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Selling ads, practically
How to price your inventory, handle advertiser enquiries, and sell placements directly without giving up what you already earn.
Selling Ads on a Cannabis Site: What Actually Blocks You
Three private decisions stand between a cannabis publisher and advertising revenue, and none of them were made by a regulator.
Read › 6 November 2026 · 7 minSelling Ads When No Processor Will Touch Your Industry
The hard part is almost never finding an advertiser. It is getting money from them to you without a third party deciding your industry is a problem.
Read › 3 November 2026 · 4 minWhen You Should Not Sell Ads Directly
Written by a company that sells ad servers, which is exactly why it is worth reading. The cases below are real and we would rather you knew.
Read › 30 October 2026 · 4 minFloor Prices: The Number That Stops You Being Undercut
One number per slot, and it is the difference between a slot that earns and a slot that sits empty at a price nobody will pay.
Read › 27 October 2026 · 4 minWhat Is an Ad Tag, and What Happens When It Fires
Written for the publisher who has been told to paste something into their template and would rather know what it does first.
Read › 23 October 2026 · 5 minDo You Have to Leave AdSense to Sell Direct?
This is the question that stops more publishers than any other, and the answer is short enough to fit in the first line.
Read › 20 October 2026 · 4 minPassback: How to Sell Direct and Keep Your Network
The single most common objection to selling direct is that you might end up worse off. This is the answer to it, and it is mechanical rather than reassuring.
Read › 18 October 2026 · 8 minNever Show an Empty Slot: House Ads as the Floor
An unsold slot is a blank rectangle telling every visitor the space is not worth buying. Something should always be in it.
Read › 16 October 2026 · 4 minWhat a White-Label Ad Server Really Costs
The advertised number and the number on your card are different on most platforms, and the gap is where the portal lives.
Read › 14 October 2026 · 7 minRevive Ad Server: The Free Option, Honestly Assessed
Free to download, paid for in evenings, and missing the one screen your buyers need.
Read › 13 October 2026 · 4 minWhat an Ad Server Actually Does, in Plain English
Three jobs, one of which is interesting. Nothing here requires you to know what a DSP is.
Read › 11 October 2026 · 7 minShould You Build Your Own Ad Server?
The question is not whether you can write it. It is whether you want to still be maintaining it in three years.
Read › 9 October 2026 · 5 minAd Network vs Ad Server: What You Are Choosing Between
The words get used as if they were alternatives. They describe two different jobs, and confusing them is why publishers think direct sales means giving something up.
Read › 7 October 2026 · 4 minViewability, and Why Served Is Not the Same as Seen
Two ads can both be counted as impressions when one was read and the other was never scrolled to. This is the measurement that tells them apart.
Read › 6 October 2026 · 3 minHow to Build an Ad Rate Card That Closes
Most rate cards are written as an opening position. The ones that work are written as a checkout page.
Read › 5 October 2026 · 3 minSell Newsletter Sponsorships From Your Ad Portal
The sponsor who wants Tuesday's issue should not have to wait for your reply. Here is how a send gets booked, paid for and approved without one.
Read › 4 October 2026 · 7 minStop Discounting Your Ad Space
Every buyer asks for something off. What you give away, and the form you give it in, decides what your inventory is worth next year.
Read › 2 October 2026 · 4 minHow Much Traffic Do You Actually Need to Sell Ads Directly?
The question assumes advertisers buy volume. Direct advertisers buy relevance, and relevance is worth between ten and forty times more per reader.
Read › 30 September 2026 · 5 minAd Revenue for Crypto Publishers, Without the Cut
The demand is there and always has been. What is missing is a way to take the money without a processor deciding your industry for you.
Read › 29 September 2026 · 3 minHow to Sell Direct Ads Without a Sales Team
Almost everything people think of as ad sales is paperwork. The part that is actually selling takes about twenty minutes a week.
Read › 26 September 2026 · 6 minFlat Monthly Rates vs CPM: The Case for Selling Time
Guaranteeing impressions sounds professional until the month your traffic drops a fifth and you owe somebody a refund for weather.
Read › 25 September 2026 · 5 minWhy Advertisers Stop Replying After Your First Email
They did not lose interest. They lost the window in which they were interested, which is a different problem with a different fix.
Read › 23 September 2026 · 5 minWhere to Find Your First Advertiser
Everybody says the first advertiser is the hardest. It is mostly a research problem, and research problems have methods.
Read › 21 September 2026 · 3 minWhere Your First Ten Advertisers Actually Come From
The advice is usually to build a pipeline and start prospecting. For most publishers that is unnecessary, because the first ten advertisers are already within reach.
Read › 18 September 2026 · 5 minRun an Inventory Audit Before You Sell Anything
You cannot price what you have not counted, and almost nobody has counted. This is the hour that fixes it.
Read › 16 September 2026 · 3 minSelling Ads in a Vertical Mainstream Ad Tech Avoids
If you publish in a restricted category, you are not competing for the same demand as everyone else. That is a disadvantage in one direction and an advantage in another.
Read › 11 September 2026 · 2 minWhat to Say When an Advertiser Emails Asking for Rates
The enquiry arrives, you reply with a number, and often you never hear back. The reply is usually the problem.
Read › 7 September 2026 · 4 minHow to Sell Direct Without Giving Up Your Current Ad Revenue
The most common reason publishers never try direct sales is a fear of losing the revenue they already have. That fear is based on a misunderstanding of how ad serving works.
Read › 3 September 2026 · 3 minDirect Ad Sales vs Ad Networks: The Honest Comparison
This is usually written as though one option is obviously correct. It is not. The right answer depends on things about your site that a generic guide cannot know.
Read › 30 August 2026 · 4 minHow to Sell Ads Directly on Your Website
Most publishers never sell a single ad directly, not because nobody wants to buy, but because there is no way to complete the purchase.
Read › 30 August 2026 · 4 minHow to Price Your Ad Space Without Guessing
Almost every publisher prices ad space by picking a number that feels defensible and then discounting when challenged. Here is a method instead.
Read › 30 August 2026 · 4 minYour Advertise Here Page Is Losing You Money
The average Advertise With Us page is a contact form and a promise to get back to you. It is the most expensive page on most publisher websites.
Read ›Stop being the bottleneck in your own ad sales
Every hour between an advertiser deciding to buy and being able to pay is an hour you can lose the deal. Give them a portal instead of your inbox.
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