How to Purchase Online Advertising

One of the most difficult things for a small business owner to part
with is their advertising dollars. Face it, as a small business or
work from home mom, we just can't afford to throw money around
without a guarantee of results.

Granted, a webmaster can not guarantee the effectiveness of an ad,
especially since the webmaster did not write the ad. However, he or
she should be able to give you statistics for how many page views the
site receives each day, week or month, how many visitors they receive
and a reasonable idea of how many people will see the ad.

If you want a guarantee of results, you have to do some research on
your own.

Check the forums - are there posts? More than 4-5 per category? If
not, the site probably hasn't been online very long or it's not very
active. You might also want to read several of the posts in each
category. Make sure the majority of the posts are not made by the web
site owner, showing that there is participation in the forums and
check dates of posts if they're available.

Check ad listings. Are there an abundance of ads posted? Normally a
site that has good advertising rates and is established and well-
known will have several ads posted. Also make sure there are not too
many ads where your ad will get lost in the crowd and never noticed.

Site content. Does the site contain a lot of content to keep visitors
on the site or keep them coming back? Does it provide information
that coincides with the target market you're trying to reach?

Banner ads. Does the site offer a private log in area to check your
banner stats? With today's technology, there's no reason they
shouldn't offer this option if they are serious about providing the
best advertising for their customers.

If the site measures up to your standards, try a test ad. Choose a
smaller ad placement that's not too expensive and wait for results.
Be sure to use a tracking tag so you can accurately measure the
results

of your ad placement. This will allow you to see what ads are
performing well and on what sites. Without ad tracking, you're just
throwing away your money!

I've used ProLinkz from
http://womans-net.com/cgi-bin/prolinkz/pl.cgi?pl for a couple years
now. It costs , but it can save you lots more in purchasing ad
space that gives you no return on your investment. It's easy to set
up and you have unlimited URL and ad tracking as well as a nice graph
layout to help you understand who's clicking and where they're coming
from.

Other ad tracking programs available are:

URLTRAK http://urltrak.com/ a month
Link Track Pro http://www.linktrackpro.com/ .50
AdTrackZ http://adtrackz.com/

If you've got a lot of cash to throw around on advertising that just
doesn't work, there are lots of sites out there that will be happy to
take their share of your money.

A smart entrepreneur is going to be very picky about where they spend
their advertising dollars. You can bet if you spend on ad
placement and two people visit your site without buying, you're going
to either think twice before advertising on that site again or
rewrite your ad.

As the owner of a large community, I handle a fair amount of ad
placements on my site. Only 2-3% use ad tracking of any kind! I hope
those who don't use it, spend a lot of time analyzing their server
logs - yet even this will only tell you half the story of how
effective your ad is, and how well it does on each site on which you
advertise.

Just because you find a place where you can post an ad for a
month, doesn't mean that you're spending your money wisely. You can
be frugal with your advertising budget and still achieve good
results. It's simply a matter of where and how you choose to
advertise!

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