[GeorgiaGalHeidi]

Am I misreading this?

http://www.mothering.com/sections/ad...-web-rates.pdf

Does it really cost hundreds of dollar per month to place a banner ad here? How is anyone affording this?!?!?

Any other cheap ideas? I am not on Hyena Cart and am gearing up to re-open, so I really need to get the word out more affordably!

 

[CarrieMF]

yup those are right, hence why I only use my signature for advertising here. There is supposedly ways wahms can get them for cheaper but I have yet to actually see that.

You can advertise on hc without having a cart there. Other places are the pin, diaper swappers, cloth diaper connection.

 

[GeorgiaGalHeidi]

Thanks! Not too long ago, it was 50 dollars...*sigh*

Yeah, I wonder how these other wahms are doing it? I jsut can't fathom that there are this many mamas paying 450 bucks for ONE month! Perhaps some are grandfathered in? Perhaps some more popular ones get special pricing?

 

[Izzybee]

It's not even worth it, it wasn't even worth it when it was $50. The click through rate is too low.

 

[bethwl]

I bought a year's worth when the rate was $50. I will not be getting an ad again, though, it is not worth it for me. For now, I just consider it building awareness of my company.

 

[flminivanmama]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Izzybee It's not even worth it, it wasn't even worth it when it was $50. The click through rate is too low.

yeah that. I made very few sales off a banner here. diaper pin is better

 

[Izzybee]

I like diaper swappers and Hyena cart the best.
I am sure the Pin is great too, I haven't advertised there personally, but I should.

 

[bethwl]

I just wanted to add that I get tons of traffic from it, just no sales. (I'm not a diaper-maker.) But I thought there was supposed to be some talk of a special WAHM rate that would kind of be like last-minute unsold space that you could purchase at a discount?

 

[crunchymomof2girls]

OMG that is NUTS! how would a WAHM ever make anything????

 

[crayon]

I think it is not only for WAHM's it is for any company- as in corporations too- with larger check books. They do have a lot of users on this board, so you have to figure how many people on average view your ad. And it takes the average person at least 9 times of viewing your ad to even look at what you offer- that is just on average- so, yeah, advertising is spendy- so is running an ad in a newspaper, or having a store front, or having a booth at a fair, or having a good web site that will get your business- it cost a lot to have a business.

A good way to get business on a WAHM level is word of mouth from friends around town. If you make diapers talk to local MW's, doulas, PEDs, friends, mama groups- give out a few samples, talk to birth educatiors, bradley teachers- you can market in your area and be personal and get a good local business going.

 

[sophmama]

I think it's a pretty normal rate for online ads in a place with this much traffic. It's a lot for WAHM's to stomach though. I often click on people's sig lines.

 

[octobersweethearts]

Quote:

It's not even worth it, it wasn't even worth it when it was $50

Try a signature ad instead

 

[ilikethedesert]

I agree. Sig ads are affordable and occasionally specials are run on those, too. The banner ads are for mamas with a LARGE advertising budget. Not really a cottage industry mama. The sigs work. You clicked on mine, right?????? Oh. you didn't? Well, don't you think you might want to? C'mon. Give it a try, you might like it!

 

[wemoon]

They did have a WAHM deal about a year ago. You had to buy an ad by a certain date and that would lock you into that price for a year. So as far as I know there is no special WAHM rate.

Siggie ads won't ever work for me again. I just don't have the time to post enough to make it worth it.

 

[supervee]

Quote:

Oh. you didn't? Well, don't you think you might want to? C'mon. Give it a try, you might like it!

I did! Cute!

I always click on siggy ads. I click on everything.

 

[dotnetdiva]

Well, I'm ready to start advertising, so I'm going to bite the bullet.

We just relocated and had to kinda shut down for almost a month, so our business is slow the past few weeks. I'll let you all know if I think it's worth it!

Now... to design a banner ad...

 

[Mackenzie]

Just an FYI from a mama without a business....I click on A LOT more (like on an exponential level) sig links than banner ads. I have maybe clicked on three or four banner adds in my 2+ years here, but have clicked on DOZENS of sig links.

 

[dotnetdiva]

I agree with the previous poster, I can count on my two hands how many banner ads I've clicked, but I do click on the sig links often.

Problem is... like Jeni, I'm way too busy to post all the time here! Just here (WAHM Well) is all... I poke in the Babywearing forums, but rarely post as I don't want to spam, lol!

But I must do something, I was practically shut down for a move during our relocation, my inventory levels got real low, and now they're getting back up, but our sales are only 1/3-1/2 of what they were in June. Last year it was busy every month. This is the slowest month I've had relatively speaking when you look at our sales chart.

 

[supervee]

What shopping cart software do you use, if you don't mind sharing? It is really nice. I wonder if it is a custom solution.

 

[dotnetdiva]

I currently use Storefront. www.storefront.net

Since I'm a programmer, I bought all the source code and made some modifications, as well as bought tons of add-ons.

I'm in the process of migrating to a new shopping cart with more features (so I don't have to work on add-ons as much). The new shopping cart is BV Commerce (Version 5 coming out soon). I bought the source code to alot of shopping carts to test them out, at least all the major ones that are written in .NET. (Thus my name, dotnetdiva.

)