Advertisers on my website - any beartraps?

Hi Niki

I have been approached by someone who is asking about my terms for guest posts and advertising on my How To Change Careers website.

I have already asked him what company he works for and have a weblink to something that looks bona fide, so I assume he is genuinely representing clients.  I have also said I reserve the right to reject anything I do not consider relevant to my site.  He is asking in particular about non-promotional guest posts which I suspect he may expect to get for free.  Is that standard pracitce or could/should I charge?

Just wondered if you have any advice before I proceed as I feel like I could be walking into a minefield here and don't want to be eaten alive by pirahnas (if I can mix my metaphors!) Is there anything I should be wary of before I accept?

Many thanks

Cherry

Hi Cherry,

That sounds promising :o) I'm guessing that by "non-promotional guest post" he wants to you to publish some of his content on your site in exchange for a link?

... if you're actually looking for content, and he's got a decent reputation as an expert - or at least good (preferably unique) material - and it's going to help your site in the search engines and be good for your readers - I'd say "why not".

Selling advertising is a a bit more complex though. You've got choices, and the main ones are -

• Sell graphical banners

• Sell text adverts

Usually online advertising is charged at a fixed cost per 1,000 impressions (e.g. 1000 displays of the advert, which usually corresponds to 1000 pages viewed by your visitors).

... but to make life easier (and save you from counting 1000s of impressions) you could sell him a placement on a specific page (probably the homepage because it gets the most traffic) for a fixed term, say a month. To do this you'd usually need to be able to offer some proof of the number of visitors you get to your site, and the price you charge would depend on the traffic you're getting, and how prominently the advert is placed.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the advert you put on your site will contain a link back to his website, and that link will have value even if nobody ever clicks the advertisement - because search interpret links as endorsements. More links = better ranking. So you'll be helping his site to get a bump in the search engines just because you've placed the advert. If you can share how many page views you're getting per day, on average, to your homepage, I can probably give you a ball-park figure for an opening offer you could make.

Hope this helps,

Cheers,

Niki

Hi Niki

Many thanks for your thoughts on this.

I think the main interest is in a guest post of some kind which I assume would normally be free.  My blog is simply fed from new content on my website, so an article supplied would become a webpage and a blog entry.  I would add it to the Career Change Articles page on my site.  I was wondering if I could offer it free for (say) a 3 month posting after which it would be removed or alternatively a permanent posting for a fee if they can also offer a reciprocal guest post to a relevant site or blog.  Obviously I get to accept/reject the sites I would link to.  A one-off fee could be a good deal if my traffic continues to grow, but it is easy for me to administer.  Maybe it should be an annual fee so I can review on renewal?

I think it is helpful to consider advertising in case the conversation goes that way, but I would want to keep it simple at this stage, say a quarterly fee with the right to review on renewal.  Personally I would not want adverts on my homepage, but some of my other pages get good traffic or are common entry points for the site.  Traffic for June was Visits - 7777, Pages - 15093.  Daily average 259 visits.  Homepage visits = 1305 according to SiteBuildIt or 679 according to Google Analytics - not sure why it is so different?  Any ideas about what would be an acceptable quartely rate would be really helpful!

Not sure that I want guest posts in my Newsletter at the moment, but I might take the odd advert...

BTW  how do I 'prove' my traffic figures?

Many thanks for you help with this Niki.

Cherry

Hi Cherry,

Great - so it looks like you've got about 15,000 impressions per month that you could sell if you wanted to, or 45,000 per quarter. Although you'd need to strip out homepage traffic, and any other pages you didn't want to sell advertising on. Then you'd need to figure out a rate, which would be anything from £1 to £10+ cost per thousand impressions (which is known as the "CPM rate") depending on -

• How prominent the advertising is, and how large it is (a massive banner at the top of the page would be worth much more than a tiny one buried at the bottom, for example).

• How difficult to access your market is. If there are hundreds of other websites that he could easily get advertising on to reach a similar audience, then the CPM will be lower.

• How much advertising he buys at once (bulk discounts are expected in this business).

I'd probably make him an opening offer of, say £250 per quarter (which works out as about £5.55 CPM), but try to get a feel for his expectations first. You could also see what rates other businesses in your niche are offering? Maybe you could toss in a free guest post to sweeten the deal?

... basically, just make the biggest offer you're comfortable with and expect him to haggle. When you've sold advertising space a few times, you'll start to get a more accurate picture of the real market value.

To prove your traffic figures you can just login to Google Analytics and either show him the screen (if you're meeting face to face) or you could send a screen-shot. It's not entirely surprising that the statistics are so different between SBI and Google Analytics. Tools very rarely agree, but I couldn't tell you exactly why without knowing more about the how SBI measures traffic.

Let us know how you get on!

Cheers,

Niki

Many thanks Niki!

Have replied with info about guest posting offering paid (permanent) and unpaid (temporary) options and also suggested sponsored text links from a particular page on my site.  I have kept the prices low for now on the basis that if I can attract some advertising, others will see it and follow suit.  But at the same time I don't want to end up with a site plastered in adverts, so it will all be very much at my discretion.

I will certainly let you know how it goes!

See you at the IE Gathering on 15th July.

All the best

Cherry

Hi Niki

Just had another enquiry re advertising - the first one has come to nothing so far - but in responding I want to specify that banner adds should be static and must not have flashing or scrolling images.  Is there a technical term for that?!

Thanks

Cherry

Hi Cherry,

Sure, you say "no animation", and / or you can say "all creative must be delivered in .jpg format ONLY" - which rules out flashing and scrolling.

Cheers,

Niki