Ways to get ads for your SME website

BANGALORE, INDIA: "I really did put up all my wedding pictures on my website. And I swear to you, my wedding pictures got downloaded just as much as my bikini pictures." It's the statement of an American model, Cindy Margolis.

As long as you are running a website for glam models, this quote makes sense. Her story is so inspiring that you would consider launching a website that might make you a billionaire one day.

You are not a Cindy Margolis, nor are you a glam model or into her kind of a business. Your business and intention is to serve the common man, not the glam world.

So, when we talk about a business, startup or SME, the first thing that comes to our mind is a website. Having a website for your business to promote the products or services is always the icing on the cake. Your potential customer can have an online view of the product on your website and that you can convert it into a business opportunity.

So, when we talk about a website for your business, you must think a step ahead. That you make the most of that website to find additional revenues. A wonderfully-designed website with terrific content can even help you salvage your sinking business, as was the case with many companies in the past.

This is the era when digitalization has made website creation a simple and cost-effective affair, with Internet search giant Google offering free website for small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India. The success of this program has led it to roll out another service in Hyderabad, which enables small businesses in the city to upload 3D images of the interiors of their office, free of cost.

However, only having a simple website will not serve your cause. To make your business more popular and to reach out to more customers, you need advertisements on your site. For that to happen, the website should be unique in its looks and the user interface must be simple.

Here are some tips on how to get advertisements for your website:

Make your website popular

There are many ways to increase the reach of your site. Before landing direct ad deals, you will need to have a good amount of traffic on your site; about 1,000 unique visitors daily is good. If you are below that mark, you should focus on building traffic instead of looking for advertisers.

Other factors like Google Pagerank, RSS subscribers and Alexa rank might also help.

Stay focused

You might have the most popular site on the Internet, but unless your site also has a very clear niche and a defined audience, advertisers will not find it very attractive. Avoid uploading 100 different topics on the website, as advertisers want to deliver a message to specific people, and the more specific your site is the better.

Go for professional layout

If you are planning to monetize your website through sponsors, you probably should invest some money into a professional-looking design. Advertisers will be associating their product or service with your website, and not too many of them would be willing to get mixed with an ugly-looking site.

Visibility a vital factor

Not all templates and themes will be suitable for selling direct advertising. Preferably, you want to have an idea of what kind of advertising you will sell and design your website according to those objectives. Advertisers want visibility, so reserve a good spot for them.

Adserver software

In order to serve your ads, rotate banners and track statistics you will need to install an Adserver. If you are looking for a simple solution, you should try WP-Ads. This WordPress plugin will serve ads for specific ad zones that you create.

"Advertise Here" page

It is very important to have an "Advertise Here" page. On this page. you want to give some details about the website, like audience, traffic and any other factor that might be of interest to potential advertisers. Secondly, make sure that you have some link to that page on the navigation bar and if possible, close to the zone where the ads will be displayed. You can see a perfect example of such layout on Copyblogger.com.

Standard letter to approach advertisers

While some advertisers will contact you after reading your "Advertise Here" page, the rest of them will have to be directly approached by you. In that case, it is a good idea to create a standard letter to contact advertisers.

That is it, after that, advertisers should be able to decide if they are interested or not. If they reply, then you can fix the details. Bear in mind that all the info mentioned should be in 2-3 paragraphs. If you send an essay to potential advertisers, they will just skip it altogether.

Where to find advertisers

Once you have your direct advertising program established, you will start to receive inquiries from people. In the beginning, however, you will need to hunt for advertisers. Do not get discouraged, if you get turned down initially, provided you have all the aforementioned requirements, sooner or later you will find someone willing to take a shot on your site. People linking to your site or articles, those leaving comments/e-mails, AdWords advertisers etc also can be of great help.