My name is Bush and I’m BACK to bring you the second and final part in the Fill Your Ad Spots TODAY series! Yesterday we talked about the layout of your site and what you need to make your site look attractive and serious to potential advertisers. Now we’ll talk about how you’re going to get those ad spots filled…

By contacting advertisers directly.

Why We Don’t Contact Advertisers Directly
Let’s be frank – When we get down to the whole advertising thing, we’re asking people for money. Sure it’s an exchange for a service (promotion of their business) but we’re still asking people for money. And I think that’s one of the big reasons why we’re hesitant to contact advertisers directly for our sites. For most of us, we just don’t enjoy asking people for money for our site…

  • For one, we don’t really know how to broach the topic.
  • For two, in our heart of hearts, we’re not sure why someone would think our site is good enough to advertise on anyway.
  • For three, some of us aren’t people persons so this kind of talk is WAY outside of our comfort level.

But You Know, Things Could Be Worse…
Let’s think about this another way. If we weren’t working on the Internet but instead had a brick and mortar business… We would most likely need money from other people to get things running (at least in the beginning). Depending on our business, we’d probably at least have to get a bank loan and if we’d also likely have to get sponsors and advertisers depending on our business model. And since we’d be operating in “the real world”, we’d have to *GASP* make phone calls or speak to people face to face. Many of us simply wouldn’t be able to do that. We’d cave under the pressure which is probably one of the reasons we conduct our work on the internet to begin with.

So Quell Your Own Fears and Start Contactin’!
One of the big reasons why you should be contacting advertisers directly is because a lot of people who want to spend money don’t know that you have solutions available to them. Now you’re asking, “Well if they come to my site and see my advertising page, wouldn’t they know they can advertise here?” Sure. But that’s assuming that they’re on your site in the first place. Ask yourself this question : Which is bigger? The advertisers who are already thinking of advertising on my site, or the potential advertisers who aren’t aware + those who are already advertising elsewhere? Or in another way, Advertisers already here vs All the Advertisers on the Net? When you consider how big the Internet is, the answer is pretty easy.

So what are you waiting for? I’m not going to do all the work for you (at this time anyway) so here’s one tried and proven method… You check out other websites right? Well if they have people advertising there, chances are those advertisers are willing to advertise elsewhere too.

All it takes is an e-mail.