How to sell advertising in the UK?

How is it done? Where do I start?

[KMxRetro]

Hey all,
I run a small site based in the UK, and whilst I make a handful of sales through the Amazon Associates program each month, I would like to make a little more cash to help with the costs of the site (offline materials, business cards, server and everything else!)

My question is this. For the UK webmaster, how do you go about selling advertising directly? Where do you start? How do you approach potential advertisers after you've found them?

Also, how is invoicing handled? Should I add VAT or register for VAT?

I know (or I think I know) quite a bit about the affiliate side of things and CPC,CPM,CPA etc, but when it comes to selling advertising for myself, I'm way over my head, even though I think it would be the way to make a half-decent amount of money.

If anyone could point me in the direction of a site with some decent information on the subject (with a UK tilt), or could help me out directly, I would be MOST appreciative.

Thank you all in advance,

[IanTurner]

KMxRetro,

I am based in the UK and have a number of sites, advertising so far has been hard to get, we have started approaching people privately who we think would like to advertise on the sites. This seems to work. You need to have a goodly number of visitors per day to make it worthwhile.

We approach the marketing department of companies we are interested in and marketing consultants. With consultants you will need to give them a commission on the revenue they bring in.

As for registering for VAT, you will need to register if you have a turnover of over £54K / year, though even if you have a lower turnover it may be useful to be VAT registered as it gives you credibility. There are quite a lot of advantages to being VAT registered as you can claim back VAT on all your purchases, e.g. hardware/software etc.

[tigger]

Although the VAT returns are a pain it was one of my better moves, also as Ian was saying it offers benefits of pulling the VAT back on “so called” :) company expenses

[Terrier]

It can also be benefical to be a Ltd company for both tax breaks and credibility.

[gsx]

Becoming VAT registered means that you pay 17.5% on all your profits to Mr Taxman. You pay 17.5% on all sales and claim 17.5% on all purchases. Of course, sales should be higher than purchases :)

Just be careful you are earning enough before you become VAT registered. But if you do have a bad year (a loss), Mr Taxman may even give you a tax refund ;)

[ukgimp]

It can also be benefical to be a Ltd company for both tax breaks and credibility

I wouldnt bother straight away until you get up and running. You can have all the stuff in place ready to go and you will find a few places where you can buy an off the shelf LTD and all you have to do is change some details like the SIC code and directors list ect. But one thing to consider you will have to get a set of accounts produced and signed off by a qualified accountant. That costs even if you have one as a relative to do the major work. Just bear that in mind, you dont want to be running at a deficit if you can help it :).

cheers