Looking for advice on selling to private advertisers.

[RenFrompenn]

I am looking for advice on how one goes about earning revenue through private advertisers. Could webmasters who use this business model please offer advice?

How do you find advertisers or do they find you?

How do you determine your rates?

Do you have a page that you direct your potential advertisers to that contains CPM, rates, etc? If so, may I see it so that I can get an idea of how I should format mine?

Do you bill monthly?

How do you receive payment? Do you use PayPal?

Any advice would be helpful. Thanks!

[Cutter]

I'm about to do the same thing for one of my sites.

1. How do you find advertisers or do they find you?
If you have to ask, then you probably should just stick with Google.

2. How do you determine your rates?
See what you would earn with Adsense, charge more.

3. Do you have a page that you direct your potential advertisers to that contains CPM, rates, etc? If so, may I see it so that I can get an idea of how I should format mine?
I'm working on this. Most places usually have a pdf file called a media kit. Here is AskMen.com's which is a typical example:
http://www.askmen.com/media_kit/presentation/media_kit.pdf

4. Do you bill monthly?
Yes, I will be. Even if you are pre-selling a years worth of advertising magazines and sites usually bill monthly.

5. How do you receive payment? Do you use PayPal?
I'll probably go with check and credit card.

[RenFrompenn]

I'm about to do the same thing for one of my sites.

1. How do you find advertisers or do they find you?
If you have to ask, then you probably should just stick with Google.

Well, most of your post was informative, but this first point wasn't especially helpful. If one doesn't ask, how will one learn?

[Cutter]

The point was that if the potential sources aren't obvious you are going to have a very hard time selling to them.

I'll tell you where I'm going to find them. I'm looking at who is advertising in related magazines and websites. I am also giving away free advertising to people who may have not even thought about advertising online to begin with.

[Masetek]

Also with the question about how much to charge, make sure you check out how much your competitors are charging. I'm not saying you should charge less/more than them, its just good to know. Also, offer as many different packages as possible. Different options suit different advertisers. Some like text links, other banners etc. Offer different placements/pages/sitewides/featured. the more the better I think. And dont forget to tell your potential customers that you can always setup something custom for their needs.