I understand that asking for pricing recommendations may get on some people's nerves due to niche, content, and design all contributing to a very unique situation. But I was just wondering if someone could steer me in the right direction, just so I know if I am capitalizing on my site in the proper form. I'll cut to the chase... I run a music web site that attracts 40,000 unique visitors per month. I am contacted by advertisers somewhat often and I have sold numerous text links since the site's origination over 2 years ago. Since I am not someone who believes mixing content with advertising (I value my site's original content), the text links are on the sidebar. I price them from highest to lowest based on location, with the highest and most visible placement obviously having the highest value. What I'm asking is this: The highest placement is where the visitor does not have to scroll down to view it. I'm not sure if this is called "above the fold", but it would make sense because the link is there to see immediately when the web site loads. It is to the right side of the page, but is not shifted drastically. For the past year or so, this is the pricing I have been using for one text link to be featured in that spot: 1 Week - $20 1 Month - $80 6 Months - $460 1 Year - $900 Based on the 40,000 uniques per month, would you guys consider this to be reasonable or am I selling myself out? I would just like to know whether I can increase the pricing without being too unreasonable. I realize that seeing how the advertisers react to a price shift is a useful way of determining such matters, but I was just looking for a good starting point. Anyways, thanks for the help. -Mike
Backlinks and Pagerank matter to alot of advertisers if you are allowing direct text links. If you are sending all click traffic through some sort of click tracker then it doesn't matter as much. To be perfectly honest, here's the best way to find the right price: List the links for sale at the prices you've shown. How fast does it sell out? If you are Selling Out 100% of the Time Raise your prices by 10%, and repeat the above steps. If the market can bear the change and you keep selling out, then raise the price every 2-3 months. Rinse and repeat until you have reached about a 90% continual sellout of your space (this is the cap for your market). If you are selling out 80-95% of the Time Keep your prices where they are. You've hit the current cap for your market. Don't make any drastic changes to your pricing, otherwise you will upset the balance. If you are not selling out Then you are supplying more than the market can bear. This means you need to lower your prices until the demand balances with your supply. Every 2 months, drop your prices by 5-10% until you are selling out 80-95% of the time as above. This is basic economic theory. You want to have Supply =~ Demand to tap into the real potential of your market.
Right...but you do need to know where the market is. If you are trying to sell a Rembrant at a flee market no one will pay the right value.
True. But he posted prices for a text link he's been selling, so he has some base pricing to go on. Since he's got a buyer, he's at least started to tap into his market.
Forgot one variable of the equasion...how many links (outgoing) But like Christian said it's economics. supply, demand the right marketplace. It looks like you have a good deal with regular advertisers. If they are happy with what you are sending their way it can't hurt you to see if you can get more money for the ads.
The rule of thumb is go by affiliated companies. Find out how much they pay to webmasters and how much they charge the clients. Both of the numbers are not a secret, just sign up. Your number should be somewhere in the middle of the two.