what do you need to do in order to make your site appealing to advertisers?

For quite some time I've wanted to try selling at least part of my ad inventory directly to advertisers, and just use AdSense to fill in any unused slots. I've gotten as far as installing OpenX and adding some relevant affiliate banners into the mix, but when it comes to the final step of offering my site to advertisers I find I don't have a clue.

What data do I need to collect to show people? Obviously they'd want to know site stats like pageviews per day, but should they be allowed to know things like click through rates before buying an ad slot (since obviously the ad itself will influence that). Would they want to know detailed demographic information?

 

Ack, I should have put this in the Monetization forum. Could someone please move it? Thank you.

 

Do you have Google Analytics or some other third-party tracking installed on your forums? If so then you have all the information you need to sell your own advertising.

To make your site attractive to them, you need to prove that you have eyeballs worth paying for. Analytic software helps to provide that. Next you have to have advertising slots that give a good return on investment. Other than that you just need to find advertisers. Though if your site is popular enough in its niche, advertisers will find you.

Oh and make sure your contact information is easy to find. I must field a dozen calls a week from advertisers trying to get ahold of vBulletin owners who don't have contact information on their sites. Unfortunately for those owners, I am forbidden by law from disclosing their contact information as well.

 

Yup, I've been running Analytics for about a year now. Just wasn't sure how much of that data I was expected to disclose.

Think I'll add "advertising opportunities" to the contact form drop-down list.

 

Moved to "Monetization and Traffic".