Newbie to marketing

Newbie needs some advice on selling advertising space

[lorax]

Hola,
Having built (not designed) web sites as a profession for several years this is my first venture into the webmaster world and I find myself somewhat lost. Right now I'm stuck on how to approach selling ad space on my fabulous web site.

The audience is a bit touchy (re: half of them are the type that won't think twice about dropping $15 on a bottle of Chianti while the other half have a beer budget and they know it). That being said, I know of a few businesses that I think would do well on my site but I'm not quite sure how to approach them.

I'm looking for:

A. Resources to read up on how to make a living as a web master.

B. Suggestions for approaching a potential advertiser which doesn't run an affiliate program.

Your sage advice would be most appreciated.

PS I did search on a couple of terms hoping to find some previous thread but alas, I'm afraid I don't quite know what to search for as the results were less than satisfying. If you know of a thread I should look at, please post it.

[rcjordan]

If you have targeted traffic that you believe will convert, then I suggest that you spend a day or two (or five) developing a detailed media kit. [webmasterworld.com]

The kit should cover your rates and demographics in as much detail as possible and be written using the marketing buzz words of your niche.

Once that's done, I see no problem writing a brief introductory email to the marketing department asking them if they'd be interested in ad space, pointing them to your media kit. Do some research on the potential client and reference some details about them so that your initial contact will be obviously genuine rather than spammy.

BTW, don't forget to put an "Advertise" link to the media kit in the footer of all your pages. If you have a site well placed in the search engines, you'll be surprised how many potential ad clients will contact you.

[lorax]

Thanks rc,
Great feedback - though I'd already read that thread. Would you happen to have a resource to suggest for what I should include in a media kit? I didn't see a resource listed in the thread.

[rcjordan]

Site Info:
Name, general site description.

Interest Categories
Travel, real estate, computers, games.

Audience description:
Give as much detail as possible;
age, gender, education, geographic location, purchases on site.
(I suggest you be prepared to justify how you know this, surveys, anecdotal information, email responses from the site, etc.)

Readership:
Average pageviews per month on your entire site and the page containing ad space.

Ad types and rates:
Banners, text boxes, buttons, sponsorships. CPC, CPM, flat rate.
General information on the different placement, types, and rates available on your site. Give examples, but don't get overly detailed. If you use a commercial ad serving script like CentralAd, list that.

Contact info for the person in charge of advertising