How to Sell Advertising on Your Website - 5 Easy Steps
May 29th, 2008 by Court
If you are using an ad broker, Adsense, or just about any other method to create advertising income from your site, chances are you aren’t making as much as you could be.
- Most people believe that Google is taking a 50% cut of Adsense earnings.
- Text-Link-Ads takes a 50% cut of link revenue
- ReviewMe takes a 50% cut of review sales
While I honestly could care less about ‘trends’ in the make money online world (Why would I? Most of them are ridiculous), there’s one that you can’t ignore. People that are selling their own ads are making a lot more money than people who aren’t.
In this lesson, I will cover 5 steps to selling your own ads:
- Make room for your ads and get some up before you try to make sales
- Contact your competitors.
- Set your prices.
- Create a solid advertising page.
- Contact potential advertisers.
Step 1 - Make room for your ads and get them up.
You will have a hard time selling ads if you don’t already have ads sitting there. This means you need to create a section for the ads now.
A very popular and effective format for selling ads is the 125×125 ad banners in the sidebar. I use this ad placement and it has worked out very nicely for me. Your sidebar will need to be at least 260 pixels wide to use the 2-column placement that I have. If your sidebar isn’t wide enough, you could use a single column.
In order to make sales, your ad section will need to appear as high as possible in the sidebar. I took a look at some of the big sites in my industry and tried to match their placement.
In order to be able to charge the same amount to all of the advertisers, I knew that I would need the banners to rotate. To make them rotate, I used a plugin called Got Banners. The page I got it from no longer exists so I guess I’ll just post it here: Got Banners Download. You basically install a little piece of code in the sidebar and then manage the banners by going to Options>>Got Banners (Settings>>Got Banners in WP 2.5+) in your WordPress admin.
Some of you may want to sell advertising on your sites. This could be very effective if you do it right. Create a section where you can put the banners now, and we’ll discuss making the sale later on in this lesson. If I had a bunch of niche sites, I would probably create the section in a theme that I could use on all or most of my sites. Your enemy with that approach is wasted time, and using the same theme will save tons of time.
Another very common ad placement is the 728×60 banner like the one they use at SparkPlugging.com. They don’t sell their own ads as far as I can tell, but the placement is what we’re looking at. Again, you have to create the placement before you can make the sale.
What banners do you put in until you can make sales? I would use affiliate banners from sites like NeverBlueAds and AzoogleAds. They have all different sizes of banners that should fit in nicely on almost every site. You can also use banners that point to other sites that you are trying to establish.
Perception is everything when it comes to making these sales and you have to put your best foot forward. Trying to sell banners when you don’t have any banners in your section will be a HUGE waste of time.
Step 2 - Contact your competitors.
At this point of the process, you are NOT trying to sell advertising to your competitors. You are simply going to contact them to determine the rates they sell advertising for. Many of your competitors will have the rates published somewhere on their sites, others will have to be contacted via email or telephone. You should ask how much they charge, and how many impressions (total hits on pages the ad is on) you could expect to get per month if you were to purchase an ad spot.
Step 3 - Set your prices.
Once you have determined how much your competitors are selling advertising for, you will be able to set your prices accordingly. You should figure out exactly how much your competitors are charging per impression.
If your competitor can deliver more impressions than you each month, you will want to lower the amount you charge per impression by a slight amount, something like 10%. If you can deliver more impressions than your competitor, I would increase the amount you charge per impression by 10%. After you start selling ads it will become easier to determine whether you can sell your ads for more or not - this formula is here only to get you started.
Example: Your competitor is charging $500 per month for an ad spot and can deliver 500,000 impressions to that ad each month. That means he/she is charging $0.001 per impression. That’s 1/10th of a cent.
If you can deliver 50,000 impressions to an ad, charging the same amount per impression would give you a price of $50 per month. Lowering your rate by 10% would give you a monthly price of $45. This gives a slightly better value than your competitor, which is a trade off for not being able to deliver as many impressions.
Step 4 - Create a solid advertising page.
9 out every 10 banners I sell are sold directly from my ‘Advertise‘ page. In order to sell advertising, you will need to put your best foot forward - talk about your strengths as a site.
