Topic: IGN wants to advertise on my site. What should I tell them my yearly rate is?

[JonLeung]

I'm surprised they even asked.  IGN's pretty big around these parts..."these parts" being the INTARWEB.

I'm sure most of you know of my site, if just barely.  (I would mention it but it might be considered spamming, so I'll wait for someone to ask first.)  Yep, it's pretty ugly.  It's got lots of content but not much in style.  I AM in the process of redesigning it so it'll have a new look starting in the new year.  But how could they have known that?  o_0

Assuming the offer is serious, and I don't see why not, what price should I ask of them?  No one's offered to pay for ad space on my site before, and even if they had, no one's ever come close to being IGN.  I don't exactly revere them but holy schnikes.

I hear that in haggling the first person to name a price "loses".  Should I probably folow that advice and ask if they'd like to make a specific offer first?

(To be more specific, they are asking for text links to three IGN Entertainment properties, Direct2Drive, FilePlanet, and 3DGamers.)

[Bill Aurion]

Tell them your pay is for them to chunk Matt...

[Karl Castaneda #2]

VGMaps, eh? Cool concept; I like it. As for how much you should ask for, maybe you should just include something to the effect of, "...so of course I'd like IGN to advertise of VGMaps, provided the offered rate is up to standard" and just wait and see what they think "standard" is. Then again, my knowledge of negotiating is a lot like my knowledge of astro-physics...

[JonLeung]

Oh, I'd forgotten that my web site is in my profile here.  

I was thinking I should get back to work on the much-needed redesign.  If I send them a screen capture of what the new VGMaps.com is supposed to look like in the new year, I might be able to get a better rate, perhaps.

[King of Twitch]

They probably just want more traffic for their ads. Or it could be a phishing scam of some sort

[couchmonkey]

Man, I know what you mean about redesigns, mine's been sitting on the shelf for a while.

IGN, eh?  Congratulations! You could try to find some advertising sites that do text links and see if they mention rates anywhere.  You might have to make some calculations based on a per-click and making the assumption that x number of your users will click on it.  Otherwise, I think the plan to ask them to make a specific offer first is a good one.  Then maybe look at upping that by 20% or something...not so much that they'll say, "screw off" but enough to add a tidy profit to what they're offering.  That's just a wild opinion, though, the only time anyone wanted to advertise on my site the "pay" was a third party controller.

[JonLeung]

All right, I sent them a link to a mock-up of the redesign.  I hope it impresses them.

I haven't named a price, I sort of made mention of the fact that with a redesign will likely mean more traffic and so therefore I don't know what a fair rate would be.

Let's see what they come up with.

The Google ads I put essentially make the site pay for itself.  It'd be nice to profit.  If my site gets too much traffic I'd have to pay more per month for the hosting.  I'm sure this IGN deal would make it profitable even if this were the case.

Of course, who doesn't want more money?  

If they come back with an offer of like $120 a year, that would certainly be sweet, but I don't want to ignorantly accept that if I can get ten times as much, you know?

What do you guys think a fair rate would be?  I'm hesitant to show off the redesign but I'm hoping someone here would know better than I if I might be getting a deal that's not as good as it could be in any circumstance.  

EDIT: They just got back to me, and that second-last point I made was almost the case.  She suggested $1000.00 US (wow, that's like a million in Canadian dollars!   )...she also said it was on the high end of what they offer but she liked how in my mock-up the links were in a prominent location.

I don't want to push her too far, but I'm tempted to say for $1250 I'll put them up in my forums too, where ads tend to get more exposure anyway.  Is that reasonable?  Should I?  

[wandering]

hmm - I would, just because I don't see that there's much to loose. Is there really any chance that she'll say that they're not even interested in giving you the original amount because you asked for more?

But then, I'm really, really, bad at haggling....so please don't listen to anything I say.

[Artimus]

Say $1500 for the forums too, then you can probably end up with $1250 after haggling.

And with the exchange rate, that $1000 is only $1158. Exchange ain't what it used to be!

[IceCold]

I'm an extremely cautious person by nature, so if I was faced with this situation, unlike Artimus, I probably wouldn't take the risk of asking for more for fear of losing the deal completely. It seems like you would be haggling for a marginal amount more, especially considering that you were expecting quite a bit less before they contacted you. She said that $1000 was in the high end, right?

However, they must be serious about the advertising by offering you that much money. That means that they definitely are interested in your site, and I suppose you could ask them for a bit more. The forums definitely help also, and they have the potential to be a selling point.

I'm sorry - I don't think I'm really helping; more like evaluating both sides and giving my opinion. I don't know the going rates or anything, so I can't be of more help.

Yeah, last I checked the dollar was up to 86.3 cents - rotten luck, but what can you do?  

[Artimus]

IceCold, they'll ALWAYS understate their offer. If she's giving the max from the start she's really terribly at her job.

[JonLeung]

What I should probably do is accept the $1000 for the front page alone and get those links on there.  Then when I go to let her know that they're up, I could also make mention of putting them on my forums for a bit more.  Then she'll see it as $200-$250 for the forums and if she ends up rejecting that, she would still be giving me the $1000 for the ads front page since we'd already agreed on that.  So I'd at least get that much.

[odifiend]

Jon, give her the choice of two positives - tell her that 1000 is acceptable for the main site but you were also thinking about linking in the forums for something like 1200 (or whatever).  Then ask whether she wants to do main site advertising or main along with forums that way a 'no' answer isn't really an option, especially if she already made an offer.

[vudu]

"Oh, I'm sorry ... GameSpot just offered me $1,500.  Would you like to offer me more money?"

[JonLeung]

The funny thing is I just got an email from GameSpot about $2000.  XD  Okay, it was about some Quake 4 tournament but it's still kind of funny, timing and all.

[JonLeung]

Not that anyone cares but I managed to haggle it up.

"I'm in the money..."

But now I REALLY have to get that redesign done...

[IceCold]

Congrats!

[vudu]

When can I expect to receive my ten-percent manager's fee?

[Artimus]

What was the final fee?

[Ending Walker Tropic]

Hey I need money for my car repairs and I'm a bit short. In return I'll put an add for your site on my car is this fair?