Do I take this advertiser on?

Have a bit of a conundrum here.

1. I want to make some money with site.

2. Not at the expense of the members.

3. 90.28% of my traffic is US based

4. 92.36% of all traffic is from North America.

5. All the current vendors for the most part only support MINI Coopers, the sites subject.

6. I've already turned down some vendors due to fact I don't like their business practices.

That said, I received a request to be a sponsor from a full line company in Greece. I wrote them back including the rates and let then know I thought it may not be the best fit citing the stats above.

They are still interested.

Do I take their money?

 

Yes, if they want to advertise despite what you say, why not? Its money for you.

 

Sign up at adtoll and let them handle the ads. Then you get to set your own prices.

 

Contact them again and say you made a mistake with the decimal point, and change it to 10x. : D


It depends if you like them, some of my members like getting access to vendors in other countries because the exchange rate can be good.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'full line', but if that is a bad thing you could always just tell them you have changed your mind.

 

I should explain full line a bit more.

The vast majority of advertisers on my site create products and a service the MINI community only. There are few that also handle BMW and some others that do things like graphics for anyone that will write the check.

Full line are like Summit or Jegs that have parts for like everything, except MINIs. There are some dealers out there like Alta/Perrin that do Evo, Scooby, MINI, and quite a few that cover ranges such as all Euro or all JDM. This company is covers quite the Euro market.

On the one hand I could look at this they are are paying me to bring Euro members to the site if they are good at marketing in their home land. On the other hand does it look to my members that I'll take anyone on. And on the third hand, am I alienating the vendors that brought me to this dance.

If they were US/Canada based this would be a non-issue, I'd sign them up. But being the reach is barely 7% of the members I find myself questioning this.

 

Not an option for me. I personally know the vast majority of my advertisers and like it that way.

 

If you are talking about them advertising products that can be shipped, that would be of interest to your members, and the company is decent, then I vote yes.

If you have any doubt you could start up a 'feeler' thread in your members private forum, or mod forum, or call a moderator and ask. Without knowing more about the situation, and your forums culture, that is about all the input I can give.

BTW if the advertising payment is sent via pay pal you will see no difference in what you will be getting from other countries.

 

Here are some thoughts (and they are just some brainstorm ideas):

• Try sending a PM to your more heavy/regular users and see what they say. Remember, they are your heavy/regular users which are the ones that are helpful, know your site very well and the ones that keep coming back. You don't want to drive them off. Value their opinions more. That's what I have done in the past with my forum when taking on a new sponsor. I do a background check and get opinions from my valued members first to get a 'feel' of what others things. Don't 'assume' what your members want because it may turn out wrong.
• Another idea is to TARGET the sponsor's ad to only show for their region for the first month and see what happens. You can use OpenX to create GeoTargetting which means the ads will only display for people around the Greece area. Monitor the clicks and ad impressions etc and see what the response is like for that first month.

Personally I think you should go with it but mention it to be a trial and tell the sponsor your concerns why. It's always good to be honest about it and say that you value their sponsorship as well and want to make it so that it benefits THEM as well because you don't want to see them waste their advertising money.

Just my two cents from my experience in the past.