I got a bit of a break Saturday. Actually, I got to a point where I told myself to shut down communications and only answer phone calls. I challenged myself to go out and find a source of information that could lead our company into another form of advertising expansion. In doing so, I surprised even myself. This morning I would like to present two sources that offer more ideas and ways to advertise than I have ever come across.
Normally I would be a tight-ass and keep them to myself. However, I am the first person that would tell you about something if I knew it would hinder me in some way. There are simply too many resources here for it to cut us down in any way. With that being said, you simply got to check both of them out. Tons of companies in there you can get with today and start to differentiate yourself from the regular ppc crowd.
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This resource is really geared towards smaller affiliates just starting out. I say that because it’s dead simple, cheap, but also the sites are usually not as trafficked as much as use other sources previously stated or even more sources that I am going to throw out there.
You can find highly trafficked sites but for the sake of not explaining why I feel Sitepoint is really a “new marketers” resource more than it is an “experienced marketers” resource let’s just keep it as Sitepoint can and does provide some excellent Media Buying opportunities. They have a whole section just for advertising space for sale. This is really a marketers wet-dream in the making. Seriously, it does not get any easier than looking at all the resources listed in a neat fashion. You dont have to go out and look for sites when they are simply right in your face in order.
Using Sitepoint to find webmasters is the easy part. From there you will simply want to use the skills you have already learned into negotiating your media buy. Most of these owners are a bit more Internet savvy so it may sometimes take some Rocky like ropa-a-dope to wrap them around your finger. This is why we play the game though and a challenge should always be welcomed. I will be updating the forum over the next few days before jetting to New York City to support a Media buying section as requested by many readers and affiliates.
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Traffic Vance is one of the most prolific sources of Media Buying sources on the net. Without a doubt, when I am asked about what my favorite sources of contextual advertisements are, I will tell you that Traffic Vance is in my top three. They have a very good assortment of ways you can advertise and for some reason, their traffic works! Before we go further, we should probably cover that Traffic Vance is considered an Adware Network. Typically at events or other conversations where I try to talk about Contextual Networks the words “adware” and “spyware” are brought up. They are not the same people.
Adware – Applications or software people install but BEFORE doing so are requested to optin to advertisments that may be delivered from time to time.
Spyware – Applications installed on someones machine without warning or explanation.
See the difference? Understand the difference? Good, direct the hate mail elsewhere.
If you think Adware is wrong, that is fine. Keep it to yourself. I should tell you that a ton of networks even the well known ones accept this form of advertising so before you decide to hate you should really look at the networks you are working with.
Now that the petty disclaimer is out of the way, Traffic Vance has a publishing front on how they acquire their users and that is Gamevance.com. People go to Gamevance to play games obviously. Before they can they are prompted before installing any application. Upon acceptance of this, they have just became a prospective target for your advertising. Let me show you how can reach them:
First off, they give an easy to see image of how it works. After seeing how it works, some of the largest agencies and companies in the game use Traffic Vance which can be seen here. Just in case your wondering what type of reach Traffic Vance can get from their publishing front, you should look at it for yourself.
Display Advertising
Traffic Vance has quite a few ways to advertise with their network. The most common and popular is the display ad themselves. This allows you to display a 800x600px advertisement right in front of someone. Obviously this is so easy to test because from experience it’s as easy as direct linking to an offer. When a user searches keywords or domains that you are targeting from within Traffic Vance, your advertisement pops up in front of them. Captivating headlines are really the way to go here. Also, Flash is an excellent tool to use to grab users attention.
Text Link Ads
I really like the Text Link Advertisment options with Traffic Vance. They are clean, sleek and professional looking. Unfortunately as an affiliate, I have very little experience with text link advertising with Traffic Vance. I cannot report any results because I have only used this feature twice, and both campaigns were not profitable. I’ve mainly stuck to the display advertising features.
Half Banner – Billboard Ads
These seem interesting although I have never tested them. Basically it’s a large banner ad that would most likely run on the network of sites Traffic Vance owns. This will be up to you to test because I much prefer to buy banner ads on sites I specifically can deal with the webmaster on.
Brandbox Ads
These are generally for large companies and agencies looking to brand. I personally do not suggest using this type of advertising if you are an affiliate marketer. I feel that this was specifically designed for branding and that is not something we are looking for as an affiliate.
There’s really no secret to Traffic Vance and nothing behind the scenes that I can share with you. It’s all going to come down to your offer and what keywords/domains you target that is going to determine your campaign statistics. I will tell you right now that Traffic Vance takes their Advertisers very seriously. When I signed up I had to put $500 down. Now, I dont have to spend that $500 right away but it’s a deposit to show them that you are seriously looking to work with them. Honestly, I think more requirements like this are necessary to weed out jerkoffs. They will also require you to fax a copy of your drivers license so be prepared.
