Would you be willing to spend your advertising $ on this?

Question

I live in a medium sized city where soccer is really popular from kindergarden all the way to adult. I have a website that has information about EVERYTHING soccer related in my city from tournaments/results to registration, classified ads, help wanted ads, high school player bios, youth coaching info- you name it, I've got it. I get around 10k hits a day on average and up to 50k a day during tournaments and other events. I have a great demographic to advertise to: Middle-upper class adults (including soccer moms and dads), teenagers, and some youth.
Would you be willing to buy ad space on a site of that nature with that demographic if you were a business in my city?

Sorry I didn't include this initially- your ad would have a direct link to your site and can contain your business address and phone number. You can also advertise specials you may offer. For example- a popular kid's place could advertise specifiacally for discounts for multipal kids, which would be perfect because tons of youth teams have end of season parties. I'm sure if coaches and team moms saw the ad, they would jump at the chance at a discount!

Answer 1

Wreynor has a couple of good points, however even if you don't own the equipment but have a compelling offer and ownership of the domain name you would still be of interest to potential advertisers. Although, as with everything, it comes down to cost and a compelling argument as to why they should spend that cost with you.

If you are able to accurately demonstrate the profiles of your hits, including the relationship they have with your site (i.e.: time spent, depth of use, frequency, etc.), and you can charge at a rate that makes it cost effective to reach these consumers then you should be on to something.

You should see if you can find comparable sites (not only soccer-related) from other areas and determine what they're charging. Also, make some comparisons against local newspapers and their advertising costs - as this all helps to create a compelling case for advertising with you, and puts what you're offering potential clients into perspective.

I presume the information you're providing on the site is mostly self-sourced, and they can't find the same information from a number of other sources. If you're not already, consider some advertising of your own to not only increase hits but to develop awareness, loyalty, and a reputation as the best source of information on these things. This needn't be expensive, as an example may be a simple small space ad in soccer programmes or leaflets to start with, or even stickers to hand out to kids and parents at games if you don't want to spend too much to start with.

I would also suggest that you look at which companies are currently sponsoring or advertising in and around soccer in your area. They're clearly pre-disposed to it, and may give you some easy wins at the outset - which often helps you sell to the next advertiser, if they see others believe in you. For that matter, you may want to offer some free space as a trial and you can both track click-through from your site to theirs (or if they don't have a website suggest that customers get a discount if they mention a code on your website).

Lastly, whilst the attraction of approaching a company like Nike for overall branding and sponsorship of the site might seem interesting, they tend to mostly be interested in large scale stuff that they can have ownership and control over. The other thing with that is, if you're then seen as being influenced by that relationship, then your current users start losing faith in your impartiality and may seek other sources.

Good luck with it, as it's certainly something that you can attract advertisers to - if you can make it attractive for them to do so. And once you've got some advertisers, make sure you maintain a relationship with them rather than just take the money and run - so to speak. In other words, keep contact, and provide regular updates which remind them of your relevance to their consumers and their business.

Answer 2

If your getting provable hits in the 10Ks and you own your own domain name as well as your own server then I am surprised NIKE isn't already knocking on your door. If you were already set up and running and you could show some proven data that supports your numbers then I would advertise, but if your running through third party equipment then I wouldn't want to get into it. To much risk involved without a guarantee and without your own equipment it would be impossible for you to provide a guarantee of service.

However, you could sell your service as a web designer to someone who does own their own equipment and domain name. Perhaps even to NIKE, so instead of advertising with the need to satisfy multiple clients, you could take your design and try and sell it to one or a very select group of clients.

Answer 3

Wow you go getter! Also place your site on Adbrite....the advertisers will come to you! Also have you ever seen the million dollar pixel website of the college student who made a million dollars by selling the space on his site?....very clever.
Blog, Blog, Blog about your site/topic with each blog back linking....also try Squidoo..use a youtube video or your own soccer video with a link underneath....did you know video gets indexed faster than other methods? Good luck!


Good luck

Answer 4

Yes, if i could put a link from it to my website and also put my phone number on your site.

Answer 5

no