Etips is a publication of:
Your Guide to Professional Web
Site Design and Development
Hello,
Welcome to this week's edition of Etips.
It's a New Year and it's time to start evaluating your business. How are
you doing? Are you happy with your current income? If not, you really need
to take a serious look at your web site, products, and marketing strategies.
Does your web site have a professional look and feel? Is it specifically
designed to sell? Do you feel that you have fully tapped its revenue earning
potential? If not, maybe it's time to consider selling advertising space.
In today's edition of Etips, I will be featuring an excellent article titled,
How to Sell Ads on Your Site, written by Dr. Kevin Nunley.
I hope you will enjoy the publication.
To your success!
Sponsor Message
 How to Sell Ads on Your
Site
By
Dr. Kevin
Nunley
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 that 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.
Sponsor Message
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.
About the Author:
| 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
603-249-9519. |
|
Sponsor Message
| Web Design
Course |
 |
FR*EE Intensive 10-Day Web Site Design
Email Course. Learn how to design a professional web site.
|
| Tip of
the Week |
|
Testing and tracking your ads
will play a major role in your success. If you're looking for a simple way
to track click throughs, then
LnkinLite
may be your answer. This free script will enable you to easily keep track
of the number of clicks a specific link receives.
Today's tip is an excerpt from the highly acclaimed
Web Design Mastery series.
|
| Syndication
Feeds |
|
| Internet
Marketing and Promotion |
|
| Business
/ Sales |
|
| Web
Design |
|
| Dr. Kevin
Nunley's Biz Tips |
|
| Web Site
Design Tips |
|
|
Sponsor Message |
Web-Source.net
Products: