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INTERNET ADVERTISING FOR MEDIUM TRAFFIC
INTERNATIONAL SITES
The Role of Ad Networks
No way ! Nothing can be worse than having a low traffic website.
Wanna bet on it ? Really ? Well, let me tell you something.
There IS indeed something worse than a low traffic website - a
MEDIUM TRAFFIC website !
What do I mean by a MEDIUM traffic site ? A site that garners
between 100 and 500 pageviews daily. A site which totals 500
to 5000 pageviews a week. A site that cannot sell advertising
on its own, which is too small for the major players in the
online ad selling business - Double Click, Fly Cast and the
sort. A site which the owner is proud to talk about to his
friends and family, but which he can't convince a sponsor to
adopt or an advertiser to display banners on. A site which
slowly erodes his self-confidence as an online marketer and
promoter. A site which he dreams will someday rival Yahoo
and Amazon in traffic and sales. A site which he hates for
growing so slowly. A site which he wishes had just remained
a LOW TRAFFIC one, so he wouldn't have high hopes and
expectations about it - hopes and expectations that are being
cruelly crushed by today's reality check.
I own a site like that. A medium traffic site. And before you
agree with me that there really isn't anything worse than a
medium traffic website, STOP. Let me tell you something else.
Surprise, surprise. There IS something worse - and that's
owning a medium traffic website from somewhere other than the
USA ! Yes, to really drain the cup of online advertising woes
to its bitter dregs, you need to run a medium traffic website
from outside the US. There truly isn't ANYTHING worse than an
INTERNATIONAL MEDIUM TRAFFIC WEBSITE.
Two years ago, I launched my website on Heart Disease.
http://www.dencats.org/heart/index.htm
I spent months learning to sell advertising on it. I read
articles written by experts in online and traditional advertising.
I participated on advertising discussion lists. I even bought
books on selling ads and improving saleability. I spent time
and money collecting demographics of my website visitors. I
started a E-zine, and grew subscriptions to over 2000 in a few
months.
So, did I succeed with selling ads on my site ? Did my website
turn a profit on advertising revenue alone ? Did advertisers
and sponsors fall over themselves trying to place their call-
to-attention on my site ?
NO. In fact, I didn't manage to get a SINGLE paid-for
advertisement banner placed on my site, or a SINGLE paid-for
text ad run in my E-zine.
Why not ? I followed the rules and techniques laid down by
the experts. I worked hard, learned hard. Then why didn't
it work ? Because I ran a medium traffic website from outside
the US.
I was almost ready to throw in the towel. "Ah, the Internet",
I told myself. "There's an over-hyped new fad if ever there was
one. Those 'internet millionaire' stories are only pipe-dreams.
Wise up, there isn't a way you can sell ad space on your site."
And then I heard of Ad Networks. At first I was skeptical.
After all, I'd been fooled more than once before. But then
I researched them, and found many advantages in the concept.
For instance, consider the basic theme on which these networks
were founded. Let's assume there's an advertiser who wants to
buy, say, 50,000 ad impressions for a short run of one week on
sites of a particular nature. If a network has 50 sites of
that kind registered with it, each drawing 1000 pageviews, it
can sell these 50,000 ad impressions right away - and then run
them over 50 different websites. The owner of a member site is
happy to sell his inventory, the advertiser is happy to be able
to buy his ads at one place, and the network is happy because
it gets a commission on the sale ! A truly win-win-win situation.
After some thought, I signed up with BURST! -
http://www.burstmedia.com - primarily because they
offered a
non-exclusive clause to sell my ad inventory, and had a very
low minimum-pageviews-required criterion.
And I was pleasantly surprised at the results. Suddenly my
site was running different banner ads in the places where
previously I'd been seeing the sad words "AD SPACE
AVAILABLE". Some of the ads were targeted to my site's
audience, others were run-of-the-network general ads. But
all of them were PAID FOR by advertisers.
And that wasn't all. The network serves all the ads off their
server. It tracks traffic and response rates to these ads.
It sells ads specific to my niche topic to advertisers who
desire this narrowly targeted audience - at higher CPM or CPC
rates than the default ad campaigns. The network also allows
me to run one of my own personal campaigns on this account !
What more can a guy ask for ? Hey, I'm not saying I'm on my
way to becoming a millionaire. But I sure am glad for the ad
revenue my MEDIUM TRAFFIC NON-US WEBSITE is
generating - it helps at least pay for the cost of hosting it ! And
revenue is growing steadily as is traffic to the site. Hopefully,
soon I'll cross over to becoming a HIGH TRAFFIC website.
And then I'll sell my own ad inventory and make mucha moola.
But until then, I've found the answers to my advertising needs.
I've found what works for a medium traffic non-US website.
I've found these wonderful things called AD NETWORKS !
==========================================
Dr.MANI SIVASUBRAMANIAN, M.D.
mailto:siva@dencats.org
Heart Disease Online
<http://www.dencats.org/heart/index.htm>
Promo-Zines - Ezines on Online Promotion
<http://www.dencats.org/promozines.htm>
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- The Ezine that Scouts the Net for
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