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Finding major advertisers for a website - Q & A

Debbie calls from California to find out ways to get big investors interested in advertising on her website.

Rich Sloan:  We're going to go out the phone lines right now and we have Debbie, out of San Diego, California.  We are live, Debbie, go ahead.

Debbie:  Hi, Rich and Jeff, thanks very much for taking my question.

Jeff Sloan:  Yes.  Well, conditionally we're accepting you on the air.  We hope it's a good question.

Debbie:  Oh, boy, no pressure though, right?  I'll try to live up to it.

Jeff Sloan:  Bring it on.

Debbie:  So, I've started my own independent publishing and podcasting and video empire, my new media empire online.  And one of things that I'm convinced about --

Rich Sloan:  We always love, Jeff, to hear the term empire in anyone's introduction.  That's a sign of serious ambition.

Jeff Sloan:  That's an ambitious entrepreneur, no doubt about it.  I'll tell you what I like better than hearing the word empire, I like the idea so far.

Rich Sloan:  Yeah.                                     

Jeff Sloan:  It sounds interesting.  It's a very hot area.  Go ahead.

Debbie:  Thanks.  So, I have a blog and a podcast at Mobil(Unintelligible).com, and just this month I've launched a collaborative podcast at Media-slaves-blogspot.com, which features experts from video podcasting, blogging and myself from the mobile arena.  And we're convinced that rather than traditional advertising or even traditional online advertising, which (unintelligible) CPM or page views, that the success for supporting the act of creativity rests in sponsorship or underwriting.

Jeff Sloan:  Okay.

Debbie:  And I know that StartupNation has been successful in doing that with companies like Southwest Airlines.

Jeff Sloan:  Right.

Debbie:  And so, what I'm looking for is maybe some lessons learned from you guys.          

Rich Sloan:  Here's the key thing.  Here's the key thing, Debbie, let me tell you how that works.  First of all you're the "little guy".  We're the little guys too at StartupNation relative to some of these major sponsors.  You want to get them interested, you've got to show them one or both of the following things.  Number one, you've got to show them statistics that indicate that their target market is your audience.  Number two, you've got to show them that you have those people in a significant enough number that you are going to have an attractive impact, given the number of people that you touch, and, as I mentioned before, the quality of the people that you touch.  And on the second point, if you can't give them either of those things in a compelling way based on today's statistics, you're going to have to paint a very strong picture to them as to how you can achieve that down the road.

Debbie:  Right.

Rich Sloan:  And how you can grow together.  And how an association with your brand can help their brand.  StartupNation, obviously, we're connecting to people like you who are out there taking action, doing things as entrepreneurs, and so companies like Southwest Airlines want to have an association with us.  It's good for their brand, it's good for our brand.  You have to create a similar value proposition when you go after them.

Jeff Sloan:  Yeah.  I think that's right.  I'll say one other thing about all this, Debbie, and that is that, you know, the world of advertising is changing rapidly. You're on the leading edge, riding the wave of change here.  CPM, that's a thing of the past in my opinion.  You know, page views I can buy into a little more, but it's all about quality of audience these days.  Meaning, you know, would you rather talk to 1,000 people or would you rather, you know -- of which two percent are interested in what it is you have to say, or would you rather talk to 100 people, 90 of which are interested in what you have to say. 

Debbie:  Right.

Jeff Sloan:  And the point is, quality of audience is what it's all about.  I like the direction you're taking, and sponsors are a good way for you to go.

Rich Sloan:  All right, Debbie.  And we've got another call here so, we're going to say thanks a lot for calling into the show.  Keep up the great work.  Definitely sounds like you're on fire.