Due to the number of questions I receive about flat-rate ads, I thought I’d blog about this topic today.
First of all, flat-rate ads have a fixed price regardless of impressions, clicks, etc. So charging someone $50 per month for an ad on your site would be an example of a flat-rate ad.
In this post I want to discuss three different ways you can host these kinds of ads.
1) AdBrite
As you may know, AdBrite will host and manage your flat-rate ads for you. Of course, the catch is they take a percentage of the revenue you earn from each ad.
However, the positive side is they manage the addition and removal of ads based on the start and end dates so you don’t have to remember to physically add and remove the ads.
You simply create your ad zones, set your prices, and paste the AdBrite code into your pages. AdBrite does the rest, including processing the payments.
I’m currently using AdBrite to manage some of the ads on my left and right columns of 2 Create a Website. You can click the “Your Ad Here” links to get a feel for how the process works.
Note: Yes, it is OK to use AdBrite’s flat rate ad system in conjunction with AdSense. I emailed Google to verify this before signing up.
2) Ad Management Scripts
Installing an ad managment script will give you the most flexibility. Everything is managed on your own domain name and you don’t have to share any of your revenue with a third party.
There are several free scripts available that you can install to manage your ads. OpenX (formerly OpenAds) is probably one of the most popular, open source ad scripts around.
For a list of more options, check HotScripts.com.
You must have a domain name and shared or dedicated hosting plan to use these kinds of scripts. Installation and some configuration is usually required.
With many of these scripts, your advertisers can create accounts so they can manage their own ads, review click-thru reports, purchase new ads, etc.
Most are also compatible with billing solutions like PayPal, although in many instances you’ll need to install a plug-in or add-on.
3) The Manual Method
If you don’t want to bother with installing scripts or using ad management companies like AdBrite then you can manage your flat-rate ads manually.
In other words, you put the ads up and take them down yourself while managing the payments with a 3rd party billing provider like PayPal.
Yes, in case you didn’t know, PayPal has a subscription payment option. So if someone wants to advertise on your site, you can simply login to your PayPal account, go to “Merchant Services” and select “Subscribe.”
This will allow you to setup a recurring billing/subscription payment for your advertisers. PayPal will automatically bill them for the chosen amount every month. Of course, you can cancel the payments at any time.
How Much Should You Charge?
“How much should I charge for my ads?” is a question that comes up a lot on my forum.
One way to determine this price is to look at your eCPM statistic from affiliate networks you belong to (CJ, LinkShare, etc.) or from programs like AdSense or AdBrite.
Let’s say your eCPM for AdSense is $3.00. That means your site earns $3.00 for every 1,000 ad displays. So if your site gets 5,000 visits per month then you would charge $15/month ($3.00 x 5) for the flat-rate ad.
Of course this is not the only way to determine your price and you may want to adjust it based on the kind of traffic you receive, ad placement, etc. However, this is a good starting point for setting your prices.
A Note About Traffic
A lot of new Webmasters and Bloggers consider selling advertising space on their sites before they even have any traffic. This is a big no-no.
Would you place an ad in a magazine that had no subscribers or circulation? Of course not. So build up your traffic first and then be prepared to provide statistics about your traffic to potential advertisers (traffic numbers and information about the type of visitor).
As I described above, your traffic levels can help you determine the price of your ads. So if you have no traffic, how can you ensure your prices are appropriate?
Other Options
This is not an exhaustive list of methods you can use for flat-rate ads. If you use WordPress, there are even plug-ins you can install to manage them. So feel free to share what you use for your site or blog.
I found this blog when I googled “advertisement rate on a website”. Awesome, even though this is an old post, still helping people. I was googling that phrase because someone sent me a message saying that she wants to advertise on my website and wants to know the rate. I don’t know if it’s a scam but maybe it’s worth trying?
Thanks to your help I’m now set up to sell flat rate ads on one of my sites! You’re the best Lisa!
Thanks, Lisa.
Thanks Lisa,
I really appreciate your help with this (and all of the other website help I get from your site).
Thanks David,
I thought maybe I was the only one that couldn’t figure out how to get to the Adbrite flatrate ads.
Chris and David, when you login to your account, select the Publishers tab and then “Manage Zones”. There should be a place to “Create a New Zone”. From there follow all the instructions and when you get to the Pricing Options (Step 4) that should allow you to set up flat rate pricing. There’s an option that says “I’d rather set my pricing myself”. Hopefully nothing has changed because that’s how I did it.
Lisa (and Chris),
I have the same problem. I just signed up with AdBrite, and I can’t find a way to either create or to change an ad to flat-rate. The instructions AdBrite gives in its help section don’t jibe with its site. Any suggestions?
Hi Lisa,
I realize this is not a recent topic, but I have a question about selling Adbrite flat rate ads on my site. I was looking through your site when I saw a video of yours that mentioned flat rate ads and Adbrite and then I found this blog post about it.
I went to the Adbrite site with the intention of signing up, but didn’t because I don’t want to show cost per click ads.
