Before just jumping into advertising…you need to determine the type of experience that you want your users to have. Some businesses should never have advertising…for others it is a means of funding the operating costs of a service. TV is a good example, ABC doesn’t charge users a fee to watch their shows…but everyone knows it costs money to produce them. In exchange users are willing to watch commercials. HBO on the other hand is a paid service and users expect it to be commercial free. Both provide similar content but the “price” and “experience” are different. You first must decide is your website ABC or HBO? Some businesses like magazines or newspapers get away with both. You just need to determine where you’re going to fall.
If advertising is indeed right for you then you need to have all of the statics, analytics, and traffic to validate your value to the advertisers. You need to know your target market. Why would I pay to communicate to them? What’s in it for me? Affiliate programs such as LinkShare or Commission Junction are the best for testing the various types of advertising that would be most effective. While you don’t get paid unless the user accomplished a goal, you will be able to see traffic flow and obtain hard data that can be used to sell to others.
