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Ask HN: Managing direct ad sales - yourself? or hire?
I have a website that has enough traffic that I'm going to start seeking direct advertisers.
I've never done it before, and someone suggested just posting an ad on Craigslist and hiring someone, paying them 20% commission.
Does anyone have experience doing this? What worked for you? What didn't?
- mahmud 16y agoDo it yourself first, the cold-calling will give you valuable insight. Then hire a pro. Commission should be as high as you can, up to %70 is not unheard of. That's because the sales person makes money from the first payment, but after that, the advertiser is all yours to keep. Make sure to get all the contact information within the company from the salesperson and communicate your intent to them.
- corin_ 16y agoI work for an online media company with a range of websites, with online advertising being a decent chunk of our revenue. We have a full-time Director of Sales who comes from a background of non-advertising sales (he worked for a UK hardware distributor previously), and he is by far the most talented salesman ("salesman" makes him sound like someone who goes round knocking on doors, but I can't think of a better word), and there's no way we would have ended up in a better situation if he wasn't with us. Obviously it depends on your situation, but I'd certainly suggest that there are many scenarios in which paying a high wage for someone who's really good at what they do will bring in more than they cost.
- AmberShah 16y agohttp://buysellads.com/ http://buysellads.com/