I think this is the right place to put this. I was wondering how much I should charge for a banner/link on my homepage. My website gets about 17k visits a month. I was thinking between $10-$30 a month? What do you guys think?
At 17k visitors, $10 means about 58 cents for 1000 visitors, which is far too low in my opinion. $30 means $1.76 per 1000 visitors. Now, I think all depends on your site content and theme. If it's a very targeted, niche-oriented site, you could ask (and get!) more than $30 per month, considering your current traffic. For example, if your site is about dog training and is visited by passionate dog lovers, then a dog training school could be willing to offer you a handsome amount for a banner. Otherwise, if your site has a more general theme (e.g. news or jokes) it will be less attractive for advertisers, so the CPM (advertising cost per 1000 visitors) will plummet... Everything boils down to negotiation. You name a price and then negotiate with the advertiser. Another solution is to join an advertising network like TribalFusion, for example. They'll do everything for you. Big advertising networks have negotiation power and can get anywhere from 10 to 50 dollars (or more) per 1000 visitors, depending on the site, as I said above. My two cents.
Yes, you should rather join good advertising network. they will not only provide you a better deal but also provide you ads with similar niche as your website. Then the clisk ratio automatically increase and consequently your profit increases.
Advertising network is the best place for you to bargain and to sell yuor website. you can get good prices from there and can deal properly in the advertising market.