Webmasters - How do I determine what CPM to charge?

Factual Questions
1

So I was just contacted from some advertising agency who wants to place an add on my modestly-sized site and wanted to know what CPM rate we charge?

Since so far I’ve been relying solely on Adwords, I have no idea what the going rate it. How do I determine what’s fair?

Edit: Subject should read “How do I determine **what **CPM to charge?”

2

Was the person who sent you the email named Valerie? Is she promoting a web site about how to help a drug addict? If so, it’s the same one that set off my spidey-sense a couple of days ago.

P.S. Fixed your thread title for you.

3

[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:2, topic:593214”]

Was the person who sent you the email named Valerie? Is she promoting a web site about how to help a drug addict? If so, it’s the same one that set off my spidey-sense a couple of days ago.

P.S. Fixed your thread title for you.
[/QUOTE]

Thanks. Luckily it seems, her name is not Valerie. As far as I can tell they’re legit.

4

Red, do you mind PM’ing me the details? There are a lot of scams around.

5

Can you get prices from others in the same industry? A website with an audience of doctors is going to ask for a higher CPM than a website with an audience of nurses.

Are you prepared to deliver the reports needed to “prove” what they received in terms of impressions? It may be simpler to just give them a monthly price and run their banner.

6

Here’s what I received:

My name is Sarah from Article Writing Services. We have a client who would like to pay you for the opportunity to sponsor a blog post that you have recently written. We know that blogs can be expensive to run and our client would like to opportunity to support you in that endeavor.

In return our client is asking for one link that they specify placed into the body of the blog post(no porn or gambling). Feel free to contact me with any concerns or clarifications you may have.

If you would have any questions or would like to start the process, please email me at sarah@article-writing-services.org so we can begin.

Sincerely,

Sarah Miller
Outreach Manager - Article Writing Services
sarah@article-writing-services.org

7

Go google “My name is Sarah from Article Writing Services”.
Loads of entries.
Make an informed decision.

8

just received an “affiliate” request:

I’m looking for any contact details (email, phone number or mail address) of the website owner or marketing person that I can communicate with for possible business venture on website income opportunities. We are very much interested to do business with you. Please send me an email together with your website name and I’ll be glad to call you to discuss this matter.

Thank you
arazeilia@yourmediaguru.com

9

There are also SEO “specialists” who game the search engines by paying to create what seem to be natural links. The ethics of this are questionable, but it’s not a scam per se. Those folks actually pay for links.

10

Both of these are spambots. I won’t comment on the services they are advertising, but please steer well clear of unsolicited offers like these.

Typically what they’re trying to do is use your web site as cannon fodder. If you post the link as requested, they’ll then spam a bunch of other people with links to your page - so you’re the one who suffers the ill effects.