I just recently came across OIO Publisher, a powerful solution for managing ads on a standalone site – or on a site that uses WordPress.

The product itself is full of features and is very simple to use and set up.

OIO Publisher Features

Very Flexible

• Can be used as a plugin for WordPress, or as a standalone solution for any website
• You can sell many types of ads including: reviews, text links, banner ads, and more
• Easily sell digital products

Saves Time

• No need to manually upload files, as there is an online installer
• Complete automation from ad purchasing to ad expirations
• Tracks clicks & impressions
• Weekly reports are emailed to advertisers
• Marketplace integration that helps facilitate ad sales.

Easy to Customize

• Affiliate program built in
• Backfill empty ad zones
• Can be used across multiple sites using zones
• Flexible enough for developers to add more functionality

Support

• Professional support with purchase that includes tutorials and forums
• Continuous development with free one-click upgrades

If you’re looking for a robust and powerful solution for serving ads on your site, you should check out OIO Publisher.  They have a demo where you can test it out for yourself and see how it works.

Check out OIO Publisher

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StumbleUpon has the potential to drive huge amounts of traffic to your website or blog.  Unlike its close counterpart Digg, however, the targeting is more generic in nature.  With StumbleUpon you are trying to align your page or site with the appropriate category and demographic to advertise to.  The costs are relatively inexpensive ($0.05 per click as I write this) my experience so far has been that the types of people that visit stay briefly and move on – which is natural given the model upon which StumbleUpon is built.

My $20 StumbleUpon Experiment

After being lured in by the cheap 5 cent clicks that StumbleUpon offers, I thought I would test it out and tossed $20 at it to see what kind of results you could get.

Targeting Your Page or Site

The first step is to choose a URL that you want to send the visitors to.  They suggest (and I recommend) choosing a single page within your site that your demographic or target audience would be interested in.  A popular page that has broad appeal is your best candidate, as your goal is to entice Stumblers to go deeper into your site, pick up some RSS readers, or maybe get a few newsletter subscribers.

I chose a page that I believed had broad appeal, selected the category I believed the page would fall under, and funded the campaign with $20.

Waiting For Approval of Your Ads

The next step is to wait for the StumbleUpon team to approve your ads.  In the few times that I have experienced this process (and from the people I have spoken with) it usually takes a few hours for your campaign to be approved.  Once it is approved you will be notified by email that your campaign is running.

Watching the Traffic Come In

One of the things I dislike about StumbleUpon advertising is that they don’t tell you once your campaign starts running.  Even though it’s active, you may not start getting clicks for several hours.  Once your ad/URL starts showing though, you start getting a lot of visits… fast.

In the End I Received 1,587 Visitors for $20

So, how do StumbleUpon Advertising do?  No doubt about it, StumbleUpon drove quite a bit of traffic for only $20.  Although I only paid for 400 visitors, several StumbleUpon users liked it which drove more traffic to the page – 1,187 more than I actually paid for.  That is the great thing about StumbleUpon Advertising, if your campaign is successful it will actually drive more visits at no additional cost.  However, the visitors ended up staying on the page only an average of 10 seconds and there were no conversions.  So while it drove a lot of traffic – the quality just wasn’t there.

Would I do it again?  Maybe.  For a page that I am wanting some exposure on or gaining some attention – but for trying to convert these visitors into sales, I think that the money is better spent on pay per click.

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3. In tough times you need to spend more on marketing and advertising It amazes me how some business owners are accustomed to...

It amazes me how some business owners are accustomed to reducing or cutting back on budgets when times start to get rough, the economy is hurting, or they have fallen upon some tough times.  Marketing and advertising is not a black hole that you sink your money into just because it’s part of a business plan, it’s there for a reason – to drive more sales, gain more exposure, and grow your company.

Too often advertising budgets are slashed in an effort to conserve money.  This makes absolutely no sense at all. Advertising and marketing is fundamentally designed to make you more money – that’s why we do it.  It’s not some expense that you cut out when you’re facing hard times, in fact it’s quite the opposite.  When you have had a rough streak or you’re on a bit of a dry spell, you need to increase your spending to deliver the same (hopefully more) results.

Image credit: geocam20000

Change your view on marketing and advertising

Many business owners are of the mentality “Times are tough, we’ve had to scale back our advertising budget.”  Isn’t that what advertising is supposed to help you do, increase you revenue?  Of course it is, which is why it is ludicrous to think that paring down your ad budget will help you weather the storm better – it will have precisely the opposite effect on your company.

You can get more for your money in tough times

In periods where everyone seems to be cutting back on ad expenditures, you can actually make some great headway by advertising more than you had in the past.  In tough economic times, the places you advertise with are struggling because everyone is cutting back on their ad budgets.  Often this allows you to make some great deals on advertising and actually get more for your spending than you would when times are good.

You can gain market share if you’re advertising

It is likely during rough periods that many others in your industry (or even the whole economy) have slowed down or minimized their marketing.  This is an excellent chance for you to hop in and grab some market share from your competitors, and you can have a larger voice and presence because fewer businesses are competing for the same customers.

Sometimes you have to spend more just to stay even

If your market is soft for a period of time, or you’re simply having difficulty generating the revenue you once did, it’s probably time to up your advertising and marketing to stay even.  This will allow you to stay even and nearly every industry goes through these periods – if you can stay even, all the better for you and your company.

Whatever you do, don’t cut your advertising and marketing spending

Bottom line is that you NEED to keep advertising no matter what type of market or the current economic climate. By doing so, you will position yourself for success.

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