What I’ve Learned About Selling Private Ads For ABDPBT — Plus: DEALS

Hey kids. It’s time to check in with the great monetization project again, and I thought I’d get you all caught up on the ad situation here at ABDPBT . I’ve been selling my own ads here for over a month, with some success here and there, and I’ve picked up a few pieces of advice to share, as well as some thoughts on how to change my media kit in the short term to better reflect the needs of my potential advertisers. I thought it would be a good idea to keep this process transparent with you guys, so that those of you who are hoping to at some point replicate the process on your own blogs can take this advice and either use it for yourselves or discard it as you see fit.

Before reading, bear in mind that every audience is so different, and similarly, every advertiser is so different, so what I’ve found to be true might not be true of your own readership, and what you find to be true of your readership might not be true of mine, or your friends or whatever. You have to experiment. Oh, and before you ask, this advice is specifically for the ads I am selling myself, not the ads that are sold through my new network, BlogAds. The difference is that the top column in the right sidebar is a BlogAds ad, and then beneath that are smaller ads that are private ads sold through me. Not that it really matters all that much, but I’m speaking specifically about the advertising placements that I’m trying to fill myself, rather than the ones that are filled through any kind of network.

1. Choose Sizes That Reflect The Needs Of Your Target Advertisers.
   
   The sizes in my initial media kit fit my template and the sizes I was using with my former ad network, so they were large size network ad friendly. These are generally not good for the kinds of advertisers I’m looking to solicit, even if they are at affordable rates. I’ve found that it doesn’t really matter that these sizes are offered at reasonable rates, I think there is some kind of psychological block there that small businesses have towards having a large ad like a rectangle or a skyscraper. They are just not used to being able to afford it, so they don’t look to buy it. Maybe they don’t even have the artwork for it. I don’t know. I’m not going to eliminate it as a possibility, but I’m going to add some new, smaller sizes, and the media kit now emphasizes those sizes instead of the larger ones.
2. Don’t Be Afraid To Change Prices To Get Things Moving.
   

   I sold a few ads at my original prices as posted a little over a month ago. The overall results of my initial advertising solicitation are as follows:

   • 6.4% responded to my solicitation;
   • 3.2% expressed interest in buying an ad, either now or in the future; and
   • 1.3% actually purchased ads.

   Given that this was first month selling private ads, and from what I understand about advertising sales return rates, this is actually not as bad as it sounds. Still, I would like to do better.

   Some people are stubborn and think that they should just keep their rates up no matter what, even if the market won’t support it. I call these people “bad businesspeople.” I understand sticking to your guns about pricing when you are getting a lowball offer from one advertiser in particular. But if you send out a bunch of inquiries that seem well placed and you’re not getting enough sales, it’s time to shake things up a bit. So that’s what I’m doing. Smaller sizes, and slightly lower rates on the sizes than I had before. Making less money than you hypothetically would have made in a perfect economy is way better than making no money at all. Also see: get over yourself. When there is a run on your sidebar space, you can always raise prices again, and you can bet this is what I will do (note to advertisers: get the ads while the getting is good).

3. Exploit People’s Natural Discomfort With Scarcity And Time Limits.
   
   People are motivated to take action by scarcity and time limits. So instead of just having an infinite number spots of ads open, I’m going to limit my spaces to six, and set special prices until the end of May. I’m sending out a notice of this sale to my whole list today, in addition to posting it here for anybody who might want to take advantage of it in the audience.
4. Offer a special deal for multiple month purchases for advertisers who are particularly well placed. So this is the part that some people are not going to like. I would highly recommend that you offer, as a perk of multiple month purchases, an editorial option, as a perk of your display advertising. What do I mean by this? Well, I mean: it is in your best interest that your advertisers end up feeling satisfied with their advertising experience. As such, you should do everything possible to seek out businesses that you think your readers will like and want to buy from. Assuming you have done this, it should not be so difficult to go look at your sponsor’s website and find cool products to feature in an editorial post on your site, like the “Meet Our Sponsors” post I did for Magpie Lovely a while back. This is not technically a paid placement, and I wouldn’t necessarily advertise it as a guaranteed part of your ad sales, but it is something to bring up when you find an advertiser that is a very good match. These kinds of things will seal the deal with an advertiser because they ensure that your readers will see their products, and also that they get a permanent placement on the site, even after their sidebar ad is gone.

   Now. It’s not going to work in all situations, which is why I would not recommend advertising it as a guaranteed part of ad sales. If an insurance company decides to buy a sidebar ad from you, it’s going to be tough to do this kind of thing, for example. But if the product fits, it’s another way to convince the advertiser to buy the ad, once you have them on the line. Many people will tell you not to do this, because it’s blurring the lines of editorial and advertising and blah blah blah — my comment to those people is to open up a magazine and explain to me why this biggest, most expensive ad in the magazine is always the same brand as one of the things featured prominently in an editorial smack dab in the middle of the magazine? This is the way stuff gets done. If you don’t want to do it yourself, that’s fine, but I think you will find that many of the advertisers out there will expect this kind of thing, just so that you know this up front. Look around at other sites who sell private ads and see if you don’t see this kind of stuff happening regularly.

Thoughts?

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