Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: "credit union", advertising, Side Business Lending, Side Business Loans
This blog has become successful because we provide content here, not advertising. My challenge in talking about this is to tell you about it without selling it. In other words, I have to cover my own story. It’s probably impossible and if this sounds like advertising, feel free to tell me so in the comments.
Several months ago, I had an idea. What if credit unions could help replace some of the lost overdraft services revenue through a target marketing lending program? What if this program could become almost universal across the movement to the point where people associated this type of lending with credit unions? What if it could be done so cheaply and easily that it would have few barriers for adoption by credit unions?
Side Business Lending™ is that idea brought to fruition. This is a target marketing program that is essentially 95% marketing and 5% compliance. Credit unions in the program market their loans to their members in a way that encourages them to pursue a hobby or an interest or a side-business via loans from the credit union. But it’s more than that. It involves two forms of marketing: traditional and collaborative among credit unions in the program. Moreover, the credit union’s involvement with the member does not end in making the loan.
Up until today, the program was two thirds complete. I protected the IP and drafted the policy for credit unions in the program. The third component is the website that lets credit unions in the program collaborate on the marketing. Today that website is up.
There are a lot of ways to develop a site on the Internet. I got a referral from my good friend Brent Dixon. He knew a developer named Chad Gowan. Chad is doing development work with Brent right now in addition to his day job (and is also in a band). He’s one of those renaissance guy types. He met my budget and my deadlines and was really good to work with.
So that’s it. I’ve told you about a new thing I’ve developed and tried my hardest not to make it sound like an ad. I cannot tell you how excited I am about this, though.
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just Federals?
Comment by Fred July 12, 2010 @ 1:40 pmFederals nationwide and Ohio state chartered credit unions. We’re working on State Chartered credit unions on a state by state basis. Of course it moves a state up the ladder if we have a state chartered credit union in a particular state that wants to be in the program.
Comment by Rob Rutkowski July 12, 2010 @ 1:45 pmDoes advertising undermine the quality or credibility of a site’s content?
I know from my personal experience that I couldn’t write more than 4-6 articles a month at The Financial Brand without ads. With ads, I can afford to write 4-6 articles a week.
Comment by Jeffry Pilcher | TheFinancialBrand.com July 13, 2010 @ 3:09 pmNo, I don’t mean running ads on your site, Jeff. That’s fine. What I mean is that people come to this blog because I’m not selling them MY products all the time. If I hawked WWR stuff all the time, no one would bother with the blog. They come for the content.
Comment by Rob Rutkowski July 20, 2010 @ 2:55 pm[...] Editor’s note: this is the first of a series discussing the pros and cons of certain side businesses that CU members may approach their credit unions to finance using a Side Business Loan.™ [...]
Pingback by Snow plowing as a side business. « That Credit Union Blog February 8, 2011 @ 1:31 pm[...] Editor’s note: this is the next article of a series discussing the pros and cons of certain side businesses that CU members may approach their credit unions to finance using a Side Business Loan.™ [...]
Pingback by Bee Keeping as a Side Business. « That Credit Union Blog February 21, 2011 @ 1:52 pm