How to Find Advertisers for Your Website and Increase Direct Advertising Sales

This is the last post in a series of articles on developing Direct Ad Sales as an alternative revenue source for your website. If you are new to this series, you may want to read my introduction to direct advertising sales.

In my previous post in this list, you’ve learned how to develop a ad marketing package to promote your ad space. Now in this post I will cover several methods you can use to easily find suitable advertisers for your website.

Before you send out your first email pitch to any advertiser, the most important thing to do is to get organized. You’ll need to find some way to keep track of advertiser contact details, while developing a system that allows you to follow up with your ad pitches.

I usually use a basic spreadsheet application like Excel to set up a simple table which consists of advertisers, their contact details as well as the date when I first made contact with the advertiser in question.

I’ll also include a follow-up date which is roughly around a week after initial contact has been made. This table allows me to keep track of who I’ve contacted and ensues that I don’t go over the same ground in the future.

Additional columns should also be used to record the history and time period for each ad space sold. The final ad selling price should also be included as well.

Managing your time is also fairly important. I usually set a timer and reserve 30 mins to one hour everyday when I want to actively source for potential advertisers. This includes time spent on research and actual emailing or phoning.

After you’ve developed an advertiser and time management system, you can then start to use the following five methods to actively find advertisers for your website.

1. Learn to use Publisher Inventories in Advertising Networks

Advertising marketplaces and networks have a very large network of websites and blogs which sell ad space. This inventory of publishers can be tremendously useful when you are looking for advertisers.

In my article on how to set your own ad rate, I’ve mentioned that Text Link Ads (aff) and Adbrite are two marketplaces you can use to determine an appropriate ad price. In this scenario, these two marketplaces also have publisher inventories you can use to find advertisers.

Let’s use Text Link Ads as an example, as most of you are familiar with its features:

1. Start by signing up for a free account which allows you to browse their marketplace.




2. After which, go to the specific category (on the left sidebar) which relates to your website.




3. Sort the selection of websites according to price and navigate to the page with link prices that are similar to the advertising rate you’ve set for your website.




4. Look at several websites with similar ad prices and jot down their site name. Also check to see if any ad slots have been sold. Make a list of websites that have sold at least half of their available link slots.




5. Google the site names you have recorded and click on the sponsored links to visit the advertisers.




6. Contact the advertisers and send them your direct ad marketing package.

This method can be applied to virtually every open advertising marketplace online. It can be a little time consuming but it does have a high chance of success because of several reasons:

• Ad and Site Relevancy. Publishers are already categorized according to niche, therefore most of the advertisers that buy links on these websites will have a natural inclination to buy links on your site as well.




• Your Ad rate is similar to the price of the links they are already buying. This increases the likelihood of successfully selling ads to the same advertiser.




• It is 100% certain that these advertisers will be interested in buying links and ads. This saves you a lot of time because you won’t be encountering advertisers who are not looking to run ad campaigns.




• Ability to offer more attractive rates. You will be able to suggest a lower ad rate, if you are already using Text Link Ads as a publisher.

2. Seek Advertisers through Search Engines and Competitors

This step is the most basic method of finding advertisers. How do you get started? The fastest way to do this would be to search for keywords that relate to your website.

For example, if you run a technology blog you might want to search for terms like spy gadgets or ipod accessories, which should lead to companies or businesses potentially interested in advertising on your site.

Another way to do this would be take a quick look at the familiar websites or blogs that are your direct competitors. If an advertiser has bought ad space on that particular website, there is a high likelihood that it will be willing to buy ads on your site as well.

Make a list of the companies which advertise on these websites and send them your ad marketing package, which should either include a cover letter and/or your ad rate card. Advertisers who are interested in your query will most likely give you a response.

These email pitches can be very effective if your site is well trafficked and is highly relevant to the advertiser’s product or service.

3. Sell Links through Webmaster Forums

Some webmaster forums like Digital Point and SitePoint have marketplaces which allow you to buy or sell links and advertising. I’m a big fan of Digital Point’s Link Sales marketplace because it is free to use and there are a large number of webmasters who are always looking to purchase links for their website.

In order to promote ethical trading, Digital Point has included an iTrader point system, which is something similar to EBay’s point system. The higher and more positive the user’s iTrader points, the more reliable the seller or buyer,

If you’re new to the forum or are not sure of how to get started, I would suggest taking a look around the forum to get a feel of the various link selling prices.

The marketplace is usually very competitive and strongly focuses on SEO (PageRank and SearchRank) benefits instead of pure traffic. Because of this, optimal link positioning is not an important factor for most buyers.

If you’re looking for more forum-style link marketplaces, check out my list of webmaster and affiliate marketing forums.

4. Start an Affiliate Program

This is the lazy or should we say, smart way of finding advertisers. Offer your site audience a percentage based commission for each advertiser they find that is suits your requirements and ad rates.

Affiliate programs are common strategies used by most advertising networks and there’s no reason why you can’t do it for direct ad sales on your own website. I would suggest offering 20% one-time commission rate for each advertiser they bring in.

5. Approach Other Webmasters/Bloggers in Your Niche

This is a great way to sell ads or links on your website because most webmasters and bloggers are always looking to expand their reach and gain an bigger audience.

These advertisements are usually very relevant to your site’s topic and in some way, can add value to your site visitors. For example, this is far better than selling links for auto insurance when your site is about web design and programming.

While some might advise against selling ad space to your direct competitors, I don’t think it will be detrimental for you in the long run because the strength and popularity of a website usually depends on a large variety of factors, some of which include actual content as well as off and on-site marketing.

The only exception is if your website sells specific products or services with strong market competition. Providing advertising space to competitors may lead to a drop in sales, which is definitely not something you want.

Now you know everything about Direct Advertising Sales..

This post concludes my series of articles about using direct ad sales as an alternative revenue source. I hope you’ve learned some new things and hopefully this will help you to eventually make more money through your website or blog.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the entire series. Do leave a comment if you have any suggestions or questions.

Directing Advertising for Beginners: The Complete Series

Here is the full collection of articles which will teach you how to use direct advertising sales to monetize your website. They are listed in sequential order, from the first to the most recent post.

1. Direct Advertising Sales for Beginners: How to Develop an Alternative Revenue Source




2. 10 Direct Advertising Options to Monetize Your Website or Blog




3. How to Set Your Own Advertising Rates for Direct Ad Sales: An Extensive Guide




4. Marketing Your Ad Space: How to Create Your Own Direct Advertising Sales Package