Hi Adam,
As promised - a synopsis of what I am wanting to do and how your brand is potentially involved.
RecordingStudioForums.com [AudioEngineeringForums.com HomeStudioForums.com]
The premise of these websites are to discuss, and down the road provide reviews of different hardware and software based recording studio products. Providing building/planning/budgeting/gear advice, and allowing visitors to showcase their studio setups is more of an interactive way to start further discussions on gear choices, etc. How Alesis could fit it: I would like to either A. figure a way to utilize the Alesis logo, as well as have a Alesis-only forum to discuss your products, potentially with the ability to link directly to your discussion and support forums. Using the logo, while it could appear to serve as an endorsement, I can provide a disclaimer stating otherwise. It will make my forum stand out, and feel more authoritative being as I will have the only studio forum website with major manufacturer's branding present - the risk versus reward comes with the potential growth based on the marketing efforts and planning I have, and am willing to share as the need or interest arises. The core focus will be RecordingStudioForums.com but I do own the others, among many more, my friend owns RecordingStudio.com and a discussion could also happen with utilizing branding on that if an interest grows.
TLDR; I want to look more authoritative by utilizing the Alesis logo on my forum. I want to have a specific forum for Alesis discussion gear/software/etc. I would like to from time to time mention a marketing promotion at the top of your specific forum as our relationship grows. What I need in order to do this: I feel having Louisville, Kentucky regional sales numbers for retail outlets would help me better establish products to mention and make topics for the initial launch so that Alesis has the best chance at getting useful feedback from my efforts. I will also need any branding guidelines provided via email or PDF along with files.
Alright, that was a bit of typing, now to the discussion: Rob, where's the user base and traffic? I am a marketer at heart, I like to connect to audiences and help sell products and services. I want to establish relationships the proper way without building a large audience, not knowing their buying/shopping trends, and then trying to approach a brand and not have answers. I want to shape the audience and growth of the website. At any point in time I can "flip the switch" and start marketing any of the websites above, namely, RecordingStudioForums.com as the infrastructure is complete with analytics tracking and hosting setup to handle an large amount of bandwidth.
If I have not properly explained any ideas that you care for me to further elaborate on, I am happy to do so.
Thanks again for the opportunity.