Earn More Money With Advertising InclusionsLike a true magazine, your HSM eZine gives you the ability to solicit businesses to advertise in your HSM to provide you with another income source. This benefit should not be understated when consider that there are dozens-upon-dozens of different types of businesses that would love to reach the same market that you use HSM to reach every day. What you charge for ad placement is entirely up to you, and you get to keep 100% of the fee! Just keep in mind that the greater your reach (i.e., the number of people you send your HSM link or teaser to), the more you can charge for ad placement. Of course, you can increase your reach by acquiring more sub-account holders who can help you to distribute Handshake ads to their respective markets since your Handshake page appears in all sub-accounts (under a Local Businesses button). 
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Changing the "Handshake" NameThough we've titled the page "Handshake" by default, you can actually change the name to suit your marketing style. For example, you can opt to use Local Businesses, Business Partners, Sponsors, Our Sponsors, or Advertisers in place of Handshake. Should you choose an alternative name for the Handshake page, we will change the corresponding "super button" on the left side of your HSM pages and the header banner. (This step should have been completed when you filled-out your New Account form.) We will create new buttons with custom text as long the text fits on the button space and you allow other HSM subscribers to use it. CLICK IMAGE TO VISIT the BUTTON SELECTION PAGE 
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Handshake For Link ExchangesIf you are not interested in using your Handshake page to acquire paid advertisers, then you have the option to use it simply as a link exchange page. Link exchanges are a great way to work hand-in-hand with other types of local businesses that actively use the Internet as a primary marketing tool. Link exchanges also contribute to your search engine page rank because each link to, and from, another site that receives a fair amount of visitor traffic counts as a "vote" for your site, and every vote counts towards improving your search engine rank. Just be sure that you are receiving equivelant value when exchanging links. In other works, try to make sure that you give what you receive. If your link exchange buddy is only offering a small text link on his or her site, then offer a small text link on your Handshake page back to them. (Of course, only you can ultimately decide what is fair and what isn't.) |
How To Charge Others For Advertising In Your Handshake PageAs mentioned earlier, you can charge businesses any price that you think is fair and reasonable to place an ad on your Handshake page. Whatever you decide to charge, make sure it is based on the number of "good emails" (i.e., emails that don't bounce) on your list, and include the number of "good emails" on your sub-account holders' lists, as well. NEVER charge based on click-throughs (i.e., the number of people who click an advertiser's ad to jump to their Website) as this is something you absolutely cannot control. In fact, the value of an ad placed by an advertiser should be determined by the amount of business the advertiser receives as a result of advertising with you. For example, one advertiser could receive 100 click-throughs that produce no business for that advertiser. Another advertiser could receive only five click-throughs and sell to four new customers as a result. In such cases, you would have earned the least amount of money for helping to produce a tremendous result for your advertiser! Remember, you can only control how many people receive an email, but you can't control who opens them, who clicks-through, or who buys your advertiser's products and services. Why in the world would you ever want to be compensated based on the "popularity" or "usefulness" of your advertisers' products and services when you have no control over that? You also need to consider the value of your target market to your advertisers. It is common knowledge in advertising circles that the more specialized or narrow a target market, the more it is worth. As a business that works in the real estate market, your primary market is homeowners. Your secondary market is homeowners who are buying or selling homes. Your tertiary markets are industries that can help and your advertisers to reach your primary and secondary markets. You can't get much more specialized or narrow than that! the reason this market is worth a lot more is because you have already filtered-out non-relevant people such as teenagers, roommates, perpetual renters, and perpetual apartment dwellers. Look at it this way, if two different individuals were to help you sell your services, which one would be of most value; the one who is knocking on doors in neighborhoods with homeowners, or the one who is knocking on doors in apartment communities and speaking only to the teenage sons and daughters living there? Considering the above information, a good rule of thumb is to charge per-thousand emails (CPM - Cost Per Thousand). Yahoo!® has been known to charge up to $40 CPM for targeted advertising, so you can use that as a basis for what you should charge. If you are sending emails to 1,000 good addresses, then your ad rate should be $40. If you have 5,000 good addresses on your list, then your ad rate should be $40 x 5, or $200. BUT... Try to charge for multiple months, or Impression Periods with each "period" being equal to one month. In other words, if your contacts list never grows beyond 1,000 good emails, and you send teasers to all 1,000 each and every month, then you could charge an advertiser $240 for a six impression periods (six months). If your list included 5,000 good emails every month, then you would charge $1,200 for six impression period. Offer long-term discounts if you desire. Remember, what you charge is up to you, but never ever sell yourself short. |
Things To Consider First
Text or Graphics?
Specifications For Ad Graphics
Getting Ad Graphics Designed |
