So You Want to Sell Advertising

Many people start sites with the preconceived notion that they can make tons of money by selling advertising. Don't be fooled, the road to riches is more detailed and complex than you know. For those of you moving forward, here are some tips for getting started.

What you need prior to selling anything is a detailed breakdown of your traffic. Understanding the types of visitors and members you have is going to be essential to successfully finding advertisers. You want a user base that is targeted, but not so targeted that you are limiting advertising prospects.

You need to know that in addition to users being interested in your site's primary focus, they are also within 'x' age range, 'x' income level, gender, etc. You absolutely need to understand figures such as bounce rates, the average time spent on your site, where the majority of traffic is coming from and the rate of growth/month.

Being that the economy is presumably slower than it was in the ad boom we saw about a year ago, you can be pretty sure that budgets for advertising are somewhat smaller. The rate of spending is still increasing, but at a slower rate than before. Because advertisers are a bit more cautious, a Pay Per Click (PPC) package may be more attractive, since the ROI is much more tangible.

CPM advertising (cost per thousand impressions) is the other alternative. Advertisers looking to maximize exposure in a specific market will likely flock to this option. Again though, the ROI is less tangible, and MOST companies, in my humble opinion, are looking at PPC options.

When you structure deals you want to emphasize the uniqueness of your audience and understand who your key prospective advertisers are going to be. Offer all encompassing advertising packages in addition to a single banner, like what you see on sites such as break.com, where a company gets the banner, in-video ad, and perhaps a "free offer" opportunity from the advertiser. Sponsorship is a great word to use and paradigm to embrace since it feels less "advertisy" to consumers.

Traffic: this will be a tough barrier to overcome given that you probably don't have start up capital to spend on advertising yourself. My suggestion is to structure a vigorous grass roots campaign Which is often much better for long term results and for generating a consistent user base.

Blogs are a great first step in spreading the word and building natural traffic. Submit value based content to article databases as well. Original videos are also an emerging tactic that can build viral traffic to your site. My suggestion is keep it somewhat short, and very funny. Humor is key. Submit releases to other websites that may have an interest in your site. Offer to write stories on other companies in order to get them to post your story on their blogs.

Be creative. The more creative you can be as far as distribution methods the better.

Be patient! Don't expect your traffic and page rank to skyrocket over night. But also know that the harder you work and the more time you put in, the faster you will see results.

Visit Grantdeken.com to get more ideas and information on how to boost your company's marketing efforts!

The Power of Blogging

I started this blog in March of this year, not really knowing what to make of it but mostly to learn more about the world of blogging, what it entails, and how to use internet communication as a means of marketing. My philosophy is that the best way to learn something is by diving in. So I jumped, and landed in a crazy world. Not only have I learned a tremendous amount about what blogging really is but I've also come to understand why it's so widely popular.

I remember when I was young my mom would always threaten to write a letter to a business or organization when she was frustrated or had had horrible service. I always laughed and gave her a hard time. "Yeah Mom you tell them what's what," I used to say in a sarcastic tone. The irony is that today's digital age has made "letters" highly replicatable through emails, blogs, newsletters, and article databases. Writing a letter is now a powerful tool.

In my previous post I talked about my horrible experience with Next Student, a Private college loan company similar to Sallie Mae and others. It was a late night when I posted the rant, about three A.M. where I'm writing from. The next day I received a call from a senior manager who had seen the article. It had been found by a member of the company's marketing team and passed on to management in the customer service division. She had called to apologize for the poor customer service and frustrating situation I was going through. To help fix as much as she could, she offered to call my school and speak with financial aid to make sure that they do not drop me from my classes. They also offered to overnight my funds to me in an effort to speed things up and get everything taken care. She understood that student loans are a commodity and people can go anywhere to get them these days. The companies with the best value get the most business. She is absolutely right.

While most of the damage has already been done, it is not to go unnoticed that someone did reach out and apologize. It's just an unfortunate shame that it has to come to what it did to get the value that every customer really deserves. Think about any business. If we treated everyone the way I was treated after I shared my experience with the world there would be some businesses out there killing the competition. The sad truth is that most businesses lack effective training, qualified outsourced services, and experienced individuals (you get what you pay for).

Blogging has made it too expensive for companies to have bad service, because I can tell the world about it instantly. In less than 24 hours over 600 people had read my article. Businesses absolutely do not want this. However, what if I ranted about how great the service was? What if 600 people heard how great my experience was? That's powerful for business. It doesn't have to be a bad thing. Some of the most powerful marketing tools can be customer testimonials. If you have a great service or product, your customers will reward you for it.

The internet has given each and everyone a powerful voice if we choose to use that way. This is what I believe a big part of blogging is about. Consumers finally have a voice. I hope that companies are adaptive enough to thrive in a world that embraces this.