Getting Vendors to Advertise on my site

[Christi]

Hi,

I've posted this on another forum this morning, but I thought it might be beneficial to get a variety of responses. So bear with me if you've read this somewhere else.

My site is primarily focused on the local wedding market. It is an adverstising medium for wedding professionals to help engaged couples plan their weddings.

I also plan on adding more articles, tips, suggestions, checklists to make it an invaluable resource. That of course, is never ending.

What strategies or techniques can I use to get these vendors to want to place an ad with me? I've sent them an introduction letter explaining all the benefits and followed up with phone calls. However most of them either don't have time to talk about advertising, or haven't read the letter.

The few that do have time to discuss it are hesitant about coming on board.

Any and all ideas, suggestions, tips, etc. are appreciated.

Thanks,

Christi
http://www.south-texas-weddings.com
"Who to use before the I do's"

[mepDave]

If only more resource site owners asked this question

As someone who is always looking for new sites to promote my web hosting and image hosting services on (I'm even getting ready to put a special wedding packge together that offers online photo album / message board / guestbook / calendar for newlyweds and weddings) I can tell you exactly what I look for on a potential site:

1. How busy does the site look? Are the pages mostly empty? Does it look like there's potential activity and updates?

2. Site stats - most web hosts nowadays give you statistics software that show you a complete array of various stats such as how many unique visitors you average per day, per month, etc... and this software should be included for free in your hosting plan. If I'm going to spend money on an ad, I like to know approximately how many people per day are going to see it on your page.

3. Ad Specifics - I look for an easy chart that shows detailed pricing, banner dimensions if it's for a banner ad, what pages in the site my ad will appear on, and if it's going to be static (showing all the time) or dynamic (in a rotation of other ads that vary each time the page loads).

If it's difficult for me to get this information quickly the impulse to purchase an ad passes and I'm off to the next potential site.

If the site looks dead and has no stats available to prove there is traffic, I'm probably going to consider it a waste of money and move on.

I also tend to look for sites that offer ad plans for the "small guy" in business like me. I'm not a corporation with a $10,000.00 a month advertising budget (that's what iVilliage quoted me today), so I look for sites that have small affordable plans with short durations so I can try it out first for results. If I can spend $25 for a quick run, then I'm not gambling big and will consider taking a chance. If the traffic from that trial ad is productive, I'll keep buying.

I hope this was helpful!

[mepDave]

PS - I took a look around your site Christi, and I have some suggestions:

You may have to bite the bullet and post several resources for free so that visitors start coming to your site and bookmarking it. With nothing there, the chances of return traffic are slim. If you have at least some valuable resources on every page, the potential bride will probably bookmark the site so that she has all the links in one easy to find spot. You may even want to contact businesses to let them know your promoting them for free on your site for a month, and tell them if they'd like a permanent link they can keep their ad there for $x per month thereafter. You might also consider adding a message board that allows consumers to post for free but charges a fee for businesses to promote themselves there. I know there's a lot of work involved in all of that, but as an entrepreneur of 8 years now I can tell you for sure that nothing comes easy

[Christi]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your suggestions. I was thinking of adding a vendor in each category as a trial for free. Then approaching them again with the fee to continue the ad after a month. Hopefully, they'll be more receptive. Most of the businesses here don't have websites and I'm thinking they just don't really see the benefit in advertising online, even if it is reasonable.

I'd really like to have some vendors there before I start promoting to engaged couples. I'll start getting my list together and contacting them.

As for a message board...eek... the thought did cross my mind for a second then I was overwhelmed by it and put it away. Now that you've mentioned it, I'll definitely take to time to research that idea more.

Appreciate you taking the time to visit my site,

Christi

"Who to use before the I do's"

[mepDave]

You're welcome Christi, and when things pick up give me a hollar about advertising. I might be interested.