasingly, I’ve wanted YMX to create an engine to connect the two in a highly effective manner for both. See, it’s not that youth ministry companies aren’t spending money in online advertising already… they are… it’s that most of their ad dollars get wasted on places they don’t intend to have their ads placed. Likewise, I’ve never met a youth worker who couldn’t use a couple more bucks per month for doing something they already do… blog.
So, Patti and I have toyed with this idea for a few months. It’s gone through several revisions and “hmm, let’s think about this for a month” cycles. Long story short, today a pilot of the YM ad network launches. I’m geeked about this pilot and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
Read more about it at the ad network blog.
Over at YMX, we’re accepting nominations for “Best of 2007” from the world of youth ministry.
If you post your list on your blog and post the link in the comments section by 12/30/07, we’ll put your name in a drawing for a $25 gift card from Amazon. (Drawing on 12/31/2007) Don’t post your link here… post it here!
Do I have to be “in youth ministry” to nominate? Nope. It’s open to anyone with an opinion. The only requirement to be in the drawing is that you have to post a link to your nominations in your blog/website.