Finding suitable adverts?

[Reaper]

Hi everyone,

i am currently setting up a few small forums, and have a friend that is coding some php and some flash games, so we need to cover the hosting costs (plus possibly a little extra for ourselves if possible)

we intend to keep it all free for anybody who is interested, but are looking at putting some adverts on the sites.

I was wondering if anyone could recommend some places? the main problem i keep finding, is if i put a line like "to keep us free, please checkout our sponsors, linked at the bottom of the page" companies like google adsense see this as me promoting people to press my link, which is against there policies.

Does anyone have any tips on how to avoid this? we are just hopign t omake enough money towards hosting/domain/possibly a dedicated server if it goes well enough.

If it is a way to have pay per view, then that is fine, but alot of our people will be the same people, everyday, even if they are looking at 50 pages each, usrely this will only count as 1 unique view?

thankyou for your time

Reaper

 

[Ron Bechdolt]

I know this may seem like an odd thing to suggest on an affiliate forum, but have you considered putting up affiliate links? Perhaps a couple dozen appropriate to your viewership that rotate often. That way the same visitors would get different links on different pages.

 

[Reaper]

Hi Ron,

i would be interested in doing that, and it doesnt seem like a good idea, and that should help increase the income.

However, that would require me finding 24 companies that i can use. Maybe im being thick, but is there a way to get all 24 done through 1 contract? (im completely new to this)

Reaper

 

[Ron Bechdolt]

Reaper,

There are a lot of variables to consider, but once you determine your target audience and what products/services they may be interested in, then start searching for merchants with affiliate programs that meet that criteria.

I do it two ways. First, I search through common affiliate networks like CJ, Linkshare, SAS, Avantlink, etc. Next, I simply type in the keyword of the product/service into google with the words "affiliate program" behind it. Unless you have something really unique, you should find quite a few. 24 may be too many, it was just an example, but I would suggest trying several to see which ones convert the best, then get rid of any that don't convert.