Lately, I have been approached by some online marketers and affiliate networks for advertising here. Though I have a detailed ‘Advertise here’ page, all those who contacted me asked for a quote.
All the mails had these in common…
- What kinds of advertising do you offer?
- How much does it cost?
- A description of their service or Affiliate Network.
Question: Why would you choose to advertise somewhere?
Answer: I would advertise somewhere only if I find that my products have a good market there. In fact, every advertiser would want just that.
So the real reason why someone would choose to advertise here would be to attract my visitors to their products. (See how valuable you are, this blog is a big zero without you, thanks for being part of the community!)
The advertiser would scan the entire blog, read some of the articles, or inspect the ad locations, study the reader interaction and then would decide, “Hmm… My product might sell here, let me advertise…” Then, he would look for an Advertise page and would read it before contacting me. That’s the ideal story. I don’t know if the advertisers who contacted me were doing anything close to this.
Anyway, I would reply to them with the same contents of the Advertise here page mentioning the cost of advertising. Out of the four people who contacted me, only one made it to the sidebar!
That’s just 25% success, and as per my family motto, its not success unless its 100%. I analyzed the reasons and found the following.
- $10 per month might be a high quote for a 125×125 ad on a site that gets close to 15000 visits p.m and 150 average clicks on the sidebar. Fair enough. (What do you think?)
- This might be a new kind of Marketing Tactic. I know this needs explanation.
When the prospective advertisers contact you, they would give a brief description of their site or product, in my case those were mostly affiliate networks. This is essential because, you need to know what you are going to link to and promote, before you actually do it.
The email would also contain the link to their homepage. Since I need to learn more about the advertiser, I always followed the link and had an in-depth view of the site. Well, that means a pair of interested eye-balls was tracking their site for sometime.
One the web, people often scans pages, and it is the duty of the author to create interest in the visitor and make him read. Those emails were doing exactly that; it created interest in me and made me read!
So those were hoax emails? Is this some new kind of Marketing? Marketers out there, please suggest…
Whoever invented this tactic did a great job, but please understand that you are so EVIL. You are no better than a spammer. Read some Email Marketing Articles from Yaro and learn some better way to market your products. And please don’t SPAM.
If some genuine advertiser happens to read this, please read the Advertise page before you contact me. Time is really precious for me, as much as is it for you!
I am a WordPress product developer and creator of Image Attributes Pro. I am passionate about solving problems and travelling the world.
Interesting article arun. You have touched on a key point and it is a new industry issue. Wonderful Point.
Thanks for that, but no suggestions..?
@All: I doubt this is spam, dont know, it came in the usual way, so might be legitimate, no offenses 😛
Arun,
First of all, I’d say 15000 visits and about 45000 page views( imagining 3 page views/visit) is very low for attracting any advertiser. If you managed to squeeze in a deal then you’re very lucky.
Secondly, on whether they may be a spam email sent to you or not.. Yes and No..
I also get some email (Spam) asking whether I’m ready to accept their offer. More often than not I’d get that mail in my default domain email ID (that is your cpanel username@yourdomain.com). In my cases, all those were clearly dupes and I made no contact with them. Your case may be similar (or different?)
No the email came into my gmail account, I dont use the other emails. And it didnt come from anywhere else, but from my Contact form, so they actually came in here to find me. It might be spam, dont know yet.
I dont consider myself lucky, though the stats are not awesome. I know someone who managed to get a sponsor @ 50 hits a day 🙂
I would recommend you reply to those emails, even if you have a hunch that its spam. You might be missing potential advertisers. Some guys spam doesnt mean everyone is like that. Its a hard job picking the blueberry from the ocean. Kill the spammers 🙂
I didn’t know how to price the ad sections before reading this article. Very nice info.
: ? I didnt get you man, Sorry Amal.
Its wonderful to see guys getting things much more than what was expected! 🙂
I didn’t know such things like how to do private advertising how to price the ads etc. This article is worth and helpful to me. I hope you got now.
Gotcha 🙂