A while back Lisa posted about her experience selling advertising through the OIOpublisher marketplace.
I am also using OIOpublisher, but the marketplace hasn’t been a source of ad sales for my site, torontoshopoholic.com.
Not all of us have a recognizable brand like Lisa or a mature website.
Instead, I’ve had to think of other ways to attract advertisers. So here are my top 5 ways to attract advertisers or sponsors to your website and blog.
1. ASK – When I was researching how to attract advertisers I came across a problogger video. At first glance, it wasn’t very profound, but it did motivate me to start asking.
When businesses contact me, I ask if they would like to see my media kit. I ask stores when I go out to do reviews. And every once in a while I just put it out there on Twitter.
I just keep asking. And if someone says “no”, I don’t get offended because they may support my website in some other way like providing a link or a giveaway. I simply move on and ask someone else.
2. ASK – I put ask on the list twice because not only do you have to put yourself out there representing your website and ASK advertisers to support your site, but you also have to target who you ask. It goes without saying that you should ask people who are relevant to your niche.
Also, if your website is young, start out with smaller businesses first. If you have priced accordingly there will be plenty who will be interested.
You can jump right in and try to attract national brands, but it’s probably prudent to wait until you have higher traffic levels and some ad selling experience under your belt.
3. Price – Price setting is very important and should be relative to your traffic levels. Lisa already posted a great article on this so I won’t go into great detail.
However, I will say this. My ads are relatively inexpensive compared to the competition, but I feel they are appropriate given my traffic levels. This has helped attract so many small businesses to my site.
As your traffic grows, feel free to increase your rates. Some advertisers may pull their ads, but many will stick around if you are delivering great promotion for their brand, traffic and conversions.
4. Over deliver – From the moment you deal with someone who is a potential sponsor, over deliver in every way. Have a professional media kit and rate sheet that shows your website is more than a hobby.
If they ask questions, provide them with all the information they need. Someone may not advertise today, but if you over deliver, they may convert tomorrow.
Be careful, however, and recognize those who are just using you for free advice or promotion and those who will be potential advertisers. You want to concentrate your efforts on those who are genuinely interested in your site.
5. Excellent Content – Great content goes without saying when building a website. You build content that will appease the search engines, directories and of course your visitors.
But let’s look at it from a different angle. Your content not only has to win over your visitors, but also your advertisers.
I’ve had a number of supporters tell me how much they love my website concept and content. The content attracted them to torontoshopoholic.com, and eventually converted several of them into sponsors!
Lisa’s Comments: Great points, Jane! I love that you mentioned going OFFLINE. Even though this strategy may not be ideal for every kind of site, too many people are missing opportunities right in their own backyards. It’s amazing what can happen if you just get out and talk to people!
You’ve also proven that it’s possible to find advertisers/sponsors when you have lower traffic levels. The key is to be upfront about your traffic, make sure your prices reflect your traffic levels, and target smaller businesses. You’ve done just that!
Larger, more established businesses may not be interested in advertising on sites with low traffic levels, but they may be a perfect fit for start-up businesses looking for exposure.
Also, great job on the media kit. It’s short, sweet, to-the-point and provides information advertisers want.
Point 4 applies to any type of business: Under promise and over deliver. You may need to vigilantly vet certain “advertisers” however – they may see your niceness as weakness. There are time wasters out there and it amuses me that they think they can place an ad and then suddenly ignore my emails without paying!
I mean… c’mon… I’m simply going to take down such an ad the earliest opportunity. Just because it’s the internet, doesn’t mean basic business etiquette no longer applies.
always remember what u r selling that’s make good development of your business.
I am really addicted to your posts. I do hope you won’t mind me posting on your other articles here on your domain Miss Lisa. I really have a great time taking lessons from your posts.
I am somewhat new on this one. I want to learn more on getting advertisers to have them on my blog.
It really is imperative for a blogger to have the means to take extra income. The way you portray the means for us newbies is really a helpful one. No wonder you are popular.
🙂
Can you advise on the ‘mediakit’ – the pdf has disappeared and is no longer accessible for we less knowledge folk?
Cool tips and advice. Good content is important…
I agree with what’s said above – more getting out there – more chances of being noticed…
With another thought – what do you think about tools like
http://www.wix.com or webs/ homestead.com
“Ask” I think this is one of the best way to let people know about your service.
It doesn’t hurt to ask…As Long as it is something legal. If you don’t get a positive response at first, you sure will get a good response from someone who is really looking for your service.
