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by Webmaster Outpost Staff
Strategy: "Catch More Fish with a Bigger Net" – Just because you prepared the best content and filled it with great affiliate links doesn't mean everyone will be interested. We recommend using banner advertising as a way to provide an alternate exit for disinterested visitors.
It really depends on your subject matter and potential audience. There are some situations where we would never include advertising. One example are sites that cater to children, where the parents would be offended if you included advertisements.
Advertising can be a distraction if you are not careful. Most advertisers will push you to placing the ad on the top of the page, which might not always be the best approach for your site. Remember you will prefer that visitors leave through affiliate links, not ads. In some cases, it may make more sense to place ads towards the bottom of the pages. We have done this on one of our sites where we felt the content was too important to dilute with a flashy ad at the top.
The other caution is that using advertisements (or any type of banner) will cast your site into the "commercial" category. This could be a detriment if your topic or audiences are more cost sensitive. Hobby sites often are good candidates NOT to host ads, where it would be better to look less commercial and just refer visitors to affiliate sites. Let the affiliate worry about closing the sale.
The quickest way to derive revenue for your ad space is to use a company that simply gives you a per click commission for hosting ads. Like an affiliate, they give you the specially coded links to put on your pages, and track the click-thrus.
Some wholesalers will give you options to narrow the types of advertisers, and in some cases block ads you feel would be inappropriate or represent competitors. If you deal with children, and still want to place ads, you might want to choose a company that restricts adult-oriented ads.
Once you have established your site, and have a measurable amount of regular traffic each month, you should begin to explore selling some of your space directly. Advertising is typically sold on a CPM (cost per thousand) basis, where you guarantee a minimum amount of impressions per month. CPM's range anywhere from $25 to $125 (USD). If you are just starting out, you may want to side on the lower end of this range.
Getting advertisers can be challenging. First, you should post a "Advertise with Us" link on all of your pages, and create a page listing some reasons why your site is a good place for them to spend their own advertising dollars. Depending on the competitiveness of your subject matter, you may/may not want to post your CPM "rate card". If you choose not to, you should include an e-mail link "for additional information and our rate card, please contact…" on the page.
Just as you did with affiliates, you should put together a list of companies that might want to advertise on your site. You should visit their home pages and find a public relations contact and inquire if they would be interested in advertising on your site. Give them some reasons why they might want to do so.
Be aware that many larger companies do not negotiate advertising directly, instead they use a media company or ad agency. You may want to visit some agency web sites and look at their client lists. If they have clients that match your list, send them an e-mail sharing information about your site, traffic and audience.
You may have seen mention of "Banner Exchanges" as you have surfed around. A banner exchange is a third party web site that acts as a middleman between web sites interested in advertising their sites. To join a banner exchange, you will first need to make yourself a banner. Then you register with the exchange service, which will give you specially coded links to place on your site.
Typically, for every two impressions you give them, you earn one in return. This means your banner will appear on another exchange members web site. Some exchanges let you narrow the types of banners that get displayed on your own site (again allowing competitors to be blocked) and also allow you to select the types of sites where your banner is displayed.
Measuring your sites traffic is important, because when you hit a certain threshold (usually one million impressions per month), you can start talking to the bigger players in the advertising arena that will purchase your ad space for a fixed CPM. This is more lucrative than the wholesalers who only pay for click-thrus.
The bottom line is if you've got traffic, sell it anyway you can. There will always be visitors that have no interest in your content or affiliate links. They may have arrived by typing a loosely related keyword, or mistyped the domain name. With advertising you can try and make some money from these wandering surfers.
For more information on placing ads on your site read Chris Ayers' article "Placing Banner Ads Online: Look Before You Leap!".
Continue on to Affiliate Programs: A Guide to Understanding Affiliates