How and When to Approach Sponsors??

**robousy** · 07-26-2008 01:34 AM

Hey folks,

I am building a website that offers a service (uses a zip code search algorithm to match people offering a certain service). Currently it is free and I have NO ads, or adsense or anything like that. My ambition is to ultimately have enough traffic that I am paid by sponsors to feature their adds.

I want to build up a lot of traffic to the site. Lets say for a moment I am succesful.

1) Do I approach sponsors and say, 'hey my website has 5000 hits per day, would you like to put an add on here'?
or
2) Do you wait to be approached??

Also

3) How many hits per day would get a company interested.

finally

4) How do I 'prove' that I am actually getting that many hits.

Thanks!

**robousy** · 07-27-2008 01:55 PM

Anyone got any ideas on this one?

**Threethan** · 07-27-2008 06:28 PM

That's not too difficult really. You can prove you're getting the hits by using programs that offer to count your stats for you. I went google-ing and found quite a few right out of the gate. statcounter.com looks the most promising, but I can't, and won't, guarantee anything about it.

Alternatively, you could talk to your ISP provider, or web-hosting service, and ask them if they have any type of hit/stat counter and have them do it for you. Most of them do have some kind of logs of who goes where, and information of that nature.

As for advertising, a mixture of both would probably be a good approach. Remember that it never hurts to cold call various companies, or e-mail other websites and offer either to advertise on your site, or perhaps even trade links. That's lucrative and cheap, a good thing to not only get more traffic, but also begin to make others want to get on your site.

I hope some of this helps. Good luck!

**Dale King** · 07-27-2008 06:50 PM

Originally Posted by robousy

How many hits per day would get a company interested. How do I 'prove' that I am actually getting that many hits.

I know you're all excited and probably don't realize this. And I'm not trying to dampen your enthusiasm - just trying to help. But hits are a meaningless metric. I suggest you read my article, "I'm So Excited... I Got 1000 Hits!" Also, any business considering advertising on your site would probably check with Alexa or Compete first to verify your traffic ranking.

If you're looking for businesses to advertise on your site, I suggest you sign on with Adbrite. They'll sign-up advertisers for you.

Dale King

**andrewrichardgale** · 07-27-2008 06:50 PM

ive always wondered the same thing but let me say this threethan guy is new to the forum and every post ive seen from him has been helpful

**zharlene** · 07-27-2008 07:50 PM

To get a very serious offer, you'll probably need about 10'000 unique visitors (not really "hits") a day visiting your site.

It's easy to find site stats info...don't worry about that.

**robousy** · 07-28-2008 04:56 AM

Threethan, Dale King ARG and Zharlene, thanks for the advice.

I think I will definitely go with some cold calling, and also perhaps send out some emails.

I read your "I'm So Excited... I Got 1000 Hits!" article and that was great knowledge and good to know so thanks again. I haev bookmarked your site and plan to start going through some more of your articles.

**Dale King** · 07-28-2008 07:12 AM

Originally Posted by robousy

I read your "I'm So Excited... I Got 1000 Hits!" article and that was great knowledge and good to know so thanks again. I haev bookmarked your site and plan to start going through some more of your articles.

You're quite welcome.

Dale King