Making Money with Direct Ad Sales
TweetIf you are trying to make money online by selling advertising then you should be trying to take advantage of direct ads. Many site owners make the mistake of going through a broker and these ad networks can take up to 50% of the money that advertisers are willing to pay. Why not pocket the whole amount yourself? You also will have direct contact with your advertiser so you can build a better relationship with them, plus you won't be limited by the brokers payment options.
The main reasons site owners do not list private advertisements on their site is a lack of knowledge or they do not think they can find advertisers on their own. Let's take care of those issues with this article that is designed to cover what you need to know before offering direct advertisements on your site.
You want to give potential advertisers all of the information that they need before making a decision on advertising with your site and to do this you will create a specific direct advertising page. You will want to try to sell them as much as possible on the benefits your site has to offer. Make sure to include the following details:
Traffic
List both pageviews and unique visitors and break them down by day, month, and year. If you add a graph to display this information it can make the data easier to read and understand. RSS Subscribers, newsletter subscribers, Facebook fans, and Twitter followers are other metrics that could also help.
Options Available
What type of ads are you willing to sell? Be clear and concise here. Do you put a nofollow tag on their links? Let the advertiser know beforehand.
Prohibited Sites
If you aren't going to allow certain types of sites to advertise with you, then list that information here so you don't waste anyone's time. Some common prohibited sites are: adult, gambling, made-for-adsense, hate, and the list goes on.
Contact Details
Make sure at the end of your page you clearly list your contact details so potential buyers can get in touch with you for more information. Don't just list your email address, but if you are comfortable with the idea, add your phone number as well. Deals get done quicker over the phone.
You should link to your direct ad page somewhere prominent on your site to draw interest. I would avoid putting your advertising rates on the page because you can lose buyers if it is slightly above their price range. You want to be able to negotiate the best deal.
If you have any other tips on selling direct advertisements then please add them to the comments below.