If your selling banner ads for your website, you may want to consider offering more options. On my sites, when someone buys advertising space, we give them a banner ad, a certain # of product placements, and blog posts about their business.
It gives the paid advertisers more bang for the buck. We kept our prices the same and it caused our ad sales to triple.

If you have any tricks for creative advertising share those here!

Leah Oviedo
Mercado del Mundo

? When scouting advertisers it is important that they offer what your target audience is interested in. Then you can send an introductory email or call to those businesses to see if they are interested.

? I suggest the first people you contact would be those in your network already, people you know in person, and on social sites such as Linked In, MySpace, etc.

? If you own a social network, you can contact members from your site who own businesses and offer them a special price for advertising.

? Make sure you have an advertising plan with rates, site traffic, your target audience included, and what your site is about.

? A lot of advertisers look for at least 10,000 monthly hits. If you don?t have those numbers, try approaching other small businesses who usually can't afford to advertise on a larger site.

Search for "Media Kit Template" online to learn what you need to create a plan.

Leah Oviedo
Mercado del Mundo