Wagging the long tail
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
Last Updated: Tuesday, 13 May 2008
By Denise Shrivell
Think your website is too small or niche to generate advertising revenue? Think again. Here are 10 tips to monetise your online platform.
Advertisers with limited budgets are increasingly looking at so-called ‘long tail’ websites that are dedicated to smaller, specialist audiences as a cheaper way to get their message across.
Wikipedia defines the “long tail” as a “colloquial name for a long-known feature of statistical distributions”. This term was first applied to the online arena in a 2004 Wired article by editor-in-chief Chris Anderson. These sites sit outside the major portals and are traditionally privately owned and operated, attracting a smaller but highly targeted and engaged audience.
Media buyers and analysts have long recognised the value of this market segment, with 2006 revenue estimates showing that it took in about $128 million, or a 13% share, of total online revenue. The “long tail” was second only to Google in market share increases, and its growth forecasts are strong.
Sites on the “long tail” are able to provide solutions for marketers who simply cannot afford the spend threshold required by sites at the “head”. There are many successful businesses happily “wagging” by delivering opportunities that meet the needs of lower-spending advertisers. However, developing strategies to ensure they are optimising their opportunity to capture these advertising dollars is a challenge for some long tail sites.
Many start-up and existing long tail web publishers openly recognise that they do not have expertise in structuring their sites and businesses to maximise and manage advertising. Long tails should not just rely on their developers, as they often do not have the specialised skill base to offer commercial advice, even on seemingly basic issues such as advertisement sizes. This can be hugely detrimental, in both the short and long term, to sites wanting to attract revenue from online advertising – particularly display.
Whether a site generates advertising revenue through automated systems, “in-house” sales representation, or outsources to the growing number of sales networks, laying strong foundations for an advertising business as early as possible in the lifecycle of a site is key. The options available and the way these are then presented to advertisers (or to an outsourced sales representation network), are also vital to achieving revenue objectives.
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