Advertising policies.

[wizardsandwars]

OK, we have discussed the pros and cons of the various advertising strategies for our shops at great length.

 

But what about how to best have other people advertise on our site? Our shop has brown steadily in traffic tothe point thgat we have ~ 300 distinct users a day visiting.

 

I'd like to start offering ad space on my webiste. (I know, I know, I'm a sell out, right?)

 

Has anyone implemented a "space for sale" type of advertising service? Do you offer pay per impression, pay per click, or flat fees?

 

What does your policy look like?

[Guest]

Well in my personal point of view, an ecommerce site should only advertise its own products.

 

However as a webmaster, I understand what you are coming from. With 300 distinct visitors a day and let's say an average page view of 7 pages per visitor, that is only 63,000 page views a month. Most will find that 7 pages is on the high side of things. Most sites average 3 pages.

 

Anyway, with 63,000 page views and selling advertising by CPM (the most common but least profitable form) you have 63 slots. If you keep 15% of the slots for your own ads, this leaves about 54 slots to sell. If I were you, I would target companies like Wizards of the Coast, Infrogames, EA Games, and Blizzard to see if they would like to purchase advertising. The average CPM is going for $1.00 so if you sell all 54 slots, you would get $54.00 a month. Would pay for hosting. However since your site would be fairly targetted towards the advertisers I mentioned you might be able to charge more per CPM, maybe around $2.50.

 

However if you have normal retail markup on your products of 40-100% then you might be able to make more money on advertising hot products on your site that you sell. For example, lets say you make 40% on Asheron's Call 2, which you sell for $38.99 (~15.60 per sale) and advertising banners through your site could be expected to generate 6 sales a month. That is an additional ~$93.60 in your pocket.

 

Think long and hard about what kind of advertising campaign you want to undertake. Check out some articles on the Internet for ideas and to learn what works and what doesn't. The two sites that I like for this include www.clickz.com and www.ecommercebase.com.

 

Of course you could visit my forum (listed in my signature) and get the opinions of hundreds of people who have been where you are right now and successfully got through it. Some of our staff make up to $14,000 a month on advertising on their sites.

[Guest]

I forgot to add, that at SitePointForums.com, we sell advertising but we use a sponsorship model because it is more effective for us over the CPM model. Each forum category sells for a set fee per month ranging from $500 to $1000. Each sponsor gets several things...

 

1. Advertising in our newsletter.

2. Advertising on the front page of the site (guaranteed at over 100,000 page views a month).

3. Advertising in their chosen forums.

4. Text ads in about 10,000 optin emails a month.

 

Currently we average about $4000 a month in sponsorships and I hope to increase that to $6000 a month next year with a new pay-per-view advertising system bringing in another $1000-$2000 a month.

[wizardsandwars]

Wayne,

 

Wow, that is some fantastic feedback. I'll check our your foeums, and take what you have told me into consideration.

 

I may have further questions for you after I digest some of that.