Former Vermont Governor and now Democratic National Committee Chairman, Howard Dean, who sought the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 2004, is generally credited for ushering in the era of raising campaign funds over the Internet.
Four years later, U.S. Senator Barack Obama, elected to succeed George W. Bush as the 44th President of the United States, not only raised an unprecedented amount of cash on the Internet, but took the world of political campaigning to another new frontier by utilizing YouTube's video-sharing technology to reach a much broader, diverse audience.
See the trend here? It all comes back to the Internet and the many ways in which its power can be harnessed to reach countless numbers of people.
Best of all, much of what the Internet offers in terms of opportunities to reach these countless people -- is free.
Now, most likely, the reader will not be running for President of the United States. But regardless, whether campaigning for a local, county, state, or even federal office, the reader can certainly take something away from this guide.
First Thing's First -- Get an E-mail Account for Campaigning
An already-existing personal e-mail account can certainly do the job, but it really helps to have e-mail sorted out by what is campaign -related and what is personal. Just go to Yahoo, Google, or MSN to set up a free e-mail account in a matter of minutes.
Set up a Campaign Website
There are plenty of website services out there, such as Tripod, where the user can get what is called a subdomain address and a pre-fabricated template for no cost. In most cases, the user has the option of paying a small monthly fee, usually hovering around the $5.00 range, in order to eliminate any advertising that may automatically come with a free website (placing ads on a free website is a way for the host to make the operation of giving away free websites profitable, since the user is not paying any fees for the site) and to boost download time and available disk space.
As an example, this writer was a candidate in the fall 2008 elections for a seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly. He used a free Tripod website for his campaign and paid a monthly fee of $4.95 in order to keep ads off the site and improve the site's download time and disk space. His website address was robertsonfor83.tripod.com, which is easily identifiable as a subdomain. If his address, was say, robertsonfor83.com, this would be a domain address.
There are pluses and minuses to using a subdomain address. On the one hand, using a subdomain, besides the small optional fees previously mentioned, is free. Seeing as how a political campaign, particularly for lower-level offices, usually only lasts a few months, the user does not have to worry about locking into one-year or multi-year hosting plans for a domain address and hence spending unnecessary amounts of money. On the other hand, however, using a subdomain address may appear unprofessional to some onlookers.
It all depends on the individual circumstances of the particular race, though. For example, though this writer used a subdomain address, his opponent, who is a long-time incumbent, never has a campaign website of any kind. But in a race in which the opponent does have a campaign website, and that website has a domain address, then it is most ideal to use a domain as well. In a race for local, county, and even, to some extent, state -level office, a candidate may get away with using a subdomain. For federal-level office, however, a domain address is most ideal because of the more professional appearance. Again, it all comes down to the individual circumstances of the particular race.
Tying the discussion of subdomain and domain addresses into that of setting up an e-mail account, a more professional appearing, customized e-mail address can come with a domain website address. For example, one could have joe@joeforcongress.com rather than joeforcongress@yahoo.com
Take Advantage of Free Publicity on Other Websites
There are plenty of websites, such as LinkedIn.com, Facebook.com, MySpace.com, and CraigsList.org, that allow users to create profile pages, form groups, and post ads...all for free. Take advantage of these opportunities. If the candidate has a campaign website, s/he can link to his/her campaign website from these other sites, and vice-versa. The results are a vast, inter-connected network of information and resources regarding the campaign and a much wider audience.
Conclusion
In closing, political campaigns certainly do not have to be as costly than readily meets the eye. With these Internet-based strategies and solutions, the candidate can save a lot of money while reaching far more potential voters.
For more great Internet-based political campaign strategies and solutions, including fundraising, see the article Cost-Effective Political Campaigning.
Aaron Scott Robertson - Journalist, author, public servant, and president of Intrepid Innovations Inc.
