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Four Things to Think Through Before You Leap by Summary
The good news is anyone can set up a Web site since it's a relatively inexpensive endeavor. The bad news is everyone does set up a Web site precisely because it is so inexpensive. You have to think hard about how you're going to effectively compete against all those who are having thoughts similar to yours. The way to outsmart them is staying one step ahead by thinking through these issues. Don't try to be all things to all people. Your Web site will end up being a mile wide and a half-inch deep. Instead of speaking keenly to the specific needs of a tightly targeted audience, you'll say something watered down to many, thus not leaving a particularly memorable impression on anyone. Ask yourself if your audience is narrow enough. That's right,
narrow enough. The more highly defined your target group is, the more likely your Web site will meet the critical needs of that group. You will have to offer something to pull them into your Web site with some reliable frequency. It may be information, some utility (such as a calculator that is geared to the specifics of a given industry), a database, or an archive, or it may even be an attractive price on a cappuccino machine that serves 120 cups of java to your closest friends. Attention! Figure out how to get it Look, the last thing you want is to have your spiffy new site launched and no one shows up except for you and your competitors :) The biggest mistake I see today is people who blow their whole budget on Web site development and leave nothing for promotion and PR (public relations, as in
distributing press releases). Do one of two things: You want to advertise your site on other sites. You might buy those on-line avails (availabilities) on other sites, or you may be able to save some money and barter ads between your site and others. . To read more about cooperative links with other sites, click here. One of the best-kept advertising secrets on the Internet is advertising on e-mail mailing lists. There are more than 60,000 of them. Now, many of them don't accept ads, but lots of them do. Ads are cheap to buy and cost nothing to produce because it's all done in e-mail.
It's worth your valuable time to search these three databases and see which ones in your niche accept advertising: the Ultimately, whether you advertise with banners on sites or on lists, make sure you give your target group a darn good reason to come to your Web site.
Pointing to your site off-line You must, must, must consider off-line promotion of your Web site as integral to your plan to attract traffic to your site. Maybe your content or attraction is so good it gets talked about and pointed to in the trade press. Nothing builds traffic
like a third-party editorial endorsement. Print or broadcast ads are a big help, too, if you have the budget for it. Remember, you can barter with a print publication the same way you can with another Web site. Think about having an event on your site to draw in visitors. Even better, design a campaign with weekly or monthly events. Whatever it is, it has to be snazzy enough to prompt people to write down the URL, go to their computer, fire up
their browser, and go to your site. You must give them something juicy enough to sink their cyberteeth into:) Many sites get erected because they have an interesting editorial angle. Amazingly, many of these sites don't think twice about how they're going to sell the advertising "avails"
that are created. You have to ask yourself some serious questions here. Are you going to hire a "rep" to sell those avails? How much will you pay him or her? A good one isn't cheap. Will you have reps in L.A. and New York, where much of the media sales happen? Even if yours is a local site, this isn't entirely out of the question. Perhaps you'll farm out the sales. Often, a rep earns a percentage of the sale plus some "draw," or money up front
that keeps him happy until those sales start to come in. The ratio is often 50:50, but there is no hard and fast rule here. Some reps are paid entirely on a commission basis, but to attract a good salesperson, you have to have a hot product that many people want right off the bat. Check out ad auctions (where you can buy excess inventory of ad avails cheaply in an auction-style environment) such as If you think you'll be generating fewer than a few million impressions to your site, look into 1. It will rep your site as a stand-alone site, rather than part of a network. The cpm rate asked for on your behalf with this plan is between $30 and $50.
2. It will include your site in an "affinity network," which groups your site with others of similar ilk. This is helpful when selling avails since Ad-Venture often will do campaigns based on sports, business/finance, or games. The cpm here is slightly less than the first option because it is a little less targeted. 3. Run of network. In this option, ads will appear on your site that are somewhat random but are sold at a cheaper rate. The
asking price for this plan to the advertiser is $25 cpm. Be aware that most rate cards are negotiable and advertisers know that. They're apt to ask for discounts, sometimes very deep discounts. In addition, Ad-Venture sells other types of avails, such as sponsorships, button placements, or a position on your e-mail update service. With Ad-Venture, there is no up-front cost for you. If it sells avails on your site, it will pass along the cost of
serving the ads, which is about 50 cents cpm and then charge you the agreed-to commission. Another place you want to check out is Beware. Some ad networks gather and use the data collected from your site. Some may supply it to their clients, while
others promise to use it only for internal statistical analysis. This may or may not be an issue for you, but ask about it whenever you're discussing a relationship with an ad network. It's not the sort of thing you'd want to have as a surprise down the road. The best place to find information about all the available ad banner services is Mark Welch's banner advertising site. This site offers comprehensive information about the various services for banners and firsthand information about which services pay and which are scams. It's required reading if you're considering banner ads for your site. The more specific your topic, the higher the "cpm," or cost per thousand. This means you can charge more for the eyeballs of hard-to-find people. Look to the magazine universe for an analogy. Fortune
magazine or Ad Age will get more money per reader than People or the Enquirer. Your cost per visitor will be higher and you're apt to have fewer of them because it is a smaller audience, but they'll be more interested in what you have to offer. To augment your advertising revenues, you may want to syndicate your content. I do this with my Web Digest For Marketers (WDFM) newsletter. I license the short reviews in batches of 10. I call them "ten-packs." Since I've
already written the reviews, I can sell them for less than what it would cost another publication to make. Finally, I've found that having testimonials from advertisers on my site is an extraordinarily potent selling tool. If the ads that ran in my newsletter were successful, I ask the advertisers to write a brief paragraph about what they liked. For their efforts, I always thank them by offering a discount on a future ad or sending them a copy of my book, Essential
Business Tactics for the Net. By the way, without announcing it, I always send a copy of my book to people who have advertised. I find that brings in repeat business. Free samples are always a good idea, unless you're in real estate :) Finally—are you going to make a fortune selling advertising on your site? Probably not. Are you going to pay back your site's expenses? Possibly. But it depends on your expenses,
your site's focus, and its desirability to advertisers. But if you're interested in having your site generate income, taking ads can help you do that--if you're prepared and know what you're getting into.
Illustration: Business Constructions by Russell Thurston from www.artville.com |
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