Save Money on Advertising

I’m running a promotion on this Blog to sell all my advertising space.  I previously priced my ads based on careful analysis and comparison of other Blogs in the marketplace and comparing the prices they charge to the traffic have coming to their site.

By analyzing sites like TylerCruz.com, Entrepreneurs-Journey.com, JohnChow.com and a few others, I was able to study their traffic trends and the amounts they charge for their ads.  Based on this, I was able to determine the “best deal” amongst those sites for each ad type.  I’ll admit, this was a tedius and somewhat boring process but I now have a cool little Excel spreadsheet of what everyone charges for advertising and who runs the best deal for each specific ad space.

After I did that analysis I priced my ads slightly cheaper than theirs (about 10-20% off) to attract advertisers.  However, this strategy hasn’t really produced a lot of interest as I would be willing to bet that not a lot of people seeking to buy banner ads have done that kind of careful analysis.

Let me offer an example.  Imagine these two Blogs selling a 125×125 Banner spot.

Blog #1
Unique Visitors/Month: 250,000
Price for 125×125 Banner: $500

Blog #2
Unique Visitors/Month: 2,000
Price for a 125×125 Banner: $10

What most people do is they look at the $500/month price on the first Blog and think “Woa!  That’s expensive!” and when they look at the $10/month price on the second Blog they think “10 bucks, that’s pretty cheap.”  However, if you calculate how many times your banner is shown to a unique visitor per dollar spent you can clearly see that with Blog #1 you get 250,000/$500 = 500 Unique Visitors per dollar spent, and on Blog #2 you get 2,000/$10 = 200 Unique Visitors per dollar spent.  So in reality, even though Blog #2 is cheaper in price per month, the first Blog actually offers you 2.5 times the value for your dollar spent.

Of course Unique Visitors/Month is not the only measure of value but I’m just using that one factor to illustrate the point that it’s important to analyze the advertising space you’re paying for to see what kind of deal you’re getting.  An ultra successful Blog that charges a lot per ad might actually be a way better deal than advertising on a whole bunch of smaller Blogs.  However, the opposite may also be true.  There are a lot of Blogs out there that get decent traffic and exposure but they just don’t know how to market their advertising space so you can get some really good deals if you do a bit of digging.

The challenge for most people in advertising on more popular Blogs is that they may not have a $500/month advertising budget to be able to even afford $500/m ads.  So for a lot of people just getting started, they may end up having to pay 2.5 times as much (or way more) for the same banner type on a Blog with a cheaper starting point.

How to Save Money on Advertising

Doing this analysis has led me to realize that if I could (1) Provide Superior Value to my Ad Sponsors, and (2) Help The “Little Guys” with Smaller Budgets and (3) Reward Those Who Get in Early, I could create a win-win situation where my sponsors get top value, while I secure a more stable Direct Ad revenue stream for my Blog.

So, I’m making a number of changes to my Direct Advertising model.

Firstly, I’m going to sell my banners on a weekly basis now instead of monthly.  This will cut down the initial dollar investment required to one quarter of what you’d need to pay monthly, which will price in pretty much anyone, not just people with hundreds of dollars to spend on advertising.  Of course this means more administrative work from my side but the OIOPublisher plugin I have installed automates that process fairly well so it won’t be that hard to keep things organized.

So, starting today all the advertising on InspiredMoneyMaker.com is now sold on a weekly basis.  This allows you to not only invest a smaller amount up front, but it also allows you measure the value you get from the advertising on a week-by-week basis.

Secondly, I’m slashing the prices on all my ad spots significantly and offering them on a sliding scale.  For example, previously my 125×125 Banner Spots were priced at $125/month.  Now, the first person to book a slot on the new pricing model gets the same spot for 5 BUCKS for a week!  That’s more than 80% off the previous price.  However, once I sell a spot for $5, I’m going to increase the price of the next spot to $10/week and then $20/week for the next one and so on.

What this does is that it allows the people who book first to get a good deal.  You can check out my advertise page right now to see what the current price is for a spot right now.  If you’re the first person to book the spot you can get it for $5.

There are also other spots available, not just the 125×125 slots and they’ve all been slashed and are being offered on a sliding scale.  Even if your Blog is just getting started, if a $5 spot is available it might be a really good investment for you.

How to Get a Professional Banner For Your Blog

One reason some people don’t  use banner advertising to get traffic to their sites / Blogs is because they don’t know how to design a professional looking banner that will get clicked on.  There is a very cost effective service called Banners Mall which will take care of all of your banner needs at very inexpensive prices.  For example, you can get a 125×125 banner designed by them for as little as $28.95.  A bigger 300×250 banner is only $38.95.  They also offer package deals.  You can check out their pricing guide for more details.

I’ll be ordering some ads from them very soon as I’m planning on doing some banner advertising myself.

Don’t Miss Out

My goal with this is to have every Banner spot on my site Sold Out, and to have a waiting list of people trying to get in, so I’m willing to offer an amazing deal up front to make that a reality.  Don’t miss out!

Click Here to See My Current Advertising Rates and Book Your Ad Today

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