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.

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:

Campaigns Stats Overview

This may be a boring post for you and I apologize right now for not continuing the Media Buying series (we are still going to continue that though!) but I wanted to drop a quick word for the C2M Publishers and friends that Campaign Stats are now showing for each and every campaign with Convert2Media. I’ve done a little retro work on the campaigns listed in the database already to reflect this and from this point forward, each and every campaign will reveal the campaign stats from the network.

Under the suppression list download and unsubscribe links and directly below “Campaign Limited To” you will now notice that the following fields are reported:

• Current Number Of Clicks
• Current Number Of Leads
• Current Number Of Gross Sales
• Earnings Per Click

This is just one small move to making Convert2Media more transparent. We want you to be able to see directly how the offer is performing across the board without having to take any of your time and contact your affiliate manager.

Convert2Media Introduces Campaign Payout Information

This is really a biggie. No longer will our network withhold what we are receiving per lead or sale. A lot of networks do not share this information and that was one of the things that really pissed me off as an affiliate. You can see the Affiliate Payout within the interface but you probably never knew how much a network was making on the margin. Now you will have this 100% exclusive to you. For now you can contact your affiliate manager and they will reveal every detail of what Convert2Media makes and what the Affiliate makes. This is a huge bargaining chip for you. You now have every possible angle to back us into paying out the most HAHA!

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.

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.