I use Google Adsense on my site and so I’m only interested in selling flat rate ads via Adbrite.
My problem is that I don’t know how to sign up for ONLY the flat rate ads and not the contextual cost per click ads. I tried searching the Adbrite site, but couldn’t find what I was looking for.
I’m afraid to sign up for Adbrite because I’m afraid I’ll end up signing up for the wrong type of ads and then get banned by Google Adsense.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I get several e-mails each month from people asking to place an ad on my site, but don’t know what to charge and so I thought Adbrite would be a good option for me.
Thanks.
This is the blog I’ve been needing to read. My question, stemming from the ‘How Much Should You Charge’ section, can I market for an advertiser on my site (even without notification), build up my site stats (traffic, clicks, and demographic info), then solicit say advertisers to sign up with my site to advertise for them? Also, with ‘The Manual Method’ of ad hosting, is this difficult for a beginner to website management? Thanks.
I missed this post, Keri. Sorry about that. Yes, I would recommend building up traffic first and then when you have a few hundred visits per day start soliciting for advertisers. I wouldn’t solicit until your traffic is built up. I am really not in favor of the manual method. It’s too much work, especially when your advertisers start adding up. With services like AdBrite, OIO Publisher, OpenText, etc. there are just too many automated options to choose from.
Thanks Paul! I’ll have to check it out. Ironically enough I don’t do a lot of monetization on my blog so this is new to me. Appreciate it.
Hey Lisa,
I was snooping around your blog…okay catching up, and this post caught my eye. I have been offering flat-rate ads for some time, and am currently using OIO Publisher, which is a WordPress plugin.
I love the plug-in and works with Paypal. It has made advertising a no-brainer. Just thought I’d add that to your list.
Hey Bruno, since this comment/question is unrelated to the post you just commented on, please send an email instead. I like to keep the comments relevant to the post since that’s what they’re here for. Thanks! 🙂
Hi Lisa,
I got a question: when I look at people their blog I see sometimes they use movies that aren’t there’s. (but who are on youtube) –> is that legal (if you know that that movie being on youtube isn’t legal too)
Also you advise to blong on a specific topic, but I thought blogging was mostly talking about yourself –> so would you still advise it’s better to choose a topic to blog on?
Maybe important for a lot of people: I’m not sure if I would blong in English or in my native language, but I guess you will earn more in English? (the downside is there is a lot more “competition” in the same niche.
Looking forward to hear your views. 😉
Greetings,
Bruno
Never mind on the Kontera question I just checked, they do use javascipt.
Oh well back to the proverbial drawing board. 🙂
Terry
Hey Lisa, once again you bringin’ it. Do you know if Kontera uses java script? If not I’d like to see about adding them to my WordPress hosted blog. Might as well try to monetize somehow my affiliate links aren’t doing much. I know I definitely need a lot more traffic. Any suggestions?
Love ya,
Terry
oh yes i do 🙂
maybe it has to do that it was put before some minutes before i sent you my comment.
i will have to wait then for it to work 🙂
thank you lisa ! you are too clever !
Nick,
Do you have your network ad settings on “auto approve” in your account? If so, it may take some time for the network ads to appear. I believe it took a day or two for me.
hi lisa 🙂
i wanted to ask you something.
i have my blogger site and i applied for ad brite, not just flat-rate ads but general.
i entered the code in my site and all it shows is ‘your ad here’ on the left of my site instead of more ads.
like just a link for someone to apply instead of ready ads.
am i doing anything wrong ?
Nick, no you cannot because just like AdSense, AdBrite uses javascript. So that would make it incompatible with WordPress.com blogs. You would need a self-hosted blog.
Sue, hang in there. I did just visit your blog. One thing I noticed is that your topics are kind of scattered. Since your blog is new you may want to focus your topics down to one niche. This will help you attract a following. Starting a new blog with a plethora of topics makes it difficult to draw in traffic
At the moment.. one week into creating my self-indulgent playground.. 🙂 Otherwise known as my blog.. Im happy if anybody stops by!
I know i’ts a bit lonely at the moment.. but it is addictive! (bit scarey as addictions is my speciality in real life.. Im a nurse not an addict .. LOL 🙂 )
Anyway, I wil continue with the baby step thing for the moment.. x And keep reading informative sites like this ofcourse!
Ta
Sue x
hi lisa !
oh my god, you are too clever !
you have told me that adsense doesnt support wordpress blogs that are hosted on wordpress.
do you know if adbrite does ?
thank you lisa 🙂
John, you are not alone. That’s why I added that section about traffic. I cannot tell you how many people email me because they want to create a directory or a site to sell advertising space and they are so focused on collecting the advertising money, they don’t realize the importance of taking the time to build up targeted traffic FIRST. Your site will be useless to advertisers if you cannot prove you have enough traffic that is relevant to their ads.
Thanks Lisa,
I am one of those who tried to make money too early, not understanding the importance of having traffic first. Thanks for this reality check once again.