How much to charge for Banners and Links on my site?

Question

I have a GREAT Domain Name and I want to Build A BUSINESS Site with Advertisers in the Field..How do I get started marketing it and get paid? I'm a hairstylist, and I need to solicit and promote my domain in this field....HOW do I Set-Up and determine an AMOUNT to Charge? ? ?

Answer 1

A great domain name is just that -- a great domain name. It will not lure visitors to the site in by itself. What the site needs is GREAT CONTENT -- content that is unique, compelling, and something people would want to visit again and again.

I suggest you start by thinking of what the site will be all about, what its focus will be and what will it contain. Make a plan and think of:

- what are its contents
- how often content will be updated
- who will write the content
- if you will buy the content, where will you buy it
- can you afford to buy content

Once you've figured out the content and started creating the content, think of how you will create the website. Will a blog format work for you, blogs being easy to create and maintain but too simplistic for a fully functional advertising supported site? Or will you use a program such as Yahoo's Sitebuilder to make the site creation process easier? Or will you outsource the creation of the site which of course begs the question of whether you can afford it.

If you are thinking of earning through advertising, note that there are several ways you can earn money from advertising:

1. Join an advertising network. Advertising networks are organizations that aggregate Web sites that offer advertising space, and sell banner ads (and other advertising options) across them. Traffic requirement is often a minimum of 5,000 monthly impressions, although many do not accept sites hosted by free page services.

Burst Media http://www.burstmedia.com
Fastclick (ValueClick). http://www.fastclick.com
Advertising.com. http://www.advertising.com
Tribal Fusion http://www.tribalfusion.com

2. Participate in contextual advertising networks. Contextual advertising are text ads delivered based on the content of the web page using an automated system.

Google Adsense https://www.google.com/adsense/
Yahoo! Publishing Network (currently in beta and available to US publishers only) http://publisher.yahoo.com/
Intellixt http://vibrantmedia.com/site/web_01a5.htm
Quigo Adsonar http://www.quigo.com/adsonarexchange.htm
IndustryBrains http://www.industrybrains.com
Commission Junction Evolution http://www.cj.com
Kanoodle Brightads http://www.kanoodle.com/about/brightads.html
Clicksor http://www.clicksor.com/affiliate_programs.php
Contextweb http://www.contextweb.com/
Bidclix http://www.bidclix.com/
Bidvertiser http://www.bidvertiser.com/

3. Sell advertising for your site directly. This is admittedly a more difficult route for a small business site wanting to earn advertising revenues. But hey, as they say: "no pain, no gain!" The main question you will ask is "How much should I charge?"

Your advertising rate will depend on several factors:

- Who is your audience and how desirable is your audience to the advertisers? If your audience are techies or those who have the propensity to purchase higher-ticket items, then you can charge a higher price as compared to an audience of bird lovers.

- What is the rate of comparative websites in your niche? You don't want to overprice yourself out of the market yet you don't want to undercharge as well.

- What is the rate advertisers are willing to pay in your site? You may charge $5 per CPM but if nobody's taking you up on the rate even though you may get inquiries, then it could imply that advertisers may consider your rate too expensive. But if you charge $0.50 per CPM and advertisers are flooding in, then you may be too cheap and can afford to increase your rate.

- What is the CPM you get from other advertising vehicles? Do you run Google Adsense, and if so, what is your effective CPM rate with them? Or if you run banner ads through ad networks like Burst Media, Valueclick or Tribal Fusion, what is the CPM you're getting? You can use those values to help you gauge your rate. It may not always work (e.g. if we use the CPM we get from Adsense, nobody's ever going to advertise on our site because our Adsense CPM is too high) but it can give you an idea of what rate to use.

- What is the level of exposure the advertiser wants? You can lower your rate for an advertiser willing to sign a longer term contract, say for one year vis-a-vis an advertiser that signs up for only a month. You can also arrange for special rates if the advertiser is purchasing several advertising products from your site (e.g. advertiser wants to buy banner ads, text ads and newsletter sponsorship).

If you're just starting in the game, experiment and see what rate the market will bite. You can start at $1 per CPM ($1 for every 1,000 times the ad is viewed) and see how it goes. I charge for $5 CPM for banner ads on my site and we get a lot of advertisers for our niche.

There is so much to learn when you are starting in this game. I suggest you read more about the topic, visit internet marketing sites and check out forums such as WebmasterWorld.com http://www.webmasterworld.com

Answer 2

The name of the game online is traffic. HUGE traffic. There are websites that get 1 million unique hits a month and make little money because that's not a huge audience. You can probably get $4-5 CPM (cost per 1,000 banners shown) if you have a niche site, much less ($1.50 or under) if it's a generic site where the audience is hard to identify by demographic. A few cents per click isn't bad, but it's hard to track without giving up a big cut to an agency, and seeing that about .1% of banners are clicked on, you'd only make a few cents per 1,000 visitors. I have a website I made for my own use that I promote every now and then among people in my industry just for my entertainment; I get a couple thousand people coming a month (mostly the same people), and have made $7 in Google Adwords revenue in the past five months. You need $100 to even get a check. Try www.google.com/adwords this is the best way to get topical ads that people might actually click on.

Answer 3

US$1/month

Answer 4

Start with $0.01 USD per click.