I have a problem...

[DarrenC]

I'm sure the experienced marketeers amongst webproworld have heard this question time after time but here goes;

... how do you get companies to advertise on your website?

See I told you so!

Let me elaborate a little, I run a popular holiday website, which at it's peak in January receives approx 80,000 unique visitors, these visitors are holidaymakers in the UK, Europe, US etc and are looking for holiday property to rent.

Every day (and I'm not exaggerating!) I receive emails from holidaymakers asking where the best deals are for flights, for car hire etc and I end up sending out an email with some URL's.

SO I thought, why not take advantage and set up a 'Travel Shop' where companies can advertise on our site, and provide holidaymakers with a better online experience.

Excellent idea I thought... but I have telephoned, emailed, and only two companies have signed up in over four months...

Help!

Darren :)

[bhartzer]

If you have enough traffic and lots of good rankings, the advertisers usually come to you. You can add a link at the bottom of each page that says "advertise here" so that they can contact you--that may help.

The other option is to use an affiliate program to generate revenue from your website or just Google Adsense or similar types of programs.

[DarrenC]

Good point about the rankings, the first category we have worked on is Travel Insurance, so 'Cheap Travel Insurance' are the KW's we are optimising the category on.

Traffic wise though, I have no worries because the majority of the visitors are independant travellers who are going to require car hire, travel insurance etc.

Any other ideas?

Darren :)

[flood6]

Have you tried AdSense? People love it, people hate it, but it might be worth trying.

I would also second the two of the suggestions made above; add an "Advertiser" link in the footer (or more prominently placed) and try a few affiliate programs in the areas you are getting emailed about. I imagine affiliate programs in the travel industry pay out pretty high.

Good luck.

[DarrenC]

Thanks - I'm going to look into Adsense this evening.
With regard to affiliate schemes, we've worked with them in the past, and personally I find them unfriendly because you don't have someone to communicate with when you want to display special offers on the newsletter, and in general they are just unfriendly ways of advertising.

We would prefer to get companies to advertise with us because 1) We can build up a relationship with that company and 2) It makes our profile look better when a well known, high profile company is advertising on our website.

Thanks for your comments..

Anyone else?

Darren :)