Selling Advertising Space

What are some best practices?

[thedagda]

I'm looking into selling advertising space on my website but don't really know where to start. I think that this could bring in a little extra revenue, but it will never be the driving force behind the site.

At the moment, I think we are only going to offer text links (with a small description) to sites that offer complimentary products to the ones that we sell.

I would like to sell the links for a time limit (3 months, 6 months, 1 year) instead of clicks, just to help keep the administration overhead down. Is this a good idea or am I missing something that could burn me?

Also, I have no idea of the going rates for ads. My site is averaging 80,000+ visitors and 300,000+ page views a month. I don’t want to price myself too high, but I want do want to make some money.

Any suggestions, advice, or pointers will be greatly appreciated. This is a brand-new area for me and I’d like to do right the first time.

Thanks,

Conor

[Jenstar]

The going rate will vary widely depending upon the market. Try checking out your competitors and see what kind of rates they are charging - and if those ad spaces seem to be filled. Many do links for a specific time frame as well, as this also allows for a direct link as opposed to a redirect link through your ad server.

[thedagda]

Thanks for the info. The direct link is probably the biggest reason for the time-based links. I'm scouting out the competition, but it's a little hard since our industry is pretty small and still really low-tech. In the end I think I'm going to just end up making up a rate that sounds reasonable and adjusting it accordingly.

Thanks for the response,

Conor

[fclark]

hi conor,

I've been checking into the text link market as well... been disappointed with the low inventory many brokers have in my niches.

One that looked particularly interesting is in beta with a program that automates alot of it (I'm not associated with them at all). They help you price the link and place it on similar sites for a cut of the revenue.

Do a G search on the phrase "what's your link worth?" with the quotes if you want to know who they are.