Targeting based on user demographics

[dannymo2]

What are some tricks you use to present user demographic information to potential advertisers? For example, if they want to know the average age of your users...is this something you would usually ask your users about?

[mr1traffic]

I wouldn't normally ask people for their age range, but if it were important -- say you want to make a deal with an ad network -- you could survey your list. Rather than just ask them what age range they fall into, you might come up with 3 or 4 questions whose answers you'd like to know about your customers and prospects, and which could be helpful to you in future promotions.

You may need to give them some incentive to respond -- say a free ebook related to a topic of their interest. You could tell them in advance what the gift is, or indicate it's a surprise gift.

[jomaxx]

If you have a community site, it might make sense to ask this question. I have a general site that relies mainly on SE traffic, and there's really no useful way to characterize the demographics. It could be anyone at any time. Some ad networks do like to know this information, but IMO it's an archaism.

More useful is to create a portrait of what your users are doing. For example, if they're evaluating purchases, that's very useful to know. The only survey I ever did of my visitors, one of the questions was "Have you ever purchased X online?" A surprising number of people answered "yes", and I believe that fact did impress potential advertisers.