How do you sell to private advertisers?

[Derrick]

Wondering if we could share some tips on selling to private advertisers. As Tyler can relate, private advertisers are an excellent alternative to Ad-sense.

But how do you go about getting your prospective advertisers? What do you say in the email ?

[khalid]

I got asked this question over at my forum (http://www.netpreneurforums.com), and this is the answer I gave for my site, www.freeturnkey.net...

Well I posted my available ad space in many forums under their marketplace sections (Buy/Sell). I detailed certain aspects of the site...

1. I explained there was no other site like it
2. I explained I put paid adverts on sites advertising free turnkey and detailed which ones (high pr sites)
3. I detailed my monthly stats, number of backlinks, estimated pagerank and any else worth mentioning.

This month...

4. This month (August), I'm offering text links and two banner spots on the site to keep it clutter free. Due to the cutback in ad spots, people will pay more.With the text links I'll be offering BUY ONE GET TWO FREE (buy one on freeturnkey.net and get a text link on thesimplesource.com and logotutorials.com FREE!) I don't mind giving away two text links as an incentive as these sites are new with not many unique hits.

The pagerank has also gone from 0 to 3 and the site is listed number on in google under different terms. - this will show advertisers how much the site has grown and is an incentive too!

5. I'm hoping that my 35% increase in unique hits this month will make advertisers more interested to get a placement on the site asap.

6. Next month (Sept), I'll be offering text link ads for the same price WITHOUT free links on the other two sites as hopefully these sites will have built a good foundation of stats. Thus, I will then get more money as I will be offering text placements on 3 different sites...3 different income streams.

One tip - try to maximise your niche. FREE Turnkey didn't just offer scripts to site owners, it offered them to inspiring entrepreneurs, programmers, adults, kids, business men, business women...you get my drift.

Try to attract different people from different markets to your site. If advertisers can see that you are appealing to many markets successfully, you will have more of a chance in getting sales.

I hope this helps. I wouldn't contact people directly as it may show you are desparate for money. Only do it if you have a niche where you need sponsorship, e.g. my friend requested sponsorship for his university medical forum, www.edinburghmedics.com

[Derrick]

Great tips khalid - a good reminder about how useful forum marketplace sections can be. Are you listing on multiple forums, or just a few major ones like SitePoint? What kindof response are you getting, how many inquiries?


I hope this helps. I wouldn't contact people directly as it may show you are desparate for money. Only do it if you have a niche where you need sponsorship, e.g. my friend requested sponsorship for his university medical forum, www.edinburghmedics.com

Would never worry about "looking desparate for money". Sending emails off to prospective advertisers is just the same as sending off snail mail letters or catalog or brochures to people who might be interested in buying a product or service from you.

[khalid]

To be honest, I stopped using sitepoint that much as they are now charging even to post in the "want to buy" section.

I'd say aim for the following - earners forum, digital point forums, namepros forums, and any other popular place as you are targetting people from many different backgrounds/sites at once.

July was my first month, I'll be posting tomorrow and hoping to sell all the available placements. You may see my post on this forum then!

I've had about four enquiries for ad placements on the site since, which is one a week. Not bad for a month old site.

[Tyler]

I never contact advertisers privately due to the simple fact that it's way too time consuming; you're only going to get a tiny percentage of advertisers who decide to advertise with you.

Right now I don't do anything to grab advertisers other than put up an advertise page; I get so much demand on my sites now that I haven't had to actively seek out advertisers for years. And on PokerForums.org I've never had to, but that's a special niche. In fact, I get way too many advertisers contact me. I'd say at least 5 per day!

How did I start? Like khalid, all I did was simply post in large webmaster forums under the appropriate area stating I had ad inventory for sale. I wrote my description very detailed and well written, providing up to date stats, payment details, and contact information.

This worked out surprisingly well, and in no time I was getting a few advertisers per month for Movie-Vault.com. I found www.webhostingtalk.com (http://www.webhostingtalk.com) to be the most useful in this regard - I had 90% of my advertisers stem from my threads there!

Good luck!

[babyboy808]

I never contact advertisers privately due to the simple fact that it's way too time consuming; you're only going to get a tiny percentage of advertisers who decide to advertise with you.

Right now I don't do anything to grab advertisers other than put up an advertise page; I get so much demand on my sites now that I haven't had to actively seek out advertisers for years. And on PokerForums.org I've never had to, but that's a special niche. In fact, I get way too many advertisers contact me. I'd say at least 5 per day!

How did I start? Like khalid, all I did was simply post in large webmaster forums under the appropriate area stating I had ad inventory for sale. I wrote my description very detailed and well written, providing up to date stats, payment details, and contact information.

This worked out surprisingly well, and in no time I was getting a few advertisers per month for Movie-Vault.com. I found www.webhostingtalk.com (http://www.webhostingtalk.com) to be the most useful in this regard - I had 90% of my advertisers stem from my threads there!

Good luck!

Excellent advice Tyler, cheers...

[RyuKenLi]

Thanks Tyler, I'll keep this in mind.

[Gareth]

I also post in forum marketplaces, however on my most popular site I have now reached the point where private advertisers tend to come to me.

If I do contact people to propose advertising, I include the following:

- Url and short description.
- Traffic statistics.
- Price.

That's all really :)

[adquick]

Hi Derrick,

i saw your post, so i registered to answer you as i work for a company that deals with the sort of thing you are looking for.

My company, AdQuick, is launching soon and what we do is provide a place where website owners can setup their own ad products and sell advertising space on their own websites. Potential advertisers browsing our site will see your different ad products and then simply pay for the ad space and thats it. People who are already on your website can also just click the 'Get your ad here' link and again buy ad space on your website direct.

Its totally upto you how much you sell ad space for on your website and how long ads last.

We're launching quite soon, and more info can be found on our website and on our blog by clicking the links below.

www.adquick.co.uk
www.adquick.co.uk/blog

If you need any more help, please don't hesitate in PM'ing me through this website.