How to sell advertising space on a website

need some tips on how to negotiate and so on

[vivalasvegas]

So far I have only used Google Adsense and affiliate programs to monetize my websites. I was contacted recently by a company wanting a direct advertising deal on a website I run. This site receives around 130,000 uniques/month according to Awstats. The EPC via Adsense is pretty low resulting in monthly income of about $300.

I don't really know how to approach this:

Do I ask for a certain amount myself or should I provide some stats and wait for this advertiser to make me an offer?

What amount should I go for? Would it be reasonable to agree on double the amount I make via Adsense?

Do I charge them in advance?

What advertising model do you recommend and why (PPC, Pay per 1000 impressions, fixed amount..)?

Any input is much appreciated.

[eljefe3]

It really depends on what your site is about, but seeing as how your adsense is so low, it's not a high dollar area. BTW how many impressions per month does adsense say you get as awstats stats tend to show on the high side of hits, traffic etc, so adsense impressions should give you a reasonable guesstimate as to your total page views per month.

You can see what others in your niche charge, or throw out a number and see if they take you up on it. If they do, you're probably too low and if they don't, ask them what's fair for them and go from there. You can always fine tune month by month to come to the right figure for both parties.

[vivalasvegas]

Thanks for your reply. I also use AXS - a basic on page tracking software that seems pretty good at counting unique visitors and pageviews. AXS does report around 5-10% less visitors than Awstats - not such a big difference. And Google Adsense is somewhere in between.

[SlimKim]

there really is no set way you have to do it
most people sell baner space CPM but you can serve test ads cpc or banners cpc too

you can invoice them net 15 after the month for a net 30 payment or you can ask for half upfront or all upfront

really large companies sometimes expect an invoice
and some publishers require some or all pre-payment if the advertiser is new or unheard of

and yes, i would go for double my adsense rate to make it worth my trouble, after all adsense is much easier and some advertisers expect you to quote an inflated price and negoiate downward

now if you were a really large site then 50% or 33% increase in revenues over adsense would be a nice gain, but otherwise i would shoot for double and not budge an inch

[anand84]

I am looking answers for this very question, except that us being a high traffic site are looking for advertisers and looking for a way to decide the charge.

Since direct deals shall be based on impression basis, will it be fine if we go simply for, say 1.25 times the eCPM that Adsense offers for that niche.

[march]

I want to know what is high traffic and what is considered low traffic. How do you go about approaching companies for advertising? Do you wait for them to ask you?

I have 377,538 Pageviews for the past 30 days. Where do I stand in the eyes of advertisers?

[maximillianos]

I have 377,538 Pageviews for the past 30 days. Where do I stand in the eyes of advertisers?

Depends on the niche. We server over 3 million pageviews/month and we are considered a mid-sized site in our industry.

However if you were a very narrow niche, 300k pageviews might make you top dog. It all depends.