Forum Moderators: skibum
Do you think it's worth trying to sell some advertising on this site? I've installed phpAdsNew to run banners, by the way.
Should I put banners on both the main site and the forums? The forums currently have 500 registered members, but in a few months I'd expect to see that well over 1000 given the current rate of growth.
>the forums
Forums are notorious for burning bandwidth without being able to draw a click on an advert. Many ad networks won't even take on a forum for that reason.
>involving this sport
Sports site have more than saturated the web.
>and for the local shops who also have a web presence.
Don't count on this. Local shops are a very, very hard sell. However, there are signs that it's starting to dawn on them that the web traffic has largely gone from free to pay.
>Do you think it's worth trying to sell some advertising on this site?
Absolutely. Controlling 2000 eyeballs a day has value. I'd set up the ad delivery network and fill it with affiliate stuff or even house ads. Then, I'd build an online media kit and start trying to sell the ads direct, replacing the under-performing affiliate programs.
I bet you can tell I'm a newbie to doing anything business-related on the web, so unfortunately I don't understand what you mean by house ads. The closest thing I can think of would be advertising something I myself might sell. Otherwise I've no idea where to start on affliate stuff or online media kits.
My goals for the site are as follows:
1) The site must always remain a valuable resource for the community it serves, so it probably can't become overly commercial.
2) I'd like the site to at least pay for itself via advertising or sponsorship, as it's on a hosting package with 1.25GB webspace and 30GB/month bandwidth, and it's growing non-stop. (Lots of video clips and photos)
2) I've just started using the site to sell my own services, being lessons in the sport. This is where I'm expecting to bring in a fair amount of revenue.
Cheers,
Mike.
btw, I have a big thanks to Webmaster World and many of the members. I first started hanging out here in November 2001, and the stuff I've learned has helped my site get a hang of a lot more popular than it otherwise would be.
Join sports and/or health & fitness affiliate programs, then sell ads to yourself while you TRY to sell ads to others. You may always have some unsold ad inventory which you sell to yourself each month.
Make banners, buttons, even skyscrapers (I like using slices of photos, very high CTR) using IAB standard sizes [iab.net] that lead to other sections of your site and also your lessons business. Don't be afraid to aggressively self-promote (particularly in the forums) and be very candid with anyone who complains re "HEY! How do you think I PAY for all of this?!?"
Works for me.
I agree completely with the photo slices - I've been watching CTR on a friend's banner, and he gets a good % because his banner is animated with several nice photos. My digital camera was one of the best toys I ever bought. :)
Thanks to everybody else too - I'll be looking into following those options as well.
p.s. my site's in my profile atm.
#1 - If you know your site and its visitors, trust your gut instincts.
#2 - If the sponsor/advertiser makes you feel uneasy, walk away from the deal.
#3 - Contracts only really bind the publisher and are time-consuming. Don't do them.
#4 - Spend your energy on SEO, dominate your serps, and the clients will come to you. Forget trying to go out and sell the ads, there's not enough money in it for a salesman and I'd rather have the reduced overhead and be able to offer advertising at a lower price-point.
Also if you are smooth and your traffic is that targeted you could take pictures of the sports events and sell them printed as needed from cafepress as posters, shirts and so on to those that want them with no risk at all.
