David Pitlyuk

Carbon Fiber Gear originally started out as an experiment for myself in affiliate marketing.  The idea was to highlight carbon fiber parts and products, some that utilized affiliate links, and others that did not.  Through the time that I’ve had the site launched, I’ve taken it into a few different directions.

Originally it was just a blog, powered by Wordpress, using a free template.  I then later launched an eBay store on the blog utilizing the phpBay script.  Afterwards I created a custom design, and converted the phpBans script into BANS.  Now I’ve hired my first contributing writer, and the site is really starting to progress into its own real brand.

In the past I hadn’t really taken advertising too seriously on the site.  I had run some AdSense, and it brought a few dollars here and there.  I wanted to start selling some real advertising, so I had to setup a plan.

At first I created a 300×250 spot on the top left sidebar, and wanted to offer it up for $150/month.  The spot was to be exclusive, so one advertiser would fill it, and would run on 100% of the impressions for the month.  A couple of days ago, I decided to change that 300×250 spot to 2-4 125×125 spots that will cost $25/month each.

This will allow me to sell a variety of spots and not count on just one advertiser.  I also will only be accepting month to month contracts as opposed to multi-month contracts at a discounted rate because the site is growing fairly quickly…and $25/month is more like an introductory price to get advertisers in the door.

Once I had everything setup, I wrote up an advertising page with information advertisers would need.  All of the advertising is served using Google Ad Manager for tracking and trafficking purposes.  Google Ad Manager is fairly complex, but once you understand the system it’s very nice.  Shoemoney has praised it as well.

While I don’t expect advertisers to come knocking on the door, I suspect if I actually go out and try to sell the spots I wouldn’t have too much of a problem considering the low cost, amount of traffic, and very targeted carbon fiber niche.  I’m still not very driven to work on the advertising at this point in time, but the opportunity is now out there.  I suspect this will be a big part of Carbon Fiber Gear in the future, and I will continue to create new opportunities as the demand progresses.