Advertising on a relatively small site?

Trying to find out if it's worth an effort...

[erazr]

Hi all ...
My website is created for fans of a sports club (mainly soccer). It is consisted of free web site and web space, web-based email, links to relative sites. Some parts of the websites have been removed like Club news and analasys in mail for all registered email users, however it may come back.
The web site generates about 150 - 240 visits a day, from a database of 1040 users. Maybe a third or more are inactive anyways, however about 40 emails are sent every day.
The free hosting part of the site has just started and has 110 pages, growing 2 - 3 a day, though most users don't put much work into it and I'm not wasting my time thinking about it.

Is there a point of having advertisers there? What sort? Pop unders, banners, text links, targeted? What should I do, if anything, for the time being?

Thanks heaps for your help!

[Brett_Tabke]

I would say not at this point. If you can find a correct advertiser that is looking for your content, then you might have something. I'd suggest trying the affiliate game.

(just for reference, we did 30k on a site yesterday with banners and grossed a whopping $15.50 - net advertising is changing radically)

[sean]

Worth the effort? Perhaps. You won't make buckets of cash on a few hundred visitors... unless it is a daily newsletter to all the CEO's of the Fortune 500. At this point, your efforts will be rewarded mostly with experience. Learn how different variables (creative, placement, offer, etc.) affect conversion rate. While you are learning, try to build the quantity & quality of your audience.

[rcjordan]

I'd go the affiliate route. The good affiliate programs (CJ, befree) have enough selection and quality creative so that your visitors will not know whether it's ad network or affiliate driven. This will let you experiment with what does -and does not- work.

And welcome to WmW!

[erazr]

Thanks guys, very much ...
I'm very new to this though, so could you explain "affiliate driven"? Thanks! :)

[Brett_Tabke]

Affiliate driven generally refers to the fact your site income is based on affiliations. That means, you earn for performance (click throughs to purchases) or delivering traffic. Rc means your users won't be able to tell the difference. Somethings work in the traffic game, and something work in the click through game.

[Drastic]

Hi erazr, and welcome to the forums.

For affiliate networks, check out Commission Junction (cj.com) and some of the other companies listed here [webmasterworld.com].

Your best bet would be to use text links with merchants/offers that are most targetted to your audience. Popups can be more effective, but are highly annoying.

Another idea is to have a newsletter, and send it out weekly or monthly with affiliate ads in it as well.

[erazr]

Ok, thank everyone. I've been already searching for a relevant sponsor ... Thanks for the advice, and you'll see me around :)