Do-it-yourself ad campaigns vs. ad networks
I'm hoping to tap into the collective wisdom of your
subscribers in helping me develop an advertising plan
for a site I launched last autumn. I'll say upfront
that I know very little about online advertising.
Basically, we're trying to decide whether to develop
and sell ads ourselves (banners, sponsorships,
sponsored newsletters, etc.) or to use a third party.
The site, MyPlan.com was launched about 5 months ago.
We already have about 10K registered users and are
currently getting about 80-100 new registrations a
day. We also get at least 1500 visits a day with an
average of about 11/page views per visit.
Essentially, we serve up about a half million pages a
month.
The audience of the site is students and career
changers (people looking for information on colleges
and careers).
We're considering developing our own advertising
program to include (initially) sponsored newsletters
and rotating ads (small rectangular ads sold for a
fixed period of time). Can anyone advice on doing
this? Ourselves vs. using a third party? Also, how
difficult is it to sell your own ads in this fashion
(on rotation for a fixed period of time)? Do
companies prefer just to use 3rd-party consolidators
and/or ad networks? And/or, do they prefer CPM vs.
fixed cost for a period of time?
Thanks for your help.
Ken Exner
Founder, MyPlan.com
ken_at_myplan.com
Received on Tue Mar 21 2006 - 19:42:32 CST
