,
and they are also one of the best methods of monetizing your blog /
website. There are various advantages of direct advertising which will
make you want to ditch your ad network and go for sponsorship instead.
It might be appealing, but it isn't as simple as 'getting approved' or
'setting up ads'. There's a lot more to it, which we will discuss in
this post, along with the advantages, and what it takes to get direct
advertisers to your website, and to
Direct
ads are much like other ads. They point to another website, product or
service. They can either be set up on the basis of CPC, or CPA according
to the advertiser's and publisher's desires. The major difference is,
there is no advertising network behind the ad. Where other ads have
networks like AdSense or BuySellAds, these ads are independent. You must
have seen "Advertise here" boxes on websites. Those are, in fact, call
for sponsors. If a sponsor wants to advertise their products through
your website, they will contact you personally and set up ads with you.
They will then pay on the basis of clicks or impressions or whatever the
agreement pertained to.
There's
a whole post coming up on this topic, so we'll just scratch the surface
here. Selling your own ads means you won't have to pay the 'middle ma',
i.e. the advertising network, his commission, hence you get to keep all
the money for yourself. You will also get more say in how many ads you
use, or where you put them, and how. You will not need to follow any
restrictions places by an advertising network.
Best of all, you will gain credibility. Having a sponsor is a sign of
professionalism. You see, almost any website these days can get approved
by advertising networks such as AdSense, even if it's not a quality
website. But sponsors only pick sites that are quality. Hence, having a
sponsor shows that the site is credible, and has quality content in it.
What does it take?
First
of all, your website needs to be popular. There's no compromise on
this. You need to have a good amount of traffic for your site to be
worth anything to the advertiser. Generally when we tell people that
they need to have a decent amount of traffic, we mean a minimum
threshold of around 1,000 daily unique visitors. The more the merrier.
But at least
meet this requirement
before looking for an advertiser. There are other parameters for a
site's popularity and worth, such as Google PR and Alexa rank. Your
Alexa should not be something like 600,000. We suggest reducing it to
five figures at least before proceeding. As for PR, almost anything
above 1 will do.
Secondly, you website needs to have a clearly defined niche. Advertisers
are generally looking for a focused and targeted audience. They don't
like it when the audience is so varied that you can't tell what exactly
are they looking for on your website.
Next, take a look at your site's design. Is it too cluttered and messy?
Is the color scheme clashing? Does it look professional? Well, it needs
to be for advertisers to become interested. You should have a
professional looking design. And a professional look entails a crisp and
easy navigation, adequate spacing between elements, consistent color
schemes that are not too conflicting with the content, easily
decipherable ad blocks and content, and so on. Advertisers look for such
things in a website.
Professional look aside, you need to reserve good spots for sponsored
ads. Save the most important places like the header for such ads. Design
your website accordingly if need be. The advertisers need to know that
their ad will be visible in a clear spot on a professional looking
website which a lot of people visit daily.
Next, you need to
design a professional looking "About Us" page,
as well as an "Advertise here page." The about us page should say what
you website is about, and who is running it (you). The advertise here
page should have details like your Alexa, your PR, your daily traffic,
and other such traffic details potential advertisers might be interested
in. AdSense of the advertise here page will bring in no advertisers,
while the absence of about us page might discourage the advertisers.
How to get advertisers?
Once your website meets the above
mentioned 'requirements' you're set and ready to go. Finding your first
sponsor is hard, since there is no history of sponsorships you can show
to the first advertiser. Hence, it might take some hard work and
convincing. But once you get it, believe me, it will be totally worth
the effort.
Google AdWords
First of all, think of some of the keywords related to your website, and
Google them. You will find some sponsored links. These are the
advertisers who have spend money on Google AdWords for advertising
online. Contact them and let them know about your website. Maybe, they
are willing to spend some more money on online advertising.
Check your backlinks and comments
Sometimes, the people or companies who link your articles or comment on
your posts and leave emails or links might be interested in advertising
on your website. Those who give you a backlink, they might be open to
discussion for a backlink in return for some money. Same goes for those
who comment with emails or links. Evidently, these people are trying to
appeal to the audience that your website has. So it'd be a good idea to
contact these people and find out whether they are interested. One of
them might, and that's all you need.
Look at other sites in your niche
If you are a good blogger, you will know about some of the websites that
are in the same niche as yours. Otherwise, you can just Google them.
This is one of the best strategies that we have for you. Look at other
sites in your niche, and find out what advertisers are advertising
there. If they are willing to advertise there, they most probably will
be interested in advertising at your site as well, provided that you
offer them a good deal.
Advertisers from Advertising networks.
Companies that are advertising on popular advertising networks might
also be interested in advertising off those networks, and directly onto
websites. Click on the ads that appear on your website and approach
those advertisers for direct ads. This method provides good chances of
you getting a sponsor.
How to contact sponsors?
There are two ways you can get
sponsors; either they contact you, or you contact them. As we already
discussed, you need to have an "Advertise here" page in place for them
to contact you. But for the most part, it's you who has to contact them.
To contact them, you need to send a professional letter-type email to
them.
This email needs not be too formal. It just should be written properly,
with proper grammar and spelling. Also, don't use slang or too informal
words. Don't use smileys. To start off, introduce yourself and tell them
what the email is about. This should be done in a couple lines at most.
This is your intro paragraph.
Create a new paragraph, and in it, explain to them why you decided to
contact them, and what they have to gain be accepting your offer. Give
details of your traffic, rankings, subscribers, your blog topic, and so
on. Include all information you think is necessary.
Next, you need to get to business. Make another paragraph, and talk
about advertising options. Tell them what ad spots they will get, and
tell them about other advertisers if you have any. Now, also list the
price. This is important. Setting the price can make or break an offer.
We will talk more about this in the next post. For now, keep in mind to
ask for a reasonable price, but don't undersell yourself.
That is all. This should hopefully give out all the information
advertisers are looking for. You can send in more details if they ask
for any. Remember: Don't make your email too lengthy. Otherwise, they
will ignore it. Make it precise and to the point.
Get an Adserver program
Once you have some ads set up, the
first thing you need to do is set up an Adserver program. An Adserver
program is one that manages your ad rotations, monitors click through
rate, and more. One good Adserver software is OpenAds. You can Google
for more.
That is it for this post. We will be back tomorrow with another post on Direct Advertising. Until then, take care :)