Thanks for the post…
Ouch Lisa, I didn’t know this was a no follow blog.
!
Hi Lisa I’m extremely blown away by you site, there is no need to go anywhere else for helpful tips and info. I am so glad I’ve stumpled on you. I totally admire what you are doing and what you have accomplished. I’ve just started so you will be my mentor. I’m at…http://lx.im/5gwG #ad ”
Love that about you Lisa, you’re persistent and a go getter. Awesome girl, I know that is what makes it for you and most who are successful online. I’ll follow that pattern! Mahalo Lani 🙂
Thnx for sharing such a useful and Nice information
keep it updating thnx
Hi Lisa,
Just wondering. Now I’m not trying to start any beef or anything, but is there any particular reason why you gave Jane “no follow” links back to her website, but you gave “do follow” links to oiopublisher ad copyblogger?
Wouldn’t the benefit of guest posting be additional traffic and a “do follow” backlink?
Just asking.
Usually when I link to sites that are not related to the theme of my blog I use a nofollow. So it wasn’t so much about me not giving Jane a dofollow link as much as it was me not wanting to dofollow a site that is not related to blogging/webmastering, etc.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit I’m not one that studies or gets into the advantages/disadvantages of dofollow/nofollow. Quite honestly I think it’s blown out of proportion. But I do think just the extra traffic of being featured is definitely worth it.
Matt Cutts (Google engineer) even admitted himself that dofollow links from unrelated sites don’t do you much good for SEO. Great question, though!
Thanks!
Thanks for the Matt Cutts insight.
I was actually offended when I saw this. If it’s not a big deal, why not follow their link? This person put a lot of effort into this post and you can’t even give them the SEO value as well as the exposure? Seems pretty egotistical to me.
And you aren’t even emphasizing SEO too strong on the homepage so it’s not like the theory of every link being about content really matters.
And it’s clear this person wanted the dofollow link – they don’t run a blog, they have a very specific product your readers will probably not be interested in. The exposure does nothing for her site besides traffic that will do nothing – so you pretty much sucked in all the value yourself.
If you’re doing this – which I’m okay with if you make it explicit – you should let the person know who submits a post/resource content with that obvious intention.
Rude?
I have changed my policy. If you look at my more recent guest posts they are all dofollow and so is this one now. I wasn’t trying to be rude or egotistical. It was simply done because the content wasn’t relevant to my site. When I link to my own flat stomach site from here I use nofollow for that reason. I personally think there is too much stock put into dofollow and not enough attention to quality, unique content, but the consensus seems to be that as a blogger who offers guests posts, I should provide that benefit…. so I do now.
Some positive news! After four and a half months of hard work, (and visiting Lisa’s excellent websites on a regular basis) our site is now averaging over 1,000 unique visitors a day. Once it reaches 4,000 unique visitors a day we’ll have reached the “holy grail” break-even point, and at that point can quit day jobs and begin working on the project on a full-time basis. The 6 primary keys to our success thus far have been: 1) Business planning, 2) Adding new content, 3) Strategic advertising, 4) Google Analytics monitoring, 5) Consistency, 6) Reading the information on Lisa’s websites. As stated before, is IS possible to create a website that generates a sustainable income. Good luck to everyone!
Hey thanks for the insight, I am doing all the same things and more, and am noticing results too. On top of that my time frame goal is similar to yours, 3- 6 months.
The site looks great and is neat and well organized. Wow ! justification of envy indeed.
Thanks for your comments Ray.
Thanks for your comments, you site has a lot of good content. What technology do you use for the comments facility?
I’d like to share some Google SEO advice. We’ve noticed a spike in traffic due to our SEO long-tail search strategy. e.g. creating The London Photo of the Day (http://www.londonevents2010.com/photo-of-the-day.html), which takes only a few minutes to update, has added a significant number of new visitors to the site. We posted #16 – Wimbledon Tennis Stadium just a few days ago, and the page now appears on the top 10 of Google UK for “wimbledon tennis stadium”, and with the Wimbledon Tennis tournament coming up soon, that traffic will keep increasing. It’s the long-tail searches that have really increased traffic for us, and we’ve targeted those because our niche is so competitive that trying to get ranked for high volume searches like “london events”, which gets over 300,000 searches a month, is being targeted by competitor sites that have 1 million pages and 250,000 links. It’s just not achievable, so we go for the long-tail. Obviously if you can find high-volume searches with little competition, then you’re onto a winner. We’ve identified 3 such niches, and are currently populating these other websites. At a time when there are so few jobs, particularly in our area, that we can help people find jobs by working online.
