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When someone reaches out to me about advertising and asks for a rate card, I typically respond by telling them that we have had the most success drawing up custom packages, which usually run for a month or so, and don’t offer a generic rate card for advertising banners. It is true that we’ve blown it out of the water for our month-long advertisers, who typically get banner ads, sponsored posts, and social media support, but those are usually too pricey for small and even some medium-sized businesses that would love to get the word out about their product or service and can’t stomach (or afford) a more comprehensive package.

I think I’ve been doing it all wrong.

Rather than trying to reel in the big fish with expensive month-long deals, why not open up individual posts, themselves a valuable commodity, to smaller, more cost-effective sponsorship opportunities?

Say hello to Sponsored Posts.

For $100, businesses or professionals of any size and means can choose to sponsor an individual blog post. They will get their advertising message, logo, link and contact information in the body of a regular post, in bold, right at the top. This will also be viewable on the home page, which gets the vast majority of our views. Additionally, they will get a banner ad at the bottom of the post, above the comment section, which will be censored for vulgarity at the advertiser’s request (sorry, trolls). And, the sponsor will get exclusive ad rights on the post, meaning no other banner ads will appear on the page for the individual post– making the ad actually stand out rather than getting lost in a sea of ad network ads.

The advertising message will receive roughly 20,000 impressions (that’s a conservative estimate), mostly from men in their 20s and 30s in and around Philly. To say that’s a prime demographic for advertisers would be an understatement. The average reader is a 28-year-old male who earns $75k per year.

How much does it cost? $100

What do you get? A promotional message, in bold, at the top of a regular blog post on a day of your choosing, a banner ad at the bottom of the post, and exclusive sponsorship of the individual post page.

How many impressions? Conservatively, 20,000, though in many cases the number will be much higher.

Who is this good for? Businesses of all sizes, but especially small and medium-sized businesses or professionals – realtors, lawyers, doctors – looking to get the word out about their product or service to a substantial audience. It’s also great for SEO, brand awareness, and promoting specific events or products. While sports-related businesses – bars, memorabilia shops, ticket outlets – are an obvious fit, we have had some of the most success promoting businesses such as home builders, alcohol brands, and even mortgage brokers to our audience of mostly young adult men.

Who sees it? Crossing Broad is read by ~250k people each month. Most are local sports fans who live in or around Philly. About 80% of them are men in their 20s and 30s, many with an average household income approaching six figures.

Do I get to choose when my ad runs? Absolutely. You can pick the day your ad runs, and you’ll be guaranteed that it runs on a post with a minimum of 250 words. At the moment, I can’t guarantee the content of the post, but sponsorships will only run on posts with substance, and not just short video or Twitter posts with one line of snark.

Are there deals for frequency? You bet. You can get 5 posts for $350, or 10 posts for $750, the latter of which will include a separate, dedicated post about your product or service on Crossing Broad (limited availability). This is also insanely cost-effective.

Why are you offering the ads so cheap? Good question. The truth is, ad networks, which generate most of the countless ads you see on this and other sites, are highly unreliable, slow page-loading time, occasionally hijack your browser, and are generally a necessary evil for all publishers. I would much rather collect a small payment from a business directly, even if it’s a wash with what I would get from an ad network, and be able have only one exclusive sponsor on a given post than fill the page with six slow-loading ads. It benefits the advertiser, it benefits the reader, and quite frankly, if I sell enough of these, it benefits me. It’s a win-win-win. The ad itself is more effective, the message isn’t lost on the reader or, worse, annoying to them, and it helps support sites like this.

I challenge anyone to find more bang for your buck than 20k impressions for $100, especially in a highly-visible placement. It would cost you more to advertise in a high school yearbook or on a placemat. You’ll even struggle to get 20k impressions for $100 from cost-effective Facebooks ads. As an example, I spent $124 on Facebook to promote a t-shirt a couple of months ago, and barely got 20k impressions. It generated six sales. One blog post, on this site, about the same shirt, generated upwards of $5,000 in revenue in 24 hours. Results will of course vary, but if you’re in the market to promote your business to a local audience, you won’t be able to find a more efficient use of your ad spend.

Great, I’m interested. How do I get my ad on Crossing Broad? Drop us a line at [email protected] and I will get back to you within 24 hours with available slots and a link to lock in your date or dates. We can help you craft messaging for your ad and will just need a logo, link and other contact info you would like to have included. The goal is to make it as easy and painless as possible for small business to promote their products or services without dealing with designers, agencies, or big publishers looking to gouge them on lackluster placements just because they have a recognizable logo at the top of the page (say, a peacock, or something that rhymes with silly.com). And if you work for a larger company or agency, well, this will be the easiest ad spend approval you’ll ever request.

Drop me a line at [email protected] to lock in your ad– we’ll make it painless to get it live on site.