How the Internet Can Drive Advertising Revenue

The Internet still holds unexplored opportunities for advertising, but tapping into this rich market requires new sales approaches and creative products. At the American Press Institute's seminar Internet Strategies for Community Markets, Bruce Annan of Classified Intelligence, Rohit Bhargava of Ogilvy Public Relations, and Greg Swanson of Itzpublishing shared some key strategies to maximize revenue opportunities from your website.

Build a Better Homepage:
Making a better homepage can drive page views, which then draws advertisers. Greg Swanson suggests getting rid of left-hand navigation bars and putting as much content as possible on the front page. Research shows that the short attention span of the average adult user doesn't allow for much browsing beyond the home page. Navigation bars are essentially useless, according to Swanson, since few people bother with them anyway. Take a look at washingtonpost.com. The lack of a navigation bar allows more room for feature articles. Users can also just scroll down to find everything they need.

Increase Your Updates, Increase Your Visits:
Swanson has found that the number of times people visit a site daily correlates with the number of times a site is updated. Madison.com updates four times a day. When asked in surveys, the average Madison.com user checks the website 3.9 times a day. Marketwatch.com updates every three minutes because its research has shown that this is the point below which the frequency of user visits begins to decline. All it takes to update the website, Swanson points out, is to rotate news photos or other content on the homepage.

Collect Accurate Data:
Many website managers do not have an accurate picture of their website traffic, says Swanson. For example, 4.5 million page views is often misinterpreted as 450,000 unique viewers due to the rule of thumb that says there is a 10 to 1 ratio between page views and unique viewers, when it's more likely to be fewer than 100,000 different viewers because each viewer tends to come back to visit a website several times a week. But fewer visitors may mean greater advertising opportunities. Correct data can help you sell ads based on page views. A more segmented audience also allows you to charge more for ads. For example, although Architectural Digest's Web site has a small audience, its ads are costly because the advertisers know the right people will see them.

Present an Irresistible Value Proposition:
Give your print sales representatives a clear value proposition to sell to potential online advertisers. Your website is not a direct competitor with the print paper, but should complement it. To do this, start with a clear pricing plan. Swanson suggests charging a certain amount per thousand page views. Next, approach your advertisers with a deal that seems to give them the upper hand. Swanson signed some advertisers for a year at a given rate even while knowing that the page views will increase. For example, if a website charges $3 per thousand page views and there are 100,000 page views a month, the website can charge a flat rate of $300 a month for a year. As page views increase to 200,000 a month, the advertiser sees that he has a bargain. By the end of the year, the advertiser will be eager to renew.

Revive Classifieds:
Classifieds are no longer classifieds. They should be "autos" or "employment" or "real estate," says Bruce Annan. The top three classifieds categories draw people to the print newspapers, and should also draw people to your web product. These advertising categories deserve their own links on your homepage alongside news. Annan also believes that classifieds offer the opportunity for community connection. After all, personals are a quintessential component of classifieds. Louisvillemojo.com has successfully harnessed the desires of people to find a marketplace and community connection by giving Louisville residents a laid-back forum where they can post events and comment on news humorously.

Swanson also recommends making it easier for people to place classifieds by using an online self-service process where all it takes are a few clicks to design an ad. Give people the option of running their ads both in print and online and you can charge more.

Sell New Products:
Rohit Bhargava sees great advertising potential in new media products. While it's becoming easier and easier for consumers to choose what media they consume and thus more and more difficult for mass advertisers to reach their audiences by posting a static item on a website, the Internet also opens up ways to reach self-selected consumers more effectively. Text messages with news updates can be "sponsored by" an advertiser. Subscribers will be more likely to read these since they've elected to receive the message in the first place. Link advertising to podcasts in the same way. Advertisements should also be more interactive in general. Bhargava says consumers visiting a website want to read ads that provide them with an entertaining experience or useful information. Rich media and/or Flash ads can do both.