Previous: Doing Your Due Diligence

The most important part of this guide is DO NOT BELIEVE THE HYPE! I can almost guarantee you that whoever responds to your email, will almost always over quote their traffic stats.  Anytime you see a site you’re interested in, view their source code and see how they are monitoring their traffic, such as Google Analytics, however there are many services out there that do this, so keep your eyes peeled.  I always try to ask for the previous three months of stats and its often hard to get this information from them.  There have been instances where they wouldn’t provide me a copy of their Analytics reports so I refused to buy their traffic.  Also be cautious of people who try to show you stats from AWStats as they’re usually way higher than Google Analytics.

If you’re lucky enough to get a copy of the Analytics reports, this should provide you with all sorts of valuable information.  You can find out which countries their traffic is coming from, where their traffic is coming from, be it organic search results, type-in traffic or from other sites.  You’ll find out what percentage of new visitors there are.  These factors, especially the percentage of new visitors will help you determine how your CTR’s will hold up.  Organic search results and a high percentage of new visitors will mean your target audience won’t develop banner blindness as quickly.

Next: Demographic Research, Banner Placements and Negotiation Topics