You know, I watched a long video from a guy called Rosenberg called ‘Rules to Success’ on the official Google channel the other day (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1T-1FqUBVY). I really like the Google ethos of sharing knowledge. I mean, we have to keep some stats back or our competitors could get an advantage, but to think that anything I say could help somebody get a job online makes the risk worthwhile personally.
And Lisa, you should know that your advice has helped several people here to meet their bills after becoming redundant in the recession. THANK YOU!
I just say to everyone, keep doing it, keep the faith, keep learning every day, keep it real, there are so many opportunities to make an income online, plan it out and follow it through. It really works, it probably won’t make most people rich, but after 6 months it’s now paying my bills. I never wish people good luck, just the best of success, life is not luck, it’s a game of chess.
My website is done totally in WordPress. So the comment mechanism is WordPress, I hope to see you there. I am also hoping for a few gust contributors too.
By the way, thanks for the kinds words about the content.
Ray, where’s the link on your website for submitting guest posts? Cheers buddy.
Just sign up, let me know when you sign up, and I will make you an author. Thanks for asking !
I am honored, and I would love to return the gesture in kind. Lets work together.
Oh by the way, I did a hub ages and saw a noticeable spike in my adsense earnings. FYI
The link is here: http://hubpages.com/_16ifit4eu9ufm/hub/Tips-For-Website-and-Affiliate-Marketing . If posting the link violated something, please let me know.
They killed my hub-page, omg, they said you could leave a link or two. What is wrong with those people.
Oh Well, we promote and we learn.
Like Gary said in that video you have to hustle it. You’re not going to get to the top if you sit back and play the Wii five hours a day. You have to hustle. Great post!
.-= Noah Rainey´s last blog … 25 Ways on How to Make Money Online =-.
It is definitely key that you talk to some people in your niche about your site. You can’t assume that like you everyone is online surfing the web and will “find you”. Many have someone else build their website for them and are not online much.
While I have had many people either tell me they are familiar with my site, contact me to come to their store or approach me about advertising, I have had far more that I have had to fill in about torontoshopoholic.com.
you can find sponsors for as little as a few dollars out there. you just have to know where to find them.
.-= wannabe´s last blog … Banner 350 x 50px – 1.00 USD =-.
You wrote an excellent, compelling article Jane!
I love reading posts like this one. It reminds me of the things that I never put on the to do list.
I did try to sell space on one of my sites and had a friend purchase space for a month. Afterward I left the advertising info in place for a couple of months and did not get any takers. So, I took it down.
I have so many things I am doing to build my online business right now and they all appear to be top priority.
I will get this one on the list though.
.-= Jordy´s last blog … Cabinet Drawer Slide Plastic Spacers Keep Breaking =-.
Great tips.. I think that if you writing good content and promoting it well, you will be seen and you will get advertising requests.
The more you are out there the more chances you are of being seen, and keep dropping your stats so that you are a blog that people want to advertise on.
.-= John Paul´s last blog … Breaking Into The Top 20 Internet Marketers Online With No List =-.
Good information. I like the part about setting the price point relative to the amount of traffic, and over delivering. It is always good to impress the customer. 🙂
.-= Running Bear´s last blog … The path to happiness =-.
I’ve seen so many sites overprice their ads or base them on competition. You have to know how ads perform on your site and take your traffic into consideration.
Very lovely tips jane 🙂
.-= Kharim´s last blog … How To Increase Google AdSense Revenue =-.
Nice points Jane!
My OIOpublisher account goes untouched and I wonder why I do not make sales. Will definitely put these points into motion and work out a little advertising plan.
.-= Glen´s last blog … How I used a Premium Section To Make Money On My Forum =-.
Hi Jane,
Great advice! I agree, we can’t be afraid to ask and be persistent. I’m glad you highlighted the point of being persistent. Thanks for sharing!!
Hi Jane and Lisa!
It’s amazing how much we miss out on because we do not ask. I haven’t be focusing too much on advertising lately, but this is something I definitely to want begin cultivating and this information definitely helps.
A media kit is an awesome idea. I’ll have to stop by and take a look at your example 🙂
.-= Kiesha @ We Blog Better´s last blog … Purpose Driven Life Book Drawing Results =-.
Wow Lisa thanks for the opportunity to guest post. It was fun to write an article on a topic I usually just read about and try to put into practice on my site.