Expert: Emmett Smith - 9/10/2008

Question
I am launching a new Wine Web Site in mid September "lovetowine.com", this site I believe is different than other site on the internet because it is purely a informational site. Driven by user/member wine search, blogging, virtual wine Cellar, etc.  What would you suggest is the best pricing structure for this Google like info web site?  Please visit "www.lovetowine.com/index.cfm" to view an example.
Thank You

Answer
The amount you can charge for ads depends on the number of people visiting your site.

Since your site is targeted, the visitors will be worth more to people who want to advertise on it. The click rate on properly designed ad creative will be higher.

You just have to take a guess to get started with. Take the number of visitors divided by 100 to get the number of clicks. The divide this by 100 again for the number of sales. Try to imagine what your advertisers will make per sale. Their ad cost should be no more than 40% of their gross profit. This will give you a good starting point. Then adjust this number up and down until your ad space is generating maximum revenue.

You would most likely generate more revenue initially by running search engine ads in your ad space while you increase your traffic. After your traffic starts to peak you can insert "advertise here" ads in your ad space and charge more.

Emmett
http://ewebsmith.com/copywriting