zerotomed.com

I got into a conversation with my friend over at online marketing and we started talking about an individual we knew who lied about his stats to his advertisers in the hopes of increasing his profits. And that got me thinking…How many people are genuinely honest when they start to sell their advertising? How many people tell you where they are going to place your link? How many people tell you just how many unique visitors that they get? So, it got me thinking just how low people will go to make a buck. Here are a few things that I recommend you do when you are going to start selling advertisings.

• Be honest with the number of people you get to your site. To do this, I recommend signing up with Google Analytics. I have yet to do it myself, but after much irritation (friendly of course) from Nomar, I think I will get to work on that.
• Let the advertiser know where exactly their link is going to be. If you intend on selling FOOTER links, let them know that. Don’t tell them that it’s going to be in a ‘great place’ and then put in the footer. Let them know that the location will be there. Or, if you do it like I do, put it in a good place like the upper sidebar.
• If you guarantee that their link is one of five, ensure that you keep true to that guarantee. Don’t start changing things around after you’ve sold all five and then sell another five. This is being dishonest to the advertiser. One of the things that attracts an advertiser is few outgoing links. The fewer links that are outgoing from your site, the stronger each link is worth.
• If you agree to keep the link on for a total of two months, keep it up for two months. I have seen a lot of people take the link down after believing the advertiser would forget. Be honest to the advertiser and don’t rob of their money. Advertisers are the way that we are able to continue doing what we do. If we’re dishonest, they won’t come back.

It’s very important that you are honest to those that you work with. If you want to make money on the internet, you can attempt to be a swindler and a cheater. But, the thing with the internet is that word can spread very easily. And especially on blogs, if you cheat a blogger, they’ll let everybody know. That’s our business. We tell stories and we let people know what’s going on. That’s why I let you know about digg changing ad companies. We let information get circulated and if you cheat a blogger, they’ll let people know. So, be honest with the people you are selling advertising to. It’ll give you a better name on the net.