<i>&gt;Well, Wayne I'd have to agree with Pete your prices are way out of line.</i>
<i>&gt;Your not in left field your in the bleachers. A company that I work with</i>
<i>&gt;gets 2 million hits per month. Its gateway pages get over 100,000 hits per</i>
<i>&gt;month each and they sell links for just $25 per month. That will give some</i>
<i>&gt;idea of just how far out of line your prices are. You might get lucky and</i>
<i>&gt;sell a page or two but I don't think you will get very many long term</i>
<i>&gt;satisfied customers.</i>
Yikes! This one struck a nerve with me. We cannot make blanket
statements as Eric makes here. Price is *certainly* not the only factor when
an advertiser considers paying for a potential link on a page. Although some
"net-UNaware" advertisers might get giddy when someone mentions 100,000
"hits" per month, the volume of potential viewers of an ad can be extremely
misleading in the decision-making process -- especially on the Web where
almost everything is *free* to users (information, that is). True, volume is
worthy of consideration in the case of an advertiser whose prime goal is
IMAGE related -- exposing people to a company name or logo over time.
However, this is no guarantee or indication that ANYONE will follow the link
to the advertiser's site. When an advertiser's goal is SALES related,
getting people to follow a link is critical. So, how does the person selling
the advertising space accomplish this? By offering specifically targeted
information just like Wayne's Guide to Computer Vendors. Selling links at
the above-mentioned site at $25 each only creates a huge, unfocused, "who
couldn't afford a $25 link" pile of hotlisted dung -- where is the value
there? Knowing what I know, $25 is the unreasonable price -- I would much
rather pay $1000 per month (if I were a computer vendor) on Wayne's site
because of the *kind* of people who visit -- people looking for specific
information about computers -- and 14,000 of them per month should be very
attractive to savvy marketing/advertising folks.
In the world of print advertising, I might pay $1500 for a half-page
ad in a generic, demographically-deprived magazine with 1,000,000
subscribers. On the other hand, the same ad in a highly-targeted specialty
magazine with only 100,000 subscribers might cost me closer to $15,000 per
issue. Ten times the price and one-tenth the viewing audience. Does it make
sense? Without a doubt. And this model applies to advertising on the Web as
well. Companies like Zima Clearmalt don't mind paying $30,000 per month to
raise public (surfer) awareness at a very popular (but generic) "hotsite"
because their goal is IMAGE related -- why should any SALES related
advertiser balk at paying $1000 to get in front of several thousand
self-selecting potential purchasers of computer hardware? Wayne, stick to
your guns on this one -- don't get caught-up the the cheapest link battle.
Explain to advertisers exactly who is visiting your site and why. If you
don't know, ask your visitors -- survey with a prize maybe? And keep the
number of advertisers down to 3 or 4 -- this will ensure a perception of
quality by your advertisers and by your visitors.
Lance Jones
In-Touch Software Edition
<a href="<a href="http://www.islandnet.com/~sword/">http://www.islandnet.com/~sword/</a>">http://www.islandnet.com/~sword/</a>
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