I Have Traffic and I Want $$$ – 6 Things Publishers Should Know When Selling Advertisements

This is a continuation of “What advertisers should know when advertising“?

If you have a popular website, you also have bills to pay (hosting, advertising, maintenance Costs, etc…) You don’t want to lose your money that way, that’s why there’s Google AdSense, Text Link Ads, ReviewMe and a lot more to help you pay the bills and also, produce you a nice income.

But are you aware that there are also Private deals, most advertisers are looking for these because there’s no middleman involve so it’s much cheaper. Just imagine Text Link Ads and ReviewMe that eat HALF of the money the advertiser pays you. So they have to push the prices a little higher just to pay the publisher a good sum of money.

That’s why I compiled here a list on what publishers should know or should have when selling advertisements on their websites.

1. Enough Traffic References

Like what I mentioned in the part 1 of this post, advertisers should look for at least 3 references to be sure that the traffic of the website is valid. So be ready and try to add more tracking scripts.. I’d recommend 3 or more.

2. Advertising Spot’s Exposure

Who wants to advertise on a website if the spot you’re offering is too small or too “under cover”? to see. Be sure to offer your customers the best deal that you can. Give premium advertisers premium spots with a premium price.

3. Properly Built Advertising Page

I’ve said it once, and here it is again. An advertising page is like the sales letter of a product. Some sales talk will help the conversion stretch a little more. Keep in mind these important aspects of an advertising page:

• What your blog about
• What will they benefit
• How much
• Contracts
• Your Contact
• Some Testimonials would be great!

Or just take a look at my own advertising page ;)

4. “Your Ad here”? Visibility

As you can see, almost all of this blog’s advertising spots have this “Advertise here”?, “Get featured here”? sign below. No, it’s not to annoy you or something similar to that, I use this to give my advertising page more exposure, what’s a good advertising page for, when possible advertisers can’t see it? Remember to do your best and blend it with your layout so you don’t ruin the “ambiance”? of your site.

5. Low or No Contract Requirement

Most blogs (popular ones) use contracts when selling their advertising spots. For example, if you want to advertise in someblogidontknow.com they will set a contract (let’s say 2 months) for how long the advertiser will stay and will pay.

Some sites however are offering CPM (Cost Per Mille also called Cost Per Thousand) based ads. Advertising spots are in a CPM basis means that you buy this number of impressions and your ad will stay there until the amount of impressions you bought is consumed. Good for websites that generates a good amount of Impressions like Gaming sites, Social networking sites, etc…

6. Payment Options

I had an issue about this about 2 months ago, one time, let’s just say peter ordered a 1 month premium advertising spot on my blog, I made a banner for him, set upped the ad and ask for the payment, I told him to pay me through 2CO (Because here in Philippines, we can’t be paid through paypal, which REALLY Sucks). He replied that he had problems with it in the past so again, I was searching for another payment option.

After a month, I emailed him about it and recommended Ikobo because it was the one Josh used when he ordered a private review from me. Again, Peter said that it doesn’t accept his type of credit card. So I had a feeling “Could I have been scammed?”? It was just $40 though so I forgot about it and after a month, I emailed Peter back for an X-deal. I told him that if he could just give me something in return for the money he owe me and luckily, Peter replied and agreed.

What’s the lesson there? Always be sure on whatever you do. Double Triple Check things all the time.

Done!

I guess that’s enough. I would like to hear something from you guys. If you have something to add, don’t be shy