Lesson #35 Buying Advertising for Adult Sites!
Written By Cyndalie

"It takes money to make money" so the saying goes, and for adult site owners there is no greater truth. Beyond start up costs, hosting, content, domain names, listing fees in major search engines and directories, the cost of running and marketing an adult site is no junk change. In fact in most every business model there is a concept called a marketing budget, that few small companies and adult webmasters either plan for or can afford. Most smaller businesses hire those with traffic driving skills to create a foundation of traffic to run their business on, usually from search engines. However, there is a plateau between presence and success when marketing in the search engines. This is when buying advertising comes into play.

In this lesson we will discuss banner advertising options, questions to ask before you buy, how ROI (or return on investment) is calculated, and other tips for getting the most for your money.

Finding Places to Advertise

When looking for advertising opportunities for your site, first consider a few things; What kind of advertising do I want (popup, pop under, exit, banner, contextual ad, flash, etc) and what sites, relevant to my own, have enough traffic to sell? Here is where NICHE becomes very important. There is no point paying for traffic that isn't interested in your site.

For the point of this article, let's use the example that we are looking to buy banner advertising for a Fetish pay site. Banner advertising is most often purchased directly from the sites webmaster, however there are some networks (like Roar) that allow you to shop out what sites will sell banner spots and buy positions directly online. First you need to create a list of sites that you wish to advertise on. How do you find these? Search Google or go for the obvious (or sites you know with traffic) and look for advertising information links and pages.

“Go for the obvious” means that if I want bondage traffic, I should check out sites like Bondage.com or BDSM.com, if you want lesbian traffic try Lesbian.com, etc. Alexa can also help you compare the estimated traffic ranking of the sites you consider.

Ideally, if you run an affiliate program, ask the site operator if they can run your banner, where they keep what is earned, for a few days to get an idea of how the campaign will perform. Remember there are elements you want to consider when measuring successes with such a short term run, like the effectiveness of your banner and overall conversion rate of your site itself. If the site is sending good traffic, but is not converting, create a special for members such as a limited time trial membership, “Buy one month get one month free”, or “Purchase access to this site and get access to a second site free” or other incentive offering for new members to join.

What's Traffic Worth?

Remember that typically the more traffic the site has the higher the cost to advertise. However, with banner advertising the more impressions (banner displays) per unique visitors offers more of a chance to make a profit on the campaign. It takes about 3 months for you to get a good idea of your ROI. This is because your first months sales will usually be lower than the second month because recurring billing needs to roll over and profits will begin to compound each month. If you can keep a customer a happy member for 3 months you will earn on the trial and 3 months of recurring – an estimated 95$ per each new signup your campaign generates. As a pay site owner when you find a place with traffic that converts at your site is can be more profitable to pay to advertise rather than let an affiliate do it, because you keep all the profits!

Banner advertising is sold in a number of ways, primarily by; cost per click (CPC), cost per 1000 impressions (CPM), and cost per month (ideal). The Ad Resource at Internet.com is a great resource of tools and information regarding buying advertising online http://adres.internet.com

Cost Per Click is best when buying traffic from search engines. To estimate your cost per click simply divide the amount of traffic you have received for the month or time period by the cost per month or time period. If I pay $ 500 per month and received 800 clicks, my cost per click is $0.63. Typical cost per click for banner advertising usually works out to about $0.15 up to $3.00. Cost is higher due to additional branding opportunities provided by banner ad placement.

Cost Per 1000 Impressions (CPM) is popular with banner advertising networks or sites with large amounts of traffic. Networks will sell banner space in bulk and here the performance of your banner become very important, how well it drives click thru's. If I pay $1000 and the CPM is $20, the number of impressions, or ad exposures purchased is 50,000.

Most common for webmaster to webmaster banner ad sales, especially in Adult, is simply charging a monthly advertising fee. This is the easiest to setup and maintain, and depending on where you advertise, can be the most profitable. Don't be afraid to ask for references from other advertisers or request a test campaign. As long as you are serious about purchasing advertising and you are considering a site that is in your budget range, most sellers will not have a problem running a test for you or providing stats and information for your review.

Some Things to Keep In Mind

Buying advertising at sites with high PR can help you boost your own PR! Use direct linking when possible. Review your advertising contract carefully, make sure your banners and your site does not violate any terms and conditions as an advertiser. If the site you are paying to advertise on does not have an advertising agreement, ask yourself why, and make sure you are doing business with professionals. Don't buy traffic unless you know (and can SEE) where it is coming from. There are several companies selling bulked out or recycled traffic; if they can't show you where the hits to your site are coming from, ask yourself why and is this really traffic that is worth money? You get what you pay for.

And finally, network with other webmasters as best you can. If you can match your own site up with others like it, establish some traffic trades via webmaster-to-webmaster relationships and continue to build your traffic foundation. Remember to give just a little more than you get and soon you will be on your way to new traffic and revenue streams, and one day ready to sell advertising on your site yourself! Just remember to do your reseach before you fork over those hard earned bucks, and never be afraid to ask around if you are feeling unsure about a site or the legiticmacy of traffic you wish to purchase. Share your questions and ideas at the Cozy Campus! Until next time, Happy Promoting!