Doing it the hard way - best way?

[bst]

Hi,

I'm looking for feedback on experience from marketers and large site owners who have been selling their ad space directly outside of affiliate programs.

Some background:
We are a four year old community for photographers. Only users of a certain high class brand can join (highly focused user group) and we are the largest site for this brand globally, w +20k users registered, some 250k pageviews/day, 20 pages/user and long stay on times. All content (articles, guides, newsletters, pdf ezines, ebooks) is our own and we have some 100k pages of indexed content incl forums.

Now to the important part:
Some imaging companies have approached us regarding advertising with us and we have ran some campaigns for them. We want to have high control of what products/services are advertised, so generic affiliate programs are a no go. We also believe that integrated packages are the best way to go: e.g. sponsored contest prizes together with CPM bought, or sponsoring of events together with CPM bought.

Anyone here who has set up a team by themselves to sell inventory? If so, what are the experiences?

We have decided on CPM, mainly because it is simple. Did you decide for another metric, if so why?

With currently some 4 USD/CPM for plain banners, we are at the lower end. What is feasable for a highly targeted channel with premium customers/readers?

Happy to hear from all experienced marketers/sellers/buyers in here.

Big TIA! :-)

BST

[bst]

No one in here who's selling their space directly? Don't be shy now! :-)

BST

[Linda Buquet]

Hi BST,

Sorry no one has answered yet. Since this is an affiliate forum that's where most of the focus is. Hopefully someone will weigh in and give you some feedback.

[bst]

Hi Linda,

Feel free to move the topic to another better fitting forum or cross post if that helps raising the interest. I am sure that we cannot be the only ones interesting in selling our space directly.

TIA!
BST