ad rates for a brand new site

[Philip Toews]

I've just launched a site. I have no idea how much to charge for ads. I hadn't anticipated putting up advertising so soon (I've had rate card requests withing three days of launch).

Here's the thing. I'm basically pushing to get 5000 unique referrers a month so that I can get signed up with an outfit like BURST!. In the interim...if people want to advertise on my site then I want to let them.

What are reasonable rates for sites that are just starting out?

What's the best way to accept payment?

TIA ohh experienced ones

[mjames]

Actually, you need 5,000 impressions NOT uniques to get into BURST!. If you get with them, you can have them sell advertising for your sell with no work done on your part -- that is, if you are willing to give them a piece of the pie.

[Philip Toews]

Are you sure it's not uniques? What stat should I quote from webalyzer when I talk to Burst!?

p

[Matt Mickiewicz]

At today's rates, 5000 impressions will earn you'll be lucky to earn $5 per month from BURST or any other ad network for that matter.

Rather than worrying about ad revenue, I would recommend building on concentrating your efforts on building a tightly defined, highly desirable audience.

Regarding payment, PayPal, checks or a merchant account all work. Wire transfers are excellent for larger sales.

If you've already had requests for your rate card, perhaps quote a flat monthly fee initially?

[jbradley]

I agree with Matt. You should concentrate on building the amount of quality traffic that your site receives in the beginning. With the number of impressions you're getting, as Matt said, you're not likely to gain much from joining Burst. In fact, you could likely do much better off selling your own ad space, especially since people have already inquired about it. Once you build up your site's traffic, you should then worry more about advertising. However, it should never be your top priority. Creating the ultimate user experience should always come first.

Jason

[Philip Toews]

I think I know my market here. Tightly defined...yes. Highly desirable? To some audiences...yes.

My plan all along has been to build audience first, then worry about ad revenue. I have however had requests for my rate card...so I think I should provide one.

Hey Matt...you do a the ad mix for sitepoint right? Seeing as I am just starting out, what do you think I should set for my own customsized rates....I have space for:

banners top and bottom
left nav bar ads
big tower ads
micro ads
newsletter space (similar to sitepoint's)
sponsored link space

I want to set some prices for the rest of 2002 and then ramp up prices later for 2003, after I have decent traffic and enough newsletter subscribers.

p




ps. Am I doing things right on the site? http://www.teachingfish.com

[Archbob]

Actually 5000 impressions is about $1.25 these days. That about what I get off fastclick.

[Philip Toews]

What's the best way to price individual ads on beginner sites then? Can anyone give me some ballparks based on the criteria I gave in my last message?

p

[mjames]

Originally posted by Philip Toews
What's the best way to price individual ads on beginner sites then? Can anyone give me some ballparks based on the criteria I gave in my last message?

p

Please understand that we can't discuss pricing with you as this violates U.S. laws on the matter. However, you can take a look at a couple of articles which should point you in the right direction: http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q...00000000&sp-k=

Are you aware of who your competitors are? If so, see what they're charging and that should get you thinking along the right path.

[Philip Toews]

Didn't know that...what's the idea...to prevent price fixing?

OK...how about a place to look for standard ad rates? Know of any?

I've already looked into competitor rates. They seem to be based on fixed monthly rates as opposed to CPM. I'm still in the process of developing initial audience...and will be for a while...so I want to get a fix on lower rates that will be a little more fair until a decent sized audience gets built up!

p