How should I sell ad space or ideally find a broker?

From: Tom RC Campbell <tom_ada_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Fri 09 Mar 2001 09:52:37 -0600

I have an enormously successful site--from a traffic
point of view. eSnipe.com is a bare-bones free service
that lets eBay users place bids automatically, in the
last few seconds of an auction. The stats are impressive:

        - 2.2 million page impressions per month
        - 32,000 registered users (16,000 active)
        - They place $15 million in bids per month
        - They are a well-defined group; they buy collectibles
   and electronics almost exclusively
        - 200 new users sign up each day
        - 8,000 bids are placed each day

Etc. This is not a particularly sticky site for now. Users
tend to stay on for 15 minutes or so and log off. I have
extensive plans to turn the site into more of a destination,
but the user base is already commendably loyal.

So far, so good--except for the minor problem that eSnipe
makes virtually no money. When I bought eSnipe a couple
of months ago it was making a princely $300/month using
general banner ads served up by Engage. It's not an
immediate problem because I knew the banner ad market was
tanking when I bought eSnipe, but obviously revenue is
something I want to address sooner rather than later. I
like Engage's reports. They are detailed and well presented
and there's a nice daily report. They don't give a damn
about me, however. I noticed that virtually the only ad
that was clicked was uBid.com, telling me that users will
respond to ads if they're well targeted. But too many of
the ads were public service, and Engage has not been
interested in attempting to target ads better. Stupid,
because it could benefit both parties greatly. I have
therefore disabled banner ads altogether because they're
not worth the inconvenience they cause users.

Any suggestions? I think it's obvious that I should start
selling ads myself, but I really don't know how. Somewhere
there must be some kind of ad broker willing to take on a
client like me because the stats are good and the user base
is willing to spend money in very clearly defined areas.
But I haven't been able to find many, nor to interest the
ones I did find.

Another possibility is to sell ads myself. Not sure how to
go about this, largely because I don't know what to charge
or, frankly, exactly what kinds of business to contact.
Collectibles dealers? Computer companies? Maybe computer
and electronics surplus companies? Should I give them
free ads to start, or make up a rate card, or what?

One fascinating advantage I have as far as aggregate
information about my users is that not only do I know what
they're buying, but I also know what they're willing to pay
(sometimes much more than where the eBay proxy bidding
ends. Of course I won't give away individual names, but
I am allowed to sell it in the aggregate for site ads.

eSnipe was in rough shape technically when I took over,
so I've been investing heavily in infrastructure. It is
now much more reliable and can handle a lot more traffic.
It has never been advertised anywhere and I was afraid
to do so until I knew it could handle the load. It is
obvious that doubling or quadrupling the user base will
be straightforward considering how successful it has
become by word of mouth alone, but I think it should
already be possible to make some decent paper on the
user base as it is. I just don't know the best way to
go about it.

Suggestions are more than welcome. Thanks, and thanks
for a great forum.

Tom RC Campbell
425.643.3227



Received on Fri Mar 09 2001 - 09:52:37 CST