wyweb - 2:57 pm on Jun 20, 2010 (gmt 0)

If your site gets enough traffic or ranks significantly for certain keywords, the advertisers will come to you. I've been turning down several legitimate inquiries a month for years because, like you, I felt that the managerial commitment would outweigh the benefits.

I no longer believe that.

I was in the YPN thing from the start shoreline. I was blown away by the initial payouts. Stoked. Dancing in the hallways. My pot of gold has finally arrived. How long did it last though? 6 months? 7? I'm convinced to this day that YPN manipulated CPC as a means of attracting new publishers to their beta program, a program that never even officially got out of beta and that was limited to US publishers only. I stayed with YPN until their payout was even lower than Adsense and then switched back to Adsense full time.

Place a prominent link on your website worded like "advertise on this site" that goes to a page showing which spaces are available. Don't set a price. Let them offer first and then negotiate from there. Be prepared to show traffic stats, visitor demographics, etc... because some will ask for that. Angle for long term contracts rather than month to month and in all cases reserve the right to terminate at any time for any reason (unused time refunded, etc...), or just simply non-renewal. They can quit at any time - you can quit at any time. Don't get locked into anything you might regret later.

Investigate whoever is wanting to advertise with you. What are they doing, why are they doing it, what are other people saying about them? If it looks shady, it probably is so give them a pass.

I'm leaving out a bunch but I'm sure but you get the idea.