How to spot a real advertiser?

Every week or so, I get emails from potential advertisers on some of the blogs and forums that I operate. For every 10 inquiries or proposals that I get, just 1 one them pushes thru. Why? Because a whole bunch of these inquiries are sent out blindly or the proposals are outright out of whack (read: one-sided).

Other bloggers have also forwarded me emails they got for ad inquiries. I’d like to share some of the more obvious signs on how to spot a real advertiser.

One way to differentiate a real advertiser from a marketer is to scrutinize how they compose their email inquiries. Here are some items you’d easily spot.

Generic titles. (They don’t know your name!) IF you have a visible about page and advertise page, I’m sure they would bump into your name while checking out your site or blog. Addressing you like “Dear Sir/Madam” is a dead giveaway that these people are just harvesting email addresses.
They don’t introduce themselves properly nor their company and the products and services they want to advertise on your site.
They don’t know what your site or blog is all about. That means they didn’t really checked out your site nor bother to know what niche you are into. How can they be that serious about advertising if they have no clue about the market?
Commercial email accounts. Unless of course the advertiser is an individual, an email coming from a corporate domain and not Yahoo or GMail would be more credible.
Most advertisers approach publishers with an affiliate-campaign pitch. That means, you run their banner ads and you only get a cut whenever the ads convert. While that’s not bad either, you’ll have to check if the products or services are more in tuned with your readership. While I seldom do affiliates, my two most successful ones are TLA and Remit2Home. Beware though of some marketers who’ll bait you into this set-up just to get eyeballs and not really convert.

At first, I used to accommodate each one and answer all emails. I later drafted a standard email response and just attach my rate card and order form to send out for each inquiry I get. Those who responded back are the ones who are really interested. It gets easier with practice, actually. :D

There are also softwares that do this. The emails are properly written and address your name or the title of your site (e.g. Dear YugaTech) but the composition just doesn’t sound right. It was too cold (ever gotten cold calls from insurance companies lately?). After 3 successive emails (the next two were follow-ups), I realized the emails were automated and goes thru a system. They were pretty damn good huh?

How about you. How do you respond to ad inquiries?

Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

https://www.yugatech.com

12 Comments

Zigfred says:

17 years ago

How do you join the Remit2home affiliate program ?
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Abe Olandres says:

17 years ago

Settle for a price where you feel is equitable for you and your advertiser. You can give him a lower price if he’ll advertise longer.
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noelperlas says:

17 years ago

I recently got my first ad placement. Yey! The name of the guy sounded fictional, but yes the email address seemed legit… no gmail or yahoo. I corresponded with him and after a couple of emails we agreed on a price. :)

This week I got another email from a gmail. The person responded right away.. but I raised my price and the person said it was too much. Should I decline? or should I keep my price?
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Abe Olandres says:

17 years ago

@ Jaypee, I blogged about it last year. Got buried so I’m resurrecting it here.

@ kiven, check my next post for the link to my old rate card.
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Azrael says:

17 years ago

everytime they email me, they always asked for the rates and once they are interested, they sometimes invite me to see and check their products or services.

para malaman kung bogus or hindi, pag local
they will text me or call me sa cellphone.
pag international naman, they call din sa phone ko and then after the aggreement.. MOA na agad.
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BrianB says:

17 years ago

Guys,

check alexa. This week is the first time gizmodo beat engadget.
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GM Tristan says:

17 years ago

Me?

I just direct them to my adbrite. I really don’t have rate cards for now. Maybe in the future. But thanks for the tips.

Nice.
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Kiven says:

17 years ago

hi abe, can i get a copy of your rate card =)
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Jaypee says:

17 years ago

Abe, you should have posted this earlier so I wouldn’t have bothered you with those questions. Hehe :D

Now I know what to do next time I get an inquiry.
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noemi says:

17 years ago

I always say I don’t want to clutter my site with too many ads . I tell them I am very selective. If I were to place an ad, the fee should be worth it. Then I quote my price. If they can’t afford, sorry.
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Joni says:

17 years ago

I respond by saying, “Show me the money!” haha. jk.

I don’t get that much ad inquiries but I ask the few who are interested in my sites to tell me more about their proposals (what the ad would look like, how long does he/she want the ad placement, and how much is he or she willing to pay). Fortunately, I always encounter the real stuff (they address me by name! That really does help! lol). Just last night though, I refused the offer of this one guy. Medyo kuripot e! lol!
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