Hard vs. soft view buys

From: Sue Mosher <sue_at_slipstick.com>
Date: Mon 06 Nov 2000 17:24:54 -0500

I run a very targeted web site providing support
information for specific e-mail products used by
millions of people. The site averages about 400,000
page views per month. For more than a year, I've been
very successful in selling sponsorships to a dozen or
so wonderful companies making related products. They
have all come to us directly; we've done no active
marketing and do not work through any agencies.

When we started taking ads, we didn't have a good idea
of how many views our individual pages were actually
getting, so we sold sponsorships of a whole page or a
group of pages, with some sponsors setting a maximum
number of views per month and others paying for
whatever quantity of views their banners delivered on
specific pages. As you can imagine, some of the monthly
invoices for those in the second group have fluctuated
a bit.

Now, thanks to the two tracking mechanisms we use, we
know in great detail how much traffic each page on our
site gets. We want to move beyond the over-the-transom
method of recruiting sponsors to a more professional
approach that, we hope, will result in a higher
sell-through rate. My question, as we begin to put
together our 2001 ad buying guide, is whether it's time
to move away from this "soft" buy concept to a "hard"
approach that ties each campaign to a specific number
of page views per month.

I'd be interested in hearing the list's thoughts on the
merits of firm number commitments vs. the more
open-ended approach we've used to date.

Thanks,

Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
mailto:sue_at_slipstick.com
Author of
 Teach Yourself Microsoft Outlook 2000 Programming in 24 Hours
 Microsoft Outlook 2000 E-mail and Fax Guide
Outlook and Exchange solutions at http://www.slipstick.com





Received on Mon Nov 06 2000 - 16:24:54 CST