Selling Ads on a Japan Website:
Don't assume that because your website covers only Japan topics that
only Japan-related advertisers are interested in what you offer. If your website provides information
about Japan travel then target both hotels in Japan and foreign travel
agents.
Finding Potential Clients:
The best place to start may be searching for websites similar to yours to
see who is advertising there. Many sites run ad networks, affiliate links, and
locally served ads concurrently. Locate the locally run ads by
right-clicking banners or text links, choose "properties" and look
for URL's such as http://www.localsite/adserver/banner.gif.
These are likely to be direct clients of that particular site and likely to
be willing to consider paying for advertising on other sites as well.
Wouldn't it be nice if you already had a list of target clients ready to
begin contacting. Well, you do. Major internet directories provide just such
a list but all are not created equal. Below are selected major directories
and examples of categories with Japan-related ecommerce listings. Don't
limit your search to these examples. Potential clients may be listed in many
categories within the same directory so search, search, search.
Recommended Japan-specific ecommerce directories:
- Google directory
-
Shopping >
Ethnic and Regional >
Asian >
Japanese
-
Note: Probably the single-best list of potential clients you
will find. Don't stop here but definitely start here.
- Open
Directory Project (dmoz)
- Asia
>
Japan
>
Business and Economy
>
Shopping
- Note: Search for other categories such as
Japanese Clothing but the example above contains most of the
relevant listings.
- Zeal.com
- Clothes & Accessories > Specialty Clothes > Ethnic & Regional >
Asian >
Japanese
- Food & Beverages > Ethnic & Regional > Asian >
Japanese
- Note: Zeal is an excellent human-edited directory worth exploring
further for many more listings. Start from the
Online Stores category and begin exploring until you find those with
"Japan" sub-categories.
Not Japan-specific but worth a look:
- Yahoo directory
- Regional >
Countries >
Japan
- Note: This general Japan category is as close as you'll get to a
useful list here. It's worth starting here and searching a bit further.
Yahoo's directory does not contain a "shopping" category.
- MSN
- Netscape
You may also wish to visit webrings of Japan websites for more listings.
Generally speaking however, sites relying on ecommerce will not wish to
place the required banners on their pages for these rings. See our
webrings page for details.
Contacting potential clients:
Those in the world of ecommerce understand the importance of targeted
traffic. Explaining your Japan focus and why your visitors would be good
customers is critical.
Send only one personalized email to each potential client to
avoid even the appearance of spamming. Browse their website and try to
learn who owns it, their names, their history, etc. You are writing a
business letter, try to address it personally and professionally.
General tips on selling ad space:
Selling ad space is as easy as giving it away for free. A joke?
Not quite. After compiling a wish-list of advertisers from the above
sources, write 100 emails and entice them to sign up by offering 30 or maybe
even 90 days of free advertising with no further commitment. Sit back and
wait for the excited replies to roll in. And wait, and wait. You may receive a 10% response rate. Those who
accept your offer are likely to have paid for your service provided you already have an
established program in place. The key is offering a quality,
proven, results-oriented program, not dropping your price or giving ad space away
for free.
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