For example, say I went to the store and bought a package of M&M's. Could I add 10 cents to the price I paid and then sell them on my website?

Thanks.

This is a bad time to be in the ad game period. TV is taking a bath and I am sure radio and print are feeling a pinch too.

Just read the news, Disney is hurting in part due to slow ad sales at ABC. Fox is getting killed on it's NASCAR deal because they paid based on last year's ad market and now the $$$ is no where near that.

It is a time where corporations are scared to do anything and tightening belts. Ad money will flow back as soon as the trend becomes a " Now is the perfect time to capture market share, with the low rates it will be a steal" mentality

Now, that being said, I am closing my own site down for the next 6 months... The reason is that a partner of mine runs it and it currently can't pay for itself as a two person operation. I will re-open it myself and work on re-building it's income when I return from my deployment (US Navy) later this year.

Good luck!

Matt

They ahve to start measuring web adverts not solely based on ctr, they do have a branding effect, I have seen many online ads amny times, which resulted in me buying somthing later from them, or made me visit there site, This many companies already know who still pay by cpm, But cpc ads are becoming a joke, and no site will be able to sign up for them, I htink that cpc ads shoudl be made for clicking but these days they all have the web sites url on it, and incrasingly even phone numbers, this is good, but will not make someone click on my ad, ctr is so low these days, that if cpc remains the primary source of doing buisness then I think the internet is dead. This is also similar for cpa ads, but not so much as some cpa progras can be very effective and usually you decided how you will promote them.

I'll talk to a lawyer just to be safe.

Thanks.

Until such time, and if you have not already, you may want to consider replacing some or all of your ad network code with well targetted affiliate banners as Voltec mentioned.

Although I swore I would never do it, I did the same on another site I run a couple months ago and since then my average monthly net CPM on unsold inventory has more than doubled over what it was when using ad network code alone.

Going this route obviously requires much more effort than just throwing up some ad network code and not having to worry about it but given the current rates of most ad networks, you may want to consider trying it.

While running affiliate banners is earning me more money it is certainly alot more work and thus I would not hesitate for a moment to go back to using an ad network once the market recovers and their rates bounce back.

[This message has been edited by AdRatesOnline (edited 04-06-2001).]

I think the third quarter should be decent. So it's basically just a waiting game.

Nevermind - here it is: http://www.mydssd.com/main/source.htm

That's the direct URL BTW. No money in it for me. I already bought it myself - just haven't had time to warm up to it yet. Sigh - just NOT enough hours in the day.

What are you going to do with products that are returned to you for various reasons?

Doesn't sound like much of a plan, to buy at retail and then markup the item.

Reminds me of a brain storm I had when I was about 10 years old. I thought it would be really cool to be a newspaper boy. Way back then, daily papers sold for a nickel. My idea was to buy them at retail and resell them on my corner for a dime.

Ron - Thanks for the URL, but that won't really work for what I had in mind. I'm going to be packaging a few different products together. Although, this may help for something else I had in mind.

jsinger - I'm not going to go buy M&M's or hot dogs at the store and then mark up the price. I was just using that as an example.

Thanks Janet, that's the reason I was asking my original question. I wasn't sure if I was able to advertise a trademark product. I'm still going to talk to a lawyer, but from what I have read I think I can.

I am unable to understand your comparison between computer companies and advertising networks; there seems to be no logical connection between the two.

Networks such as engage and 24/7 media are virtual right offs. Engage manages to lose 50,000,000 on revenues of 26,000,000. That withstanding, I see little hope for the company. For engage to become profitable, its revenues must grow by 300% without incurring any additional expenses.
The chances of something like this happening within the next 4 months are rather remote.
Without a massive transfer of capital from parent company CMGI enagage is finished.

[This message has been edited by electrophilic (edited 04-13-2001).]