During the initial web site development phase going on now, all ads are free.  Simply email the webmaster to begin the development process.

Local Businesses

Advertisements for businesses located within the townships of Pershing and Salt Creek are free of charge provided that a ready made GIF, JPEG, or PNG image of size 135W by 135H pixels is submitted.  Image height may be up to 250 pixels if required.  JPEG format is preferred for large advertisements with a moderate compression ratio applied.  Other formats are readily converted to JPEG, however the more work you do the less the webmaster must do and so the faster the web site can be updated and published. 

Additional information such as a link to associate with the image should be provided (e.g. if the business has its own web site to link to).  If practical, the image should incorporate contact information such as a phone number and address.  In all cases, a yearly donation to the Freetown Improvement Association would be appreciated.  No expiration will be applied to local business advertisements, however a periodic review will be made to ensure that the advertisement is still wanted or needed.

Outlying Businesses

Advertisements for businesses located outside the townships of Pershing and Salt Creek will require confirmation of receipt of a donation (value of your choice) to the Freetown Improvement Association.  A scanned copy of your dated receipt will be sufficient, along with your attached graphic submission.  This may be emailed to the webmaster.If required, arrangements may be made to fax the receipt copy to confirm your order.  Donations to the Freetown Improvement Association will be considered as "membership dues" and will be valid for the year submitted.  Advertisements for outlying businesses will be reset at each year end and require a renewal process at the beginning of the new year.  Therefore advertisers should take into consideration the remainder of the calendar year to achieve the "value" that they expect for their donation relative to the span of display of the advertisement remaining in the current year.

Exceptions

As with most rules, they are made to be broken.  The goal of this web site is obviously to promote the local area, so please contact the webmasterto discuss alternate options if required.

Advertisement Design Services

Design services are available to produce small, relatively non-complex single-image advertisements.  Because this web site is a "leisure" activity of the webmaster, rapid turnaround cannot be guaranteed.  In most cases, development will need to be delayed to a weekend or holiday.  Price for development will be $10.00, with a minimum non-refundable $5.00 charge if the end product proves unacceptable.  The advertiser will be required to submit related materials and information necessary to summarize the product or business.  Materials might include such things as photographs or images of the store front or of the product being advertised and a text description of the product and your specific ideas or desires for the advertisement.  These may be submitted via email to the webmaster.  These services will help defray the small cost of maintaining the web site (URL, URL forwarding, disk space).

Recommended Graphics Design Tools

This site is created utilizing a variety of graphics (primarily image) editing tools.  Microsoft Image Composer 1.5 is used for producing custom buttons.  Microsoft Photodraw can also be used for this purpose, but Image Composer's "button object" is easier to manage overall. Microsoft Photodraw is used for most other complex graphics or images.  Since both of these products have been discontinued, Microsoft Picture-It Digital Image Assistant is a superior moderate cost ($100) editor that can satisfy the majority of the casual user's needs.  Digital Image Assistant is the recommended replacement for Photodraw. 

For advanced editing needs, Adobe Photoshop ($600+) is difficult to beat.  There are low and intermediate cost/capability versions of Photoshop as well.  For highly complex business graphics, wiring diagrams, schematics, etc., there are very expensive products available such as MS Visio and Autocad.  However, these are seldom necessary for typical web development. 

Site Design Criteria

This site is designed to work with a wide variety of new and older web browsers.  Therefore, it contains only simple HTML and a very small amount of Javascript.  Links may refer to Portable Document Format (PDF) documents which will require that the browser support the Adobe Acrobat Reader (free from Adobe).  Advanced web development tools such as MS' '.NET', Sun's Java, and Macromedia Flash/Shockwave will not be supported for the foreseeable future.