Once you have your webmaster service out there and some traffic starts to come your way, you might wanna consider paying for advertising to increase your traffic. Keep in mind that many webmaster services have attained tremendous success without spending a dime. Now if you are someone that is insisting on getting paid advertising to promote your site, this article is for you. I simply want to give you some tidbits on what to expect when dishing out your cash and some pointers on how to make the most of your advertising budget.
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"Don't forget that quality webmaster traffic is hard to come by and every single webmaster is a potential long term client." |
I have decided to target this article on advertising a site/service that is intended for adult webmasters. Targeting your ad campaign is crucial to ensure you get the right kind of traffic to your site.
If you run a content provider, adult marketing service, adult hosting or any other type of site that is intended for the adult webmasters, here are some insights and pointers to help you with your paid advertising campaign.
More often than not, especially if your webmaster service is a good one, paid advertising can really help get your site noticed by webmasters in the adult community. Unlike regular porn surfers, adult webmasters are always looking for good services to help their current business. I have also noticed that individuals that run adult sites are more prone to click on an interesting advertisement that a porn surfer. The reason being that most webmasters always keep an eye out for new services and products emerging on the adult web that might benefit them or their clients.
The first place that everyone runs to in hopes to promote their webmaster service(s) is Adult Webmaster Resource Sites. On a personal note with my experience, this can definitely help get your name out there.
Be careful on where you decide to advertise. There are some resources sites that charge a whole lot of money for ad spots giving you the impression that they will send tons of people to your site. I have heard many stories through friends and with my own experiences, I can honestly say that this isn't always the case. There are definitely some resources that will send good traffic and there are others that won't. There are also some resource sites that don't charge much for advertising and will deliver equally good traffic as well.
How do you know which hangouts are reliable and worthy of your advertising dollar? Well the best advice I can give you on that is to talk to other webmasters on chat boards to get some of their input on which resource site are good to go. Their experiences will definitely help you get on the right track. Always get some point of views from other webmasters before jumping in head first.
Other places you can enquire about advertising aimed at adult webmasters are adult industry online news magazines, other webmaster service sites and banner exchanges that target the traffic you are looking for. Once again, always get as many opinions as possible on any company before putting your cash on the table.
There are also some other deciding factors to keep in mind. They can all affect your advertising campaign and unfortunately some are very difficult to stay on top of.
First off, you need to get a good ad button or banner designed. You need one that will catch another webmaster's attention. Without a good ad, you won't get any hits to your site no matter how good the resource site you advertise on.
Then you have to make sure your ad spot is in a good location. You want your ad to be seen. Top-page ads aren't always the best and Bottom-Ads don't always suck! It depends on the design of the site you will be posted on. Best advice is too surf the site yourself and figure which ad spots you notice the most .those are the spots you want.
One more thing you can keep in mind is the time of the year, we all know that the adult industry slows down a tad during the summer time. You will notice in time that most resource sites sellout their ad spaces during the Fall/Winter season. During the warmer season, they usually have more spots available and sometimes at a lower price. They are more prone to make you a deal during the down season. That can save you some money but might not get you tons of traffic. I personally don't take this into account much when I advertise my services, cause the fact is there are always tons of webmasters working all year round and many newbies come on board during the summer time cause they have a lot more time on their hands. Just keep in mind that traffic is a little slower during summer, of course there are exceptions to this depending on the service you provide.
You can also ask the person in charge of advertising on any given resource site for their input on what you might expect. I have come to learn that more often that not, the reputable resource sites will be honest with you and give you good insight on which ad spots do well for their clients and what you might expect. Can't argue that no one knows the sites better than the people running them. Always be careful, don't ever forget that their goal IS too sell you that spot.
How do you make sure your getting your money's worth?
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Well, I know that most webmasters are looking for a return of one visitor for every $1 - $2 spent. Of course this can vary greatly depending on the service you provide and the site you advertise on. So if you spend 500$ and get 500 hits, your ad spot was well worth hit, if you get more even better. Now if you get 300 hits for the same amount of money, it ain't bad at all. You need to start worrying when you're getting something like 150 hits or less for your $500. In my opinion $4 - $5 a hit is pretty steep, you can get much better out there, just need to find the right places. In the end it comes down to what you want in return, just don't expect thousands of hits coming your way just caused you invested tons of money.
Don't forget that quality webmaster traffic is hard to come by and every single webmaster is a potential long term client.
So the decision is yours and if you decide to pay for advertising, make sure you do it the right way. In time with a little experience, you will create your own guidelines on what you will expect when advertising. Don't forget that with a large amount of time and effort you can establish a business without spending a dollar and still be very successful. Paid advertising doesn't always mean instant profits. You still need to provide a good service and keep working.
Instead of putting in tons of cash to advertise your site, think about how you can use the money to make your service even better. You need to find safe ground on how much green you should allocate to advertising. Make a budget and stick with it.
I started a content provider service a few years back and built it from the ground up though link exchanges, word-of-mouth and hard work. I didn't pay for advertising for about two years and in that time it grew to unexpected heights. Now just about everyone on the adult webmaster community has heard of the service at one time or another.
The point is it doesn't take paid advertising to make it! Of course, today it is much harder with the large amounts of services opening up daily. It's hard to gain an edge when everything is so saturated; paid advertising, if done right, can give you that edge. Heck, I advertise all the time now, it can be very rewarding. Just make a plan and start small, gain some experience and go from there. In the end, it will save you quite a bit of money...
Besides...Some Extra Pocket Change Never Hurt Anyone! :)