HOWTO - introductory and intermediate articles designed to assist
newcomers to web publishing. These articles are provided 'as is' and
in good faith. No responsibility is accepted for any loss or damage
that may occur from errors or omissions.
Making Money With A Web Site
Web sites generate direct revenue in two possible ways, either by
charging subscription fees or selling advertising space. Subscription
fees are straightforward, and so long as the web site provides
something are people are prepared to subscribe to, they are effective.
Subscription fees are most notably charged by erotic web sites, but
also by some well renowned publications such as the Oxford English
Dictionary and Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Selling advertising space is more complicated, but offers
opportunities to a wider range of web sites, most notably 'free' web
sites. Advertising space may be sold either directly, or through one
of a number of third-party agencies who in return for a percentage of
the revenue, act as a broker between web site publishers and those
wishing to advertise. Advertisers generally wish to spread their
advert over a wide range of web sites to maximise their exposure, and
as such tend to use agencies more than direct advertising with a web
site. There are a number of notable and reputable web advertising
agencies including: Adtegrity.com, Adbrite.com, Casalemedia.com,
Fastclick.com, and Linkworth.com. These agencies provide advertising
to web site publishers, and pay after the adverts have been displayed,
often between 30 days and 90 days after the end of the month. Larger
advertising agencies will only accept web sites that generate a larger
amount of traffic, or readers. Better agencies will monitor the
effectiveness of advertising campaigns presented on different web
sites, and will supply advertising campaigns which generate higher
eCPM revenues. However, since a web site can only display so many
adverts, web site publishers should not be complacent, and should
monitor the eCPM of campaigns being supplied and should reject
campaigns which are not earning revenue. Similarly, agencies
frequently do not have any advertising to supply to a web site, and in
these circumstances will deliver either non-paying adverts either for
charity or default adverts created by the web site publisher to fill
the gaps. Default campaigns can often be adverts supplied by a
different advertising agency, thus allowing a web site publisher to
deal with a primary agency, and fill gaps in advertising with
campaigns from one or more secondary agencies. A typical scenario may
be to use Fastclick as a primary supplier of advertising. Fastclick
allows up to ten 'default' advertising campaigns to be created for
each different advert format. A publisher may then create a default
banner advert to be supplied from the Casale agency when no primary
Fastclick banner format advert is available. Similarly, Casale allows
one default advert to be created for each advert format, and a
publisher may then create a default banner advert to be displayed when
Casale doesn't have a banner advert to display either, thereby
maximising potential earnings.
No matter whether a web site sells directly to an advertiser or
through and agency, adverts come in two basic payment forms: CPC or
'cash-per-click', whereby the publisher recieves an amount each time
the advert is 'clicked' by a visitor to the web site; and CPM or
'cost-per-impression', whereby a publisher is paid for each time an
advert is displayed. A third system, whereby an advert is displayed
for a period of time such as a month or a week is much less common.
Both main systems can be measured and compared with a third variable
known as the eCPM or 'effective CPM', this being the actual revenue
paid to a publisher for each thousand adverts displayed. Some CPC
adverts attract a great deal of reader interest and can generate a
higher eCPM than some CPM adverts.
Web site adverts come in various standard forms: pop-ups and
pop-unders, where a separate web page is opened containg the advert
when a reader visits a publisher's web page. These tend to be annoying
to readers, and are often capped so that an individual is only
delivered one pop-up advert within a given time scale, usually
twenty-four hours. Even more controversial are interstitial adverts.
Interstitial adverts are a format of advert that appears between page
views. When a reader clicks on an interstitial advert enabled link,
they are redirected to an intermediate advertising page where they
will be presented with an advert for a short period, typically ten
seconds after the advert finishes loading. Afterwards the reader is
automatically redirected to the URL from the original link. This type
of advert is very annoying to readers, and like pop-ups are usually
frequency capped so that a reader is not presented with subsequent
interstitial adverts within a certain time frame. Interstitial adverts
work where the reader has a valuable prize at the end, for example
when clicking a link for a free download of software. InVue is an
advertising format in which the advert 'floats' into view when a user
visits a web page, covering over part of the existing page. These are
similarly annoying to readers and are typically frequency capped so
that readers are not presented with more than one InVue advert within
a given time frame. Other advertising formats are less intrusive and
generally more popular with readers, and as such attract lower
advertising rates. These include banners, skyscrapers, rectangles,
medium rectangles and text links.
Banner adverts are among the most common and least intrusive
advertising media. They come in two standard sizes; 468x60 pixels and
a larger 728x90 size and typically must be displayed towards the top
of a web page.
Skyscraper adverts evolved later than banner adverts and are displayed
vertically, coming in standard sizes of 120x600 pixels and wider
160x600 pixels. Typically skyscraper adverts must be displayed towards
the top of a web page, and are less popular with advertisers than
banner adverts.
Medium rectangle adverts are large, 300x250 pixels, adverts that like
abnner adverts and skyscrapers are incporprated within a web page.
Rectangle adverts are smaller than medium rectangle adverts, at
180x150 pixels, but are again incoporated within the web page.
Half-page adverts evolved later than the other incorporated advert
formats and are large, 300x600 pixels, skyscraper-type adverts which
are incorporated within the web page.
Text-link adverts take two forms. They are either a simple text link
somewhere within the body of a web page, or, more commonly, are one or
more text-only adverts within one of the other standard sized
incorporated advert formats - banner, skyscraper, medium rectangle,
or rectangle. Text-link adverts tend to be sold as CPC, the most
commonly encountered being those from the search engine Google that
sells text-link adverts under its 'AdSense' program, while Linkworth
and Adbrite both enable web site publishers to set their own price for
displaying a text-link advert for a period of time.
Further reading:
www.adtegrity.com
www.adbrite.com
www.casalemedia.com
www.fastclick.com
www.google.com/adsense
www.linkworth.com
Matt Probert
The Probert Encyclopaedia
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