Possible Strengths:
- High amount of traffic
- Valuable traffic - maybe you don’t have that much but you have people that are looking to spend a few thousand dollars on a cosmetic surgery or something.
- Targeted traffic
- Solid organic traffic - Organic traffic has a longer attention span than social traffic.
- Good rankings for solid keywords
- Loyal traffic
I use PayPal subscription buttons to make the sales on my advertising page. That way, all of my ads are sold on subscription. During the first few months I sold my own advertising, I created a HUGE hassle for myself by not selling on subscription. I had to invoice each advertiser every month and that ended up being a major pain. Switching to the subscription method made my life a lot easier.
These subscription buttons can easily be made from your PayPal account. You simply go to ‘Merchant Services’ and then click the ’subscribe’ link in the ‘Create Buttons’ section. It will have a simple form that you will use to create the button, and will then give you code that you will paste in on your advertising page.
Step 5 - Contact potential advertisers.
At this point you basically have two options. Firstly, you could wait around hoping that you can make advertising sales from the traffic you currently have. I’m doing this now, and am selling out my advertising almost every month. However, in the beginning I was a lot more aggressive, because I needed to be.
After I created my ad sections and set my pricing, I contacted all of the companies that were advertising on my competitors’ sites. This resulted in some sales during the first week. I didn’t have an awesome sales rate, but was able to get a few because I contacted so many people. I want to say I contacted about 30 and sold maybe 3.
When I emailed these companies about the possibility of advertising on my site, I let them know that I was offering advertising at a better rate than other sites they were advertising on.
It’s very wise to contact some sites in the beginning, because once you have some legit advertisers, it becomes a lot easier to sell to more.
One trick that I considered using (in the end I didn’t have to) was selling a few spots at a huge discount. For example, you could contact a premium advertiser in your industry and offer them an ad spot for $1 per month. That gets a high-end advertiser in your ad section and that looks great to potential advertisers. As an alternate method, you could tell them that you would like to give them free advertising for a few months. That way, you get a premium advertiser in your ad section and might be able to sell to them after the free period ends.
Conclusion
Selling your own advertising can result in a lot more profit for your online business. Making that sale will require creating a good perception and providing a little more value than your competitors. This value can be provided by either providing more impressions or a better rate per impression.
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May 29th, 2008 at 9:41 am
Very nice article Court ! Recently David Peralty at Xfep also wrote such an article. I have stumbled it and bookmarked it too and will come back to this article when I plan to pitch advertisers directly of my blog.
May 29th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Thanks a million Abhijeet! Let me know if you have any questions when you’re ready to start the process.
June 9th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Yepi agree
why pay google when you could make the big bucks
May 29th, 2008 at 9:58 am
Great post Courtney!
Some very solid tips for bloggers to start selling ads
May 29th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Thank you very much!
May 29th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Awesome tips Court! I just recently changed my blog’s theme to include some ad spots and signed up for an affiliate program with Commission Junction. I was really looking for some advice on how to prepare and where to begin looking for advertisers, and your timing with this post could not have been better. Thanks!
May 29th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Glad to hear that it helped MP! Let me know if you have any questions when you start selling.
May 29th, 2008 at 10:25 am
Thanks for the mention Court!
We definitely sell our own ads, I have a rate card, placement guidelines, and even discount ads just for our readers.
One of the things I learned at the b5media Blog Network Camp at SXSW in March was that they said to make it as simple and easy as possible for advertisers to buy from you. He suggested creating flat rates or simple ‘Buy Now’ packages so that media buyers, especially those from ad agencies, can make a buying decision quickly.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:36 am
You’re welcome Wendy and thanks for stopping in. As always, it’s a pleasure to get your insights. You rock.
May 29th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Hey Court, I don’t currently have or sell any ad space on my sites - what do you think about starting off with Text Link Ads first? Is it worth it? Thanks!
May 30th, 2008 at 8:17 am
I personally don’t use Text Link Ads Steve!
http://courtneytuttle.com/2008/02/19/do-a-listers-really-still-promote-text-link-ads/
May 29th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Vesy good article and a lot of practical advise in it!
