Article: What is a "Commercial Posting"?

WaccoBB.net is a member supported service. We only accept commercial postings from members who have a Commercial Supporting Membership.

A commercial posting is any post that is part of a marketing program that offers a product or service for a fee that generates income.

Basically, if you are using WaccoBB.net as way marketing your business (any endeavor that you or your organization stand to derive some income from), or businesses of your friends or family, then you'll need a Commercial Supporting Membership. "Non-profits" are addressed below.

This includes free events that are offered as a way of introducing your product or service to potential clients.

There are a few exceptions:

Personal items for sale: The resale of personal items not purchased for re-sale.
Rental housing for rent.
Benefits: Events to support an individual(s) in need.
Fundraisers: Events by 100% volunteer organizations.
Community Events where the standard/suggested admission charge is $5 or less, or that only cover the costs of the event (ie nobody from the organization gets paid), and do not promote any higher paid products, services or events.
Pass-a-long: Events that you have no financial or social interest (ie offered by your friend) may be posted one time if you think it would be in the interest of the community.
Referrals to a service provider may be posted in the Services/Referrals Wanted category one time. You must disclose if you have any financial or social connection to that person or business.
$15/hr or less: Services offered for $15/hr or less will not be considered to be commercial. You rate must be stated in the post and you may not include any services/situations that where you would charge more the $15/hr. [as of May 1st, 2009]
Commercial Membership starts at just $6/month for an average of 1 post/month.

You can become a Commercial Supporting Member here.

See information about banner advertising here.

About Commercial Membership for Non-Profits

Let's face it, there are non-profits and there are non-profits. Many posts on WaccoBB.net are from people pursuing right-livelihood in one form or another, whether its holding ritual space, sharing information and transformative experiences, or providing other services. Whether or not they have gotten legal non-profit status seems rather arbitrary to me.

Some are individual service providers, some are small volunteer groups while others have a significant budget and paid staff. For that matter, I consider WaccoBB.net to be a non-profit as well, as we are dedicated to making this service available for the empowerment of our community. At some point we may even incorporate as a legal non-profit. In any case, The IRS tax-status does not seem relevant.

I only ask a very modest membership fee for "commercial" (for lack of a better word) postings. This is possible by asking everybody to pitch in a bit. Since commercial posts, by definition, are asking for more than $5 from each person who attends or uses the service, and we are only asking $6 for a post, then even if only one additional person supports your cause you will come out ahead.

Rather than judge whether your non-profit organization deserves special consideration more than the next community member, the distinction that seems fair to me is to offer free posts to organizations that are 100% volunteer and ask those with any (under) paid staff to contribute the standard modest commercial posting fee.

Banners for non-profits

We will, however, consider discounts for running banner ads from non-profits and other worthy community services. Please Contact Us for details.