It seems my previous post on Gawker revenues got a bit of attention from various blogs, including Gawker and Valleywag. Bloggers in the industry keep telling me I’m wrong and I’m perfectly capable of accepting that.
But, I would like some clarifications from people that have experience selling that many page views to advertisers, because some of the reactions I’ve seen I didn’t understand.
First of all, why are you talking about unused ad space. Greg here talks about 40-70% ad space sold. Why is the rest of the ad space considered unused? What is this, 1995? Why not talk with Google, YPN or any other ad network that offers CPM and I’m sure they’ll be happy to fill your unused ad space (which means 40 million page views per month if you usually sell 70%) and maybe send only CPM ads your way. They might not be at $30 CPM but it’s better then using ads with your own blog. Considering that most of the Gawker readers are americans (80% of those that came to this blog from Gawker and Valleywag), CPM rates from other ad networks should bring a nice price.
So, I got two questions, which I would appreciate if anyone would take the time to answer them:
If they only sell 70% of their ads directly, why are the rest of 10 million page views considered unused ad space? Since 80% of the visitors they’ve sent me are americans, I’d imagine it’s still an audience that can be targeted by someone.
Why does Gawker price its ads at $30 if they can’t sell their entire inventory at that price? Is that the optimum price for their network?
If some non-troll experts could step up and answer these questions I’d appreciate it :).
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