I am selling my own advertisement and at the same time have Adsense blocks on my blog and I can confirm that by selling my own ads I earn at least the same amount of money, if not more than Adsense or other advertising programs.
One of the most powerful things when selling advertisement in a blog, in my opinion, is to have a very clear explanation why the ad space a blogger provides is valuable for the clients. If a blogger manages to prove that there is enough value in her offer, the ads will follow.
Regards from Bulgaria!
May 29th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Good guide, but in my experience selling direct advertising on a blog that isn’t HUGE is very hard.
First, you won’t be able to attract any big advertisers because you don’t have the scale to make buying from you worth their time. That leaves small businesses, most of which stick to PPC where they get guaranteed traffic. These business are accustomed to PPC and very weary of taking risks.
Second, banner ads don’t work. The just plain don’t, I see the clickthroughs on my own sites and they’re terrible. Texts ads within content work the best.
If you want to make money, I’d recommend targeting a niche with some great affiliate programs, sniping some relevant search terms, and integrating the offers into your content.
May 30th, 2008 at 8:19 am
John my blog isn’t huge and I have done very well selling ads. I also have advertisers that have renewed each month for the last 7 months. I think you would have to agree that they believe that they’re getting their money’s worth.
May 29th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Very interesting and valuable article, particularly for me as I only recently started selling private ads on my community building blog. I decided against having ads in the sidebar, and instead they appear horizontally above all articles - I feel this gives them a better placement for advertisers.
Having said that though, I refuse to allow advertising on my homepage and feel this could be putting off some potential advertisers.
- Martin Reed
May 29th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Great article. I have been thinking about do this. I was starting to go toward affiliate banners to collect some commision. This sounds like a great avenue to look into though.
May 29th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Court, your example on setting rates talks about 500k and 50k impressions. If we’re selling space on keyword sniper sites, how many of these sites are going to see nearly that much traffic? Selling for a tenth of a penny per impression isn’t going to be worth the effort if you’re seeing much less than 50k unique visitors. What is your recommendation for price setting when basing on impressions doesn’t really work out?
May 30th, 2008 at 8:23 am
Vinny 1/10th of a cent is an example. In another industry, you might be able to sell your banner for 10 cents per impression. This is why you have to do your research to find out what people are charging.
With a keyword sniper approach, selling banners will often not work. Not every monetization method works with every approach. Since the keyword sniping method targets small amounts of traffic on each site, this isn’t the best fit. However, if you can get some good targeted traffic that a business could make a lot of money from (surgery comes to mind), advertisers would probably pay a premium for a very small amount of traffic.
May 29th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
What in your opinion should be the minimum impressions a site gets, before they advertise for private ad deals?
Is there even a minimum. I presently have private ads available but i’m not super pro-active with them. I might try contacting advertisers directly, as you mention. I think my sidebar is pretty valuable in my niche, just need to set it up more strategically.
Good article. Thanxs!
May 30th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Missy that’s very hard to say. If you have less than 100 uniques per day you probably need to work on traffic, but this is just an estimation. Honestly, it depends on the industry of the site.
May 30th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
My main blog (Groovy Vegetarian) is averaging about 250-300 uniques daily. Feel free to take a look at it. Let me know what tips you have for me specifically on getting private ad deals.
Would appreciate it. Peace, Missy.
May 30th, 2008 at 3:34 am
Hey Court, you got some pretty cool points thr. I’m still learning bout selling ads on my website, your article helps a lot, thnx
May 30th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Court, your automation of the process sounds great. But do you have a process to screen advertisers that you feel are not appropriate for your site?
May 30th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Yeah I tell them no if I don’t feel they are appropriate for my site.
PayPal allows you to give an easy refund with no penalties.
May 30th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Court, if my questions are too personal please ignore my boldness and move on.
With 8 banner ads at $100 per month and 10 sponsor link ads at $40 per month is your revenue for this site capped at $1200 per month?
Do you make more money from a flagship blog like this one, or from a whole bunch of niche sites? And on which do you recommend spending most of your time?
