| How
To Sell Ads On Your Site
Just about every web
site owner has thought of a day when they will be able
to harvest huge profits simply by putting other people's
ads on their site. Put up your site, insert ads, and
wait for the checks to arrive.
And why not?
TV pulls down billions,
your local daily newspaper probably gobbles up 80% of
the ad money spent in your town, and your favorite top
five rated radio station practically prints money. Media
earns. So why can't your web site get in on the media
money frenzy, too?
While Internet advertising
has been a bit slow to get started (banner ad rates
aren't any higher than they were in 1996), online advertising
is starting to show signs of real promise.
Optimistic predictions
peg online ad sales topping $23.5 billion by 2005. That
is even MORE than network TV earns. To make matters
even more exciting for the small business owner, there
don't seem to be many mammoth corporate sites running
away with all the audience. Even Yahoo, the king of
web traffic, is having problems keeping Wall Street
happy.
What To Expect.
Most web sites ads are
in the form of banners. Banner rates are based on how
many visitors your site gets. Just like advertising
on TV or print, rates are CPM (cost per thousand visitors).
The CPM rate for banners has been at $35 for years.
I would be sloppy if
I didn't also mention that a great many sites discount
their rates if you ask. In reality, the average CPM
rate (when you ask) is well below $35. This sort of
thing isn't at all unusual in the media world. I once
worked for a radio station that had a published rate
of $75 per commercial. Most clients got their spots
for just $30. One major supermarket who had a knack
for negotiation was getting the same commercials for
just $12.
One way to tell if a
site isn't getting any advertisers is to note how many
of their banners advertise their own site. Either they
aren't getting anyone to buy their banner space or the
rates are so low it is more profitable to advertise
the company's own products.
When you publish
your ad rates, try to keep them high. It's much easier
to negotiate a lower rate than to raise low rates later
on. Most media profits come from higher rates. When
your unique visitor count goes up, raise your rates.
When an important writer regularly sends you content,
raise your rates.
Here's Who Can Place
Ads On Your Site.
Fortunately, there are
some very large and growing ad networks that bring thousands
of everyday web sites together. These well organized
packages of sites are very attractive to advertisers.
Even for big companies, they are the way to go if you
want to do an ad campaign on the Net without spending
a month going from site to site setting up the deal.
Make your first stop
at TheAdStop.com.
They include how-to advice and a host of reviewed ad
networks that can get you started.
eAds.com pays from a
nickle to 20 cents per click and won't accept sites
get less than 100,000 impressions per month (an impression
is when a visitor sees a banner).
A site that is highly focused on a specific topic of
interest to a certain valuable audience will produce
better results for banners. eAds will negotiate a special
price for sites with banners getting more than 500 clicks
per month.
BurstMedia.com
has taken the specialized site concept to a lofty level.
They believe highly specialized site content provides
better results for advertisers. On a recent visit, Burst
was featuring LongHairLovers.com,
a site for women with long hair.
You may have noticed, as I have, that many women highly
value their long hair. They regard that aspect of their
person as very dear. You can imagine how personal the
articles, products, and ideas featured at LongHairLovers.com
can be to that specific audience. It turns out to be
an outstanding place to advertise hair care products.
Other ad networks go
for hugely impressive numbers. ValueClick delivers ads
to a global audience - including over 30% of Internet
users in the US. Banners range over 10,200 sites before
14 million people.
In almost all cases,
banners are served up on sites according to standard
subject areas like Automotive, Business & Finance,
Careers, and Consumer Technology.
Mostly I've been thinking
of small business sites. If you are in charge of advertising
for a larger corporation, you may need a more extensive
and personalized campaign designed by an ad agency.
Most top agency, especially those hailing from New York
City, have either established their own Internet ad
departments or acquired smaller firms specializing in
developing online ad campaigns.
The big guys don't seem
to have any special secrets. The current method is to
search the Net for appropriate sites and negotiate a
price. A recent report figured an ad agency worker placed
dozens of calls and emails to get a campaign going.
There are now efforts to build a database network that
will speed up the process.
How To Measure Your Site's
Audience.
Most ad networks pay
according to cost-per-click (CPC--how many people click
on a banner) and cost-per-impression (how many people
see a banner, usually sold on the classic CPM model
I mentioned earlier).
Before you get into the
game, you need a good way to measure the number of visitors
you get on each of your pages. Your numbers of unique
visitors is most important.
Your web host may already
have a hits measuring feature in place for you site.
There are also software packages you can buy off the
shelf and online services you can connect to.
Perhaps the most popular
and full featured is the free service at WebTrendsLive.com.
The basic service requires you put their button on every
page of your site. You can pay more to go buttonless.
You get real-time traffic analysis and a gaggle of reports
on visitors, page views, ad campaigns, and revenues.
One trick radio and TV
use is to take advantage of all those reports. When
you can view your audience from every which way, you
can bet there is at least one perspective that makes
your site look extremely attractive to advertisers.
Maybe you don't get a
whole ton of visitors, but those who come spend an hour
clicking through every page on your site. That shows
visitors value your content and don't mind giving up
a considerable helping of their valuable time. That
is a a quality that would mean sales for many advertisers.
In the end, you may find
it's the MEASURING and not the ads that make you the
most money. Keeping a constant eye on your site's stats
lets you make better decisions on where you place content,
what kinds of content you use, what products and services
you sell, and how you run your own ad campaigns. This
invariably helps your site make more money from the
sale of products, services, subscription fees, and through
more efficient spending.
Kevin Nunley provides marketing advice and copy
writing for businesses and organizations. Read all his
money-saving marketing tips at http://DrNunley.com/.
Reach him at kevin@drnunley.com
or (801)253-4536
|
Billions,
possibly trillions of dollars are spent on advertising
each year. Can you get your hands on some of that money?
Sure you can! No
matter how small your site is, it's never to early to
try and start selling advertisements. Although numbers
have shown that Internet advertising expenditures have
decreased in the past year, don't let that discourage
you from attempting to sell advertisements on your site.Last
year there were many reports were released that minimalized
the influence of advertisements on the Internet. Executives
were upset when after spending thousands on an ad, their
traffic did not increase significantly. Internet advertising
is not just about click-throughs, it is being seen. We
don't measure the effectiveness of a TV ad by counting
the number of people that leave for Arby's the moment
after they see an Arby's commercial do we? Make sure and
beef up your arguments for the effectiveness of advertising
on the Internet.I hope that you enjoy this issue.
