Finding the Advertisers

 

    Hi there, well it has been a few weeks since the last time I've updated my blog.. Well, luckily the exam is over and I got more time to spend on blogging.. Lately, I've been spending a lot of my time doing some research about how to obtain direct advertisers.. So this time around I'm gonna share some info that probably might brought some interest to most of us..

  I gotta be honest with you, that this is the real tough part (at least for newbies) of finding advertisers for your blog.. Well, there are many ways to do it:
 
Visit Marketplaces - I'm not sure if you realize this, but there are several popular forums and discussion boards where advertisers and publishers meet solely for the purpose of finding and negotiating advertising deals. You can visit this site to find advertisers for your blog..

- Digital Point - Buy, Sell or Trade Forum
- SitePoint Marketplace
- Webmaster World Commercial Exchange Forum 

Check Competitor's blogs - Visit popular blogs related to your blog's niche and see who is advertising on these blogs. This is a good source of creating a list of potential advertisers. Since they are already advertising on a blog related to your blog's niche, a chance of clinching a deal from these advertisers is more likely to happen..

Check public ad inventories - Some 3rd party advertising networks give public access to their inventory to account holders. Sign-up for these ad networks and browse their ad inventory. Again, filter out advertisers related to your blog's niche. Here not only you can get a list of potential advertisers but can also get a fair idea about how much they are willing to pay..

Write a blog post about it - This is one more way to attract advertisers. Write a blog post explicitly stating that your blog is now open for direct advertising..

Search engines - And last but not the least is search engines. Type in relevant keywords and visit the web sites. Check their contact page and create a list of potential advertisers..

How To Approach Potential Advertisers

Okay now, once you have the list of potential advertisers in your hand, its time to contact them inviting to advertise on your blog..

Write a mail giving your brief introduction. State your purpose of writing in brief. To speed up the process give your phone number and messenger id. Attach the media kit/rate card showcasing various advertising options available on your blog. It's somewhat similar to mobile version of your 'Advertise' page. However, this document must contain detailed pricing of every ad type. You must also quote discounted prices for long-term deals. One more convincing methodology is to give limited period read-only access to Google Analytics dashboard to verify your traffic claims for long-term deals (6 months or more). This offer increases the confidence of advertiser and the probability of negotiating a deal also increases.

But always keep this in mind, if this is your first advertising deal, be ready to be flexible enough while negotiating pricing of your ads. Remember, your first deal will open the door for more such deals.

What Else I Have Missed?

I would like to know your experiences in maintaining independent ad inventories and your approach towards grabbing such advertising deals.. Until then, I will keep on digging around and gain some more info that can benefit us all.. Thanks for reading..