28 replies to this topic

[EGOL]

I just stumbled onto a company (isocket.com) that helps small web publishers sell ads on their website directly to advertisers.

(Don't groan yet, its not one of those text link generators. Also, they don't charge you a 50% commission, they charge you a flat monthly service fee that seems reasonable to me.)

When someone wants to advertise on your site they see your price, select a term and upload their banner. Then you check the ad and approve/disapprove... and money starts rolling in if you approve.

This looks like one of the best ways to sell ads directly to advertisers... well... almost directly to advertisers.

They have a video that describes their service. It was really funny. They really understand what a PITA selling directly to advertisers can be.

I have not tried their service yet and have no relationship with them. Just posting here to see if you have tried them or have any comments.

Here's their video... http://www.isocket.com/why

[Michael_Martinez]

I guess if there is no anchor text associated with the ads and since the ads go through their ad server, it should be okay with the search engines.

It looks like you pay for the bandwidth your ads use from their service. I might give it a shot somewhere down the line.

[jonbey]

Interesting. But how do people find your site to advertise on? Or is it down to you to still get the leads?

[EGOL]

You can let people know that ads are available in a number of ways.

-- a direct link to your isocket ad page (actually hosted on buyads.com) sample: http://www.buyads.com/website/mashable

-- advertisers shopping for ad space at buyads.com http://www.buyads.com/

-- have isocket display a "your ad here" image as one of your default ads

[Dr.Marie]

Very interesting. I may give it a try. EGOL, do you know if they give you advice on how to choose a price? Would you base it on what your adsense revenue is for a similar block? I see that some ads are listed at a dollar amount per week or month and others are a CPM figure.

[EGOL]

How much to charge?

I plan to ask at least double my current yield for any space on the site.

My prices will be based on CPMs. I think that is fair for the advertiser and the publisher.

If you charge by the month and your traffic goes up or down you will have to adjust the price of the ad to reflect different traffic levels.

I will also watch the demand... if the space that I offer gets snapped right up then I will be raising the price for the next round.

I'd like to hear what iamlost has to say about pricing. He is a serious student of advertising.

Edited by EGOL, 18 July 2011 - 07:15 PM.

[jonbey]

I did try using buysellads a while back but got no interest through their system. I get the impression some markets are more likely to use such services to buy advertising. Might give it a shot though.

[iamlost]

isocket FAQ

In addition to your own self-serve page, isocket also lists your inventory in our premium marketplace - BuyAds.com - which means people interested in buying advertising might find your site and buy from you.

Note: BuyAds shows pricing examples, follow verticals list under categories to left.

My quick look shows them currently interested in only promoting a few verticals - if your site niche is not compatible the results may be poor.

[jonbey]

I had this problem with buysellads, good system but you still have to go knocking on doors yourself to sell the ad space.

[EGOL]

My quick look shows them currently interested in only promoting a few verticals - if your site niche is not compatible the results may be poor.

I see that... thanks!

[EGOL]

I just set up my account and have some ad space listed for sale. It was really easy.

I am running an ad network as a default in the space until the first sale is made.

As iamlost noted above, they are not promoting every topic area. My site does not fit in the areas that they are currently promoting. So unless that changes - or they place me in a unrelated category, I will have to promote my own site. I can do that with a link to my ad sales page and link to that page with an "advertise here" link in my persistent navigation.

[SEOigloo]

Egol,
Thanks for sharing this. It does look like a cool setup. Sadly, none of my hobby sites are up to 50,000 page views a month

[ryanhupfer]

Hey guys, I'm part of the isocket team and it's cool to hear your thoughts on what we're doing. If any of you have any questions about anything, please let me know and I'm get you some answers as quickly as I can. Also, if you would like to send them to me directly you can email me at ryan-at-isocket.com.

I hope you're all having an awesome weekend and we'll catch up soon!

Ryan Hupfer
isocket customer BFF

[Dr.Marie]

I just got an email from isocket saying that they are trying to see if my site is a good fit. My guess is that I may not fit as I don't really fit into any of the categories, and my traffic is small compared to some of the sites on there.

Hey Ryan...if I could add a suggestion, it would be great to have a search function on the site - I was trying to search to see if you had other publishers or advertisers in the pet industry and couldn't find any.

[ryanhupfer]

Hey Dr. Marie, thanks for the feedback and I couldn't agree more with you about needing the ability to search through our publishers. What you see on BuyAds right now is our first version and we know that there's plenty that we can do to make it better.

For instance, adding search is one of many things that's on our to-do list and it's great to hear your feedback on it, so thanks for letting me know about it.

What is your website? Let me know and I'll take a look to see if there are other websites like you that use isocket.

[Pete]

It does look interesting, my site has just about got to where it reaches their criteria.

I was slightly put off by the site, nice video, but I couldn't find quick answers to some obvious questions like, er, how do I get paid? Do I have to take down my Adsense while waiting for their ads? etc.

But I did like the video so have sent off a form to find out more.

[EGOL]

How do you get paid? They will send payment to you at the end of the month by Paypal, check or bank transfer.

Do you have to take down your Adsense? No... you give them adsense or another ad code as a default and those ads will show until your inventory sells.

I have a few million impressions per month advertised on isocket for a few weeks now and so far I have not gotten any sales - but I am still making money with my original ads.

[jonbey]

Had a chat with them, but a little confused about payment. My main audience is American but I only have UK bank account. Sounds like I may struggle unless I set up credit card payments .... unless I can agree to invoice by Google or Paypal.

[EGOL]

I believe that they will accept the payments for you. Also, they will deduct 3% from any payment to cover their credit card fees.

So, you could sell through their system and they can pay you by PayPal.

[Dr.Marie]

FYI, my site was rejected. They were very nice about it, but didn't feel I was ready yet. They said to contact them back once I start selling some adspace (i.e. not adsense) on my own.