On Site advertising....

[torby]

trying this forum instead...

We currently run another web site as a labour of love, we don't make any money from it but have been approached by a radio station about a reciprocal deal. We show their banner and they mention us on the country radio show...we reckon its a good deal for us and obviousley they think its a great deal for them. They have contacted us and said...

We are looking for sponsorship for the programme and would be interested in arranging a contra-deal with you. We would mention your website on our programme and in turn you would advertise our programme on your website. Since this would count as 'sponsorship in kind' we would need a letter from you confirming your interest. This would also need to include rates.

I believe in their search for funding or accounting they have to show a notional cost of us running their banners against the cost of "plugs". As we have never carried banners or sold space (we currently give free coverage to our friends in the industry as reciprocal deals) how do we give them a cost?

Hence the question...how much is a banner worth, we will probably have them displayed in our master border (every page of approx 50) and we will probably have a section devoted to them.

I don't expect anyone who answers to tell me how much they make or charge for displaying banners....but a genuine pointer at a reasonable market rate for our type of site would be welcome.

cheers

Torby

[torby]

no need to PM you, the question is in the OP...have you an idea of cost?...or are you touting for business....your reply may say more than you think...:)

[fisicx]

It really depends on the popularity of the site. If you are getting thousands of visitors per day then you could cost it per thousand impressions. On the other hand they may decide that CPC is the better bet.

Either way unless the site really is popular and you get an awful lot of traffic don't expect to thenm to put a large price on the banners. As an example, one site gets about 1000 uniques which earns me the princely sum of £3 day.

Really big sites can charge staggering amounts but that's in the mega league where visitor numbers are numbered in the hundreds of thousands.

So look at it this way, unless the radio plug brings in much new business rather than just increases you traffic then it's not worth running the banners. So just trial it for a month and see what happens.

[dynamics]

Hi Torby,

From what you said it sound like you are giving them exclusivity on your website.

Under normal circumstances the value of ads. are detemine by your site's popularity (daily/monthly hits) and competition from other companies who want to advertise on your site.

Since they were the one who approached you and they will also drive visitors to your site, I would suggest you think of a figure that you are happy with but do it on a renewal basis (6/12 months). This will allow you to increase overtime if they choose to renew. Another way of looking at it is, is there anyting you would like to do to the site e.g upgrade, add feature you could get them to finance it.

What I have done in the past is look at other website (especially blogs) and see what they are charging.

Hope this helps.