[Pangea]

If I had a system where users get to view your WHOLE SITE for 40seconds (and they are literally forced to view this, they can't skip it in order to get to the rest of my site), would anyone be interested in advertising? I was thinking for 40seconds of viewtime, with a guarantee of no other advertisers before/after your ad (so the user doesnt get bored of seeing ads) of charging $15 for 1000 views ($0.015 per view).

Would anyone be interested in such a system, before I set it up? Are the prices too high?/too low? Is the market there?

Thanks

[meaghannf]

I mean, it sounds intriguing but there are a couple of immediate problems I see here:
1) What is so fantastic about your site that people want to wait around for almost a minute on some unrelated site to get there? People navigate away for much less distraction than that all the time. What's in it for them besides accessing the content of your site?
2) Wouldn't people just start using a sublink of your site to skip ad viewings?
3) This is already done on a lot of big sites (food network's website comes to mind) and they ALWAYS offer the viewer the option to skip the ads for these very reasons.
4) This traffic is no more targeted or guaranteed than a PPC site, sorry. If people are on one site for any amount of time when they want to be somewhere else, it's not going to convert well.

Interesting idea but needs a bit more work.

[Pangea]

Ok, good points, but maybe I should have explained the site a bit better...sorry!

Its going to be a lottery site, where on the main page users select their numbers, enter email address etc.

They submit, and the ads page comes up, with my banner at the top (takes up the top 10% of page....other 90% is the ad) which says "the lottery draw will take place in 30 seconds.....please wait" or something to the effect of that. that draw itself takes 10seconds. by the end, the user knows if they've won or not, and they've spent 30-40seconds looking at the ad, whilst waiting for their draw. if they dont wait, they dont get the results....top prize im offering is going to be cash based, so its an incentive to stay on the site.

[enriquerojas]

Force advertisement has a 0.01% of conversion.

[Pangea]

But there are systems that offer such adverisements, and people buy their space?!!
So it must be partially worthwhile? Must it not?

My second choice was to go to one of these companies and strike a deal putting their ads on my site, but I'd have prefered independence and the ability to make slightly more money by organising the ads myself, especially seeing as my system could handle it.

[rogercbryan]

I have a similar site that charges $8 per 1000 visits... these sites are very successful... I didn't not find much interest on these forums.... try some other venues... generic traffic has value... just not here.

[pinpointlist.com]

the site looks interesting! In addition if anyone is looking for email lists or marketing leads let me know what you think about our new website
pinpointlist.com

[FormPay]

most companies like this only charge 2-3$ per 1,000 site views so i would think you would have a hard time getting business.

[Pangea]

rogercbryan: thanks! at least I now know where I should be concentrating my efforts! as far as pricing is concerned, i think, thanks to all you guys who replied, i should be reveiwing prices. its just that ive seen sites selling 1000 for $15, so i thought that was acceptable?!.....i will look at $8 and do the maths however!

[Power_Advisor27]

As others have said, there are just too many possible hurdles that would make this offer questionable at best. As a web designer/developer, one of the things I've learned is that visitors want to get to the info they're looking for as quickly as they can on a site. I understand that your visitors would get to do that before being forced to view the ads, but that still presents an issue. The Web these days is more about giving choices to site visitors. This is why flash intros aren't as popular as they used to be (and the ones that exist offer the option to skip advertisements. It is why pop-up and pop-under ads are not as effective as they used to be (more and more folks are finding a way around these). Even when someone views full TV show episodes online that have commercials included, there is an option to skip (or there are tons of other sites where these shows can be viewed for free without commercials).

I have seen systems in which this concept is very effective. ABC, the major tv network, does this quite well. Whenever someone watches full episodes of their tv shows online through AOL video's player, they must sit through 30 seconds of video advertisement as they wait for the episode to load up, and a few times throughout the episode. However, realize that this is ABC, and advertisers understand how popular ABC's shows and sites are. Sites like this easily pull in hundreds of thousands of visits per day, an advertisers' dream! This makes the opportunity to advertise in these spots well worth it. However, unless your site already has that kind of popularity, most advertisers would not likely consider it a sound investment on their part. Even in the right ring, there are some traffic markers your site needs to hit to make your offer more appealing to advertisers.

Next, rogercbryan was right. This is not the appropriate ring for promoting generic traffic packages. Small business owners need their traffic to be as targeted as possible so that they can avoid "spinning their wheels." Your offer might be better received in forums pertaining to the lottery or sweepstakes, or in forums that deal specifically with home business (these will have entrepreneurs looking to reach folks who are interested in making money).

Also consider this. Guaranteed traffic has been around for a long time, and many entrepreneurs and advertisers have tried it over the years with little success. The truth is that in most cases, generic traffic isn't helpful, because the product or service being offered by the advertiser isn't generic. Unless the site, product or service is something a visitor is known to be interested in, there is little chance of them viewing the site beyond the forced amount of time, ever visiting again or purchasing. This is what advertisers are looking for. I've even purchased "guaranteed" traffic packages that were even supposed to be targeted to my niche (supposedly 10,000 unique visitors). The first problem was that my analytics never reflected the same thing as the reports from the provider of the traffic (I never saw that I received 10,000 visitors in the time frame that these folks were suggesting). I had no sure way of knowing that my site was in fact receiving this traffic, no sign-ups or sales resulted, and it ended up just being a big waste of money.

Bottom line is, as a webmaster I don't want someone to be forced to view my website. I'm looking for folks who need what I have to offer and are willing to take some kind of action. I want them to want to visit my website. Chances are with your offer, folks will become used to this and just spend the 30 seconds doing something else online or directing their attention to something else until they can get the results of their lottery play or whatever the case is. I even do this with sites that force me to watch advertisements. I'll go and check my email really quick, make a phone call or even play games and just come back once that period of time is up. I may sometimes view the ads, but seldom am I inspired enough to click, visit a website or call a number.

If you're seriously looking to sell ad space on your site, consider your own site's traffic, how this will benefit other advertisers, and consider a new approach. I'd hate for you to waste your time, or advertisers to waste their money, on this one. It just seems to have too many faults for it to be effective unless you're a well-known giant like ABC.

-PA27