Well, the simple answer is to lure visitors to your own website.

Google can bring in people that are searching for what Google has found and cataloged in your website. However, if their search terms leave your entry as the 21st or 66th or 814th choice (out of thousands) the likelyhood of a clickthrough from the 3rd, or 7th, or 47th page of search results is remote. If a "vanity search" for your own site is listed on the second (or subsequent) page of results, you're in big trouble!

People searching for the phrase "dead pool" are likely to be offered thousands of options; someone searching for a phrase that is much more common might be presented with millions of choices. Unless you are already showing up in the first page of search results for the common descriptive phrases that you might put into your home page's "Meta" tags, you will need to employ other means to bring others to your website. We're here to offer you those "other means."

As a dead/death/ghoul-pool contest we occupy a fairly narrow niche area of the internet. If we had to rely on the search results for the common descriptive phrases that someone would use to actually try to find a dead pool contest, we might get one new visitor every other day. Add in the visits from people that already have us bookmarked and you're talking about an annual count of pages served in the few thousands. However, we actually have about one-hundred thousand pages requested per month (one million + per year, and growing). How do we accomplish that? CONTENT!

The ancillary database of trivial factoids that is associated with our dead pool contest (The Book of the Dead) is fully cataloged by most of the "big" internet search operations, so the universe of phrases that might cause our website to be referenced on a search results page is way bigger. And, we often find ourselves on the first page of the results listing (another factor bringing traffic our way).

In spite of (or maybe because of) the title of most pages, starting with the phrases

Caskets On Parade - Book of the Dead: "A"
«or»
Caskets On Parade - Grim Reaper Targets of Opportunity

We have received emails describing the site as "addictive," "informative," "educational" and "maddening." Numerous blog entries reference the site. "Respectable" journalists and educators list us in their public link lists. Our original intent of creating an easily browsed reference for participants in our own dead pool contest has caught the attention of a much larger world audience.

At one point (before we left MSU as our hosting service) the phrase "playboy playmates of the month" typed into the Google search engine brought up our website page of playmates as the number one listing — ahead of Playboy's own website! (consistently number two). Since more people linked to our site than Playboy's, we went to the head of the search listing (and stayed there until we moved ... we were moving back up again, up to number 6, as of 9/30/10, but then dipped down to #8 as of 9/16/2011; after a few more years we should be back up to #2 or #3).

Browsability & loads of attractive content have been the centerpiece of our "stickiness" & link desireability (despite the "unfortunate name" as some have bemoaned). We prey upon people's curiosity to see what else they may come across after they have found the nugget of information that they originally sought. Sex, drugs, Rock 'n Roll, plus Death and Taxes, and so much more. Those are some of the things that people really want to find out about! Those also happen to be some of the things that drive dead pool contests.

The very curiosity that has been peaked, that has them clicking all over our website is available to you, by way of a banner ad at the top of almost every page in the website. Just maybe they'll see a banner that looks interesting & click on it ... not necessarily a bad way to passively seek out new visitors for your own website.

We have no idea!

It has been our policy to not track our visitors --- no cookies, no surveys, no registrations, no spyware! The price that they pay to come and take a look is just the cost (to them & us) of the bandwidth that they're burning to suck down the pages.

You can get a small glimmer of their intent by looking through the search words & phrases that brought them into the site (heavy on Playboy-related search keywords). A recent calamity will bring people in, looking for related individuals. A politician's irresponsible behavior brings out the curious, looking to see if there is a pattern developing. A cable tv movie retrospective will cause people to wonder if a particular actor is still with us.

Has Elvis been spotted recently in Kalamazoo? Is Bat Boy rabid? Did space aliens vote for Hillary in 2008? Inquiring Minds Want To Know!

The common thread amongst our new site visitors — curiosity. Visitors to the Caskets On Parade website are 187% more curious than a control group of torpid lab rats ... actually, we're making that up. We Don't Know.

However, once you've lured them over to your website, you're free to ask them all manner of demographic questions and find out!

At the top of this page is an instance of the current sponsor's banner ad and the resulting link to a page within their website. If you are considering a sponsorship of the Caskets On Parade website, read through the details listed below ...

• Your banner ad will run across almost all of the pages in the Caskets On Parade website. Typically, pages that are individual elements of a page composed of a "frame" of pages will not have an ad loaded into each individual element page. The website's main page is an example of this limitation.

• The main (index) page of the Caskets On Parade website is not part of this offer; purchase of sponsorship of that page is separate from this general offer.

• Your banner ad will be the only link on a page to your target URL page; we do not offer multiple banners/ads per page.

• Sponsorship of the Caskets On Parade website is "unique" & exclusive — outside of the site's main (index) page, all other banner ads within the site will be for a single sponsor.

• Your banner ad link will be to a "frame" page within our website; that "frame" will load a single viewable page — the page which you will specify as your own site's entry point (it will open in a second, "new" window, leaving the Caskets On Parade website open in the original window behind yours).

• Your banner ad will load from our server; no externally-pulled banner ads are permitted.

• Placement of your banner ad will be at our discretion. Typically, it will be centered at the very top of all available pages, loading before all other page content.

• No inline (auto-playing) sound or video files will be associated with the banner ad or the link URL's target webpage.

• No sound or video files are permitted as all or part of the banner ad.

• No Java, Java Script or other scripting language will be associated with your target link URL.

