When to Sell Direct Advertisements?

How much traffic should I have before selling direct?

[Maverick24]

My site is still rather new, just over 1 year and has a specific niche in targeting only college/university students.

Currently I'm running Google Adsense as well as a few Affiliate Networks and am also using the Right Media Exchange to place and rotate relevant ads.

Using a combination of those is working ok, but the payouts are rather low.

I do have the time to sell direct (over the phone) but am wondering if my traffic is too low to appeal to local advertisers.

350 unique visits per day
10 page views per visit
(Targeted Audience)

Since I do have the time to sell direct, should I? Or are my numbers too low and should I just concentrate more of my time on growing traffic?

[MadeWillis]

That doesn't seem like much traffic, but what is your conversion rate like? How expensive is the product you promote?

[edited by: MadeWillis at 3:20 pm (utc) on Oct. 6, 2008]

[StoutFiles]

Theoretically you can sell direct ads whenever you want. So consider this: if YOU had to pay a site to put your ads on their site, how much would you pay to put ads on a site with 350 uniques/day? If you believe it's a good rate, seek out direct ads. If not, work on increasing uniques(you should always be doing this anyways).

[Maverick24]

You're right Made I forgot to add that information.

The site is a social networking resource for college students. There are no products being sold, just traffic to advertisers. Ads can be targeted in a variety of ways (Age, Sex, Class Year, School, etc).

The current CTR for Google Adsense is 0.24% and is delivering about $100 a month.

Will that traffic and targetability appeal to local advertisers? Or should I concentrate more of my time on marketing the site and increasing traffic?

Thanks for your help

[Maverick24]

Thanks for your reply StoutFiles that certainly does make sense and is a great way to look at it.

[jchampliaud]

350 unique visits per day

I have a site with about 120-150 UV a day and for a time I had an advertiser. So it’s possible.
It’s all about having the ‘right’ traffic and not just big numbers.