Traffic Vance’s managers can be some of the most helpful individuals. When you get there, communication is key. Let them know you are there to do business and ask them what is performing well on the network. Typically they have always been very open and courteous sharing this information and it’s only going to help kickstart your first campaign with them. You can visit the Traffic Vance Demo and how it all works here.
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A question was brought up in the WickedFire Forum where I help out as a Moderator that asked:
I want to do some serious advertising, but just don’t have the time to do it all myself, nor do I have the connections that an established media buyer has. Anyone have any suggestions on finding a good media buyer? Is this generally a position where I’ll need to hire someone as an employee, or are media buyers generally independent contractors that work for multiple clients?
I’ll be the first right now to tell you that this is a statement that could potentially lead you into more trouble than you have probably experienced so far in your marketing ventures. The “media buying consulting” world is a snake filled world full of arrogant and lying assholes. So thick is this bullshit consultanting industry that it widely overshadows the legitimate media buying consultants (are there any?).
If you are the type of person that gets a tingly feeling from watching Carlos and Lupe Garcia’s videos over at the Traffic Tactic sites then it’s at this point that I will kindly ask you to not even read my blog. Seriously, I am not even going to go into who they are and what they talk about (or lack thereof) for the sole purpose that I may lose my temper. If anyone is familiar with them, they had a 25K seminar. Unforunately for those who paid this price tag, you would have learned more here for…nothing.
If you want their affiliate advice it is to simply login to your affiliate account, find the best performing offers with the best performing banner epc’s and then you are kind of left hanging on your own. No sources, no where to go with your high performing banner.
If you get anything out of this rambling then get this, NOBODY and I mean NOBODY not even me, Hell, ESPECIALLY me is going to give you a step by step, play by play of what to do and where to go. Yea, I’m going to go out of my way, probably further than most but in the end, I’m still going to be the D-Bag that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know. If I told you everything you needed to know, would it make any difference? I’ve coached and helped countless people make money online and some of them even exclusively but I can tell you that the number of people who take my advice and act upon is a sad, sad number compared to the ones who read it and then just ask more questions.
You dont need a consultant, you just need to do it yourself. Hell, I’m kind of hoping you fail a little bit too. Failing is fuel that keeps you wanting to succeed. Without fail, there is no success. Do not go out looking for someone to advise you on your campaigns when you cant even make the proper decisions yourself. It’s like putting orange sherbert in a chocolate sundae…it just dont mix.
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Dagmar asks:
Are you going to talk also about the pricing? I’d like to have at least an idea what are we talking here about = as a buyer of the advertising, BUT also as an owner of a website. Because I have people approaching with offers to advertise on my sites, but since I have no idea How much I should/could ask for I don’t respond.
The pricing is going to be different in every different scenario. If I gave an idea then I think a lot of people would not even try it so while the curiosity mounts I guess the best idea would be to get started and contact someone.
I really dont have any idea on how to charge someone ads on my site. It’s an area that has never interested me so I think the best thing to do is just throw a number at them and see what happens.
BobbyDigital asks:
what do you use for an adserver? how do u track impressions/clicks/conversion rates/profitability site by site?
I’ve used OpenX before but I believe this is more directed outside of what I am talking about. The sites I advertise on individually is usually just one piece of ad code for the webmaster to place. Everything else is from sites that self-serve the ads. We track in house. I would imagine something like Prosper202 might help in this but I have my own system.
how do you manage paying all of these small publishers every month? im thinking excel sheet but if u have a nice peice of software to manage this im all ears!
I’m old school, it’s excel! I guess Google Docs would be of use too but I just use excel. If there is a piece of software out there, I will probably be finding it before long as C2M expands.
I have my own product so i would be marketing that first and obviously im looking to drive as much traffic as possible. can this scale up to hundreds of sites? and if so how do u manage it?
It can scale as high as you possibly can handle. I will tell you as a product owner that managing is really just in you. From negotiations, to payments, to money made, to however you are shipping. It’s really going to rely on you or whoever you have working with you. Wish there was a magical answer here but the only encouragement I can give is be as organized as possible.
pricing: i know i know every situation is going to be different, but any pricing guidelines you can give would be great, even examples based on the green tea patch campaign would be cool jsut so we could get a ballpark idea of what those week long tests shoudl cost.
I’ve paid anywhere from $80 with 300 uniques a day to $25 per 1000 impressions. Those week long tests should be prorated from a full month. If it’s $100 for a month ask for a $25 worth of testing. Dont worry about the costs, each situation is different, just go find some sites, contact them and see what the rates are. I mean, calculate the costs it takes to successfully test in google and then go try this method. There are a ton of steals to be had with this.