• Our website employs no dynamicaly generated content; all pages are static (the same for all visitors), being generated on our local computer and then uploaded to our hosting service. The static nature of all of the pages means that we will not recode hundreds of pages to meet a "special" request (and then un-recode them later). The banner ad that you will submit for use on our site will be restricted to the following parameters:
  • File formats accepted - GIF or JPG only
  • Banner ads restricted to 300Kb maximum file size
  • No Flash, Shockwave or other formats accepted
  • Banner ad must be a single file; no tiling within a table or frame permitted
  • Maximum Width Resolution: 500 pixels
  • Minimum Width Resolution: 400 pixels
  • Maximum Height Resolution: 120 pixels
  • Minimum Height Resolution: 60 pixels
  • The suggested minimum bit depth per pixel: 4 bits
  • No "alt" tag message will be associated with the banner (other than our own generic message)
  • All banner ads will be displayed within a border of zero pixels

• Content of banner ad must meet our "suitability" criteria prior to acceptance. The "we know it when we see it" rule applies with respect to unacceptible depictions or target URL links.

• No copyrighted material may be contained in the banner ad without the written consent of the copyright holder.

• Content (text or visual) that might get us sued — verbotten in the banner ad or target URL page.

• Target URL links must be to an acceptible web page; the page being linked-to must have acceptible content and must remain the same for the duration of the contracted sponsorship period. (ie. no link to a page full of pretty kitties when contracting for the sponsorship that changes to a page full of Nazis drowning puppies once the sponsorship is under way).

  Also, "You are a winner" come-on banner ads will not be accepted. The banner ad must identify some positive aspect of the targeted website as the reason for clicking on the ad (and invoking the link). "A Better Deadpool Than C.O.P." for another deadpool contest would be perfectly acceptible; a "You've Won an IPod" banner as bait to get you to fulfill dozens of purchasing requirements before you get your "free" IPod would not be acceptible.

• The link URL's target page may not contain any pop-up, pop-after, pop-under coding; this also applies to the behavior of third-party advertising content in the target URL page. We expect that the target URL page will be clean & unannoying to us and to our website's visitors.

• A sponsorship's banner ad & target URL link, once accepted and posted for display and linkage, will not be changed during the contracted sponsorship period at a greater frequency than once per month. Remember, we are a "static" website; no dynamic server operations will happen (such as randomly displaying a banner ad from a pool of available banner ads)

• The target URL must remain consistent & viable (ie. no 404 errors or "page not found" screens when the link is clicked) for the duration of the sponsorship period. If a target URL goes "bad" (for reasons other than the sponsor's hosting service being down) we will notify the sponsor of the link's problem and give them 48 hours to fix the problem before terminating the banner & link.

• A sponsor must provide a contact email address that will be checked regularly by the sponsor & remain active for the duration of the sponsorship period. Postal mail or a courier service (UPS, FedEx, etc.) may be employed but Email will be the primary method of contact between sponsors and Caskets On Parade.

• Sponsorships will be available in the following durations:
  • One Month
  • Two Months
  • Three Months
  • Six Months
  • One Year

• Sponsorships start/end on the following begin/end points:
  • One Month - 1st through last day of that month (minimum 28 days)
  • Two Months - 1st through last day of the second month (minimum 59 days)
  • Three Months - 1st through last day of the third month (minimum 89 days); the sponsorship must start at begining of a calendar quarter (January 1, April 1, July 1 or October 1)
  • Six Months - 1st through last day of the sixth month (minimum 181 days); the sponsorship must start at: the begining of the year (January 1), the beginning of the second calendar quarter (April 1) or the beginning of the third calendar quarter (mid-year, July 1)
  • One Year - full calendar year; January 1 through December 31 (minimum 365 days); the sponsorship must start January 1

  • The time-of-day for the beginning/ending of a sponsor ship will be just after midnight (GMT) on the first day of a sponsorship; until right up to midnight (GMT) on the last day of the sponsorship. We reserve the right to activate the sponsorship early and terminate it late (before and after the contracted sponsorship period) if no other sponsorships have been booked (and we don't feel like getting up early to get one started or end one). Otherwise, a sponsorships will be activated within a 30 minute time period after of the specified start period and terminated within a 30 minute period after the end of sponsorship period (if we start 25 minutes "late" we will end it 25 minutes, or more, "late").

• Pricing of Sponsorships —
  • One Month - $25
  • Two Months - $40
  • Three Months - $55
  • Six Months - $100
  • One Year - $180

• Payment is due in advance, in it's entirety. Payment must be have been received and cleared by our bank at least one week prior to the start of the banner ads run on the website.

  Unacceptible forms of payment:

  • Credit Cards
  • Paypal
  • Western Union (& most other) money orders
  • e-transfers
  • store gift cards
  • stamps (Postal Service, S&H green stamps, ...)
  • Non-U.S. currency (Canadian loonies, Triskelion Quatloos, Zimbabwean quadrillion dollar notes, ...)
  • Internation Postal Union Reply Coupons
    
    [The basic rule comes down to this — if we can't use it to buy a jug of milk or gas up the car, it ain't "real" cash, which is just as good as money]

  Acceptible forms of payment:

  • a check (non-"starter", drawn on a continental U.S. bank)
  • U.S. currency (it's still legal tender to us)
  • U.S. Postal Service money order.

• NO REFUNDS for links/banners/target sites that violate the terms of the contract. If we have to terminate a sponsorship banner, we invoke the First Rule of Acquisition: "Once you have their money, you never give it back."

• We will not count the number of click-throughs to your target URL page; that is something that a sponsor will need to meter themself. Likewise, we won't provide the number of Page Views (and the number of banner ad views) that you receive - for now you are operating under the same metering restrictions that we are operating under. You should check out the general website statistics that our hosting service provides ... those stats may be found by [ CLICKING HERE ]

• Everything is subject to the limitations of our hosting service — if they go down, our whole website goes down, and no banners may be served. Tough luck for everyone. No pro-rated refunds for the period (just like the phone or cable tv company operates).