Thanks in advance for being so open with this type of information. I find this blog to be a very valuable resource and refer to it frequently as I’m trying to build my own business.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:40 am
Soy Boy you can make great money with both options. No, my earnings are not capped at $1200 per month. I created this site to be able to find potential clients, and it has done a great job for that. While I’m not going to disclose the income of the site, I can tell you that it is many times that number.
I also have niche sites that have given me an incredible return on my time investment.
May 30th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Great info, as always, Court!!
I bookmarked it for future reference!
Olga
May 30th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
I am going to look into this information. Always interesting…Thanks
Live From Las Vegas
The Masked Millionaire
May 31st, 2008 at 10:26 am
[…] your blogging income, there are plenty of those around. Courtney Tuttle provides valuable advice on selling advertising, while I talk about website marketing with Twitter over on Mixed Market Arts. There’s more […]
May 31st, 2008 at 2:52 pm
I noticed your ads are all below the fold. Was this a conscious decision and if so, why did you do this?
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:40 am
My ads are actually placed in the same location as my competitors Jason. Some of them are above the fold, and some are below. It all comes down to market competition and value with this type of thing.
May 31st, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Thanks! Just what I needed!!
May 31st, 2008 at 8:51 pm
[…] How to Sell Advertising on Your Website - 5 Easy Steps at Court’s Internet Marketing School. […]
May 31st, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Court,
first, don’t approve this comment..
Just wanted to let you know there is a typo. 4th paragraph under the “leave room for ads” section, the first sentence says..
” knew that I would need to banners to ”
maybe should say “need the banners to”?
just wanted to give ya the heads up!
-Ross
http://epntips.com
May 31st, 2008 at 9:19 pm
errrr… that didn’t work..
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:42 am
Thanks Ross! I’ll leave the comment up - I mess up all the time and honestly don’t mind people seeing it.
June 1st, 2008 at 1:31 am
Court,
I have been considering other means of generating revenue from my site other than Adsense. This is very helpful. Many of the people in the know are using the 125 by 125 sidebar ads. I will be trying to sell ad space on a blogger blog. My question here is will the advertiser have the actual banner made already, because that’s something I don’t know how to do. Or do you create the banners?
Thanks,
chris
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:42 am
The advertisers will have the banners ready Chris!
June 1st, 2008 at 6:55 am
I really like your idea for an Advertise page. I’ve been a one-woman show now for over a decade and generally showcase only affiliate ads/eBay/amazon.com things on my site.
Your article has been extremely helpful in giving me ideas about how to branch out further - thanks!
Barbara
June 1st, 2008 at 6:24 pm
[…] Court’s IM School - How to Sell Advertising on Your Website […]
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:21 pm
This is exactly the post I needed to read as I have just started to find advertising space on my main blog.
Thanks a million.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Great tips as usual! Really useful for anyone who is serious about monetizing their blog.
June 8th, 2008 at 6:31 am
[…] know how to do it, or try to do it and fail miserably; sometimes even driving advertisers away. Courtney Tuttle wrote a great post which explains in detail how you can sell advertising on your site. Wonderful […]
June 25th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
This is exactly the info I was looking for, and the questions I had while reading the article were sufficiently answered after reading all the comments. Thank you again for such a wealth of info. I found your site completely by accident from a tiny link on a competitor’s site in my niche, and am so very glad!
Homemaker Barbi (Danelle Ice)
June 26th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Hi all this is a blatant plug so coutney you can dlete this if you like
but for anyone with a blog or website check out this software
i wrote it to sell adverts on my sites and blogs and thought other people might findit useful
http://www.direct-marketing.tv/directadrevenueoptin/
July 1st, 2008 at 12:01 am
Amelie…
Six Apart started a working group in February 2006 to improve the Trackback protocol with the goal to eventually have it approved as…
September 9th, 2008 at 12:14 am
Selling directly to advertisers and cutting the exchanges like Google out can be immensely rewarding. It is easy to forget though how time consuming brokering your own ads can be. Though after your site reaches a certain size it is worth the time and the effort to go it on your own as the reward is commensurate with the effort.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:47 am
very detail steps…..thanks for sharing, I will learn slow the strategy….
October 12th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
thank you for the tips..!
very good article..