That TOTALLY depends on your site traffic, and how targeted you are? Are you an endemic site ?(preponderance of users from a single behavioral or demographic group). What are the average CTR (click through rate) for your placements (higher CTR's command higher CPM). What size ad units ? 728x90 are WAY cheaper than 300x250. Is the ad above or below the fold? How many competing ad units on the page?

I sold advertising on MySpace for a couple years and we charged anywhere from $.80 for remnant, pre-emptable inventory (300x250) all the way to $7 for a highly targeted placement.

A typical behavioral targeted ad was around $3.50 (300x250)

Pre-roll video is much higher, perhaps $10-15 CPM

Message me if you like and I can take you through most of it.

Unfortunately, there is no simple answer as it really depends upon the category of your website (specialized health content demands a much higher CPM- over $20, than a site with user generated content around no specific theme- maybe $0.50). However, if you call one of the larger advertising networks (valueclick, contextweb, etc.) and give them your stats they will give you some good guidance on they price they could get for your inventory (typically would be higher than adsense).

You are getting large enough to interest a "rep firm', but they typically want at least one million uniques to attract "brand name" advertises.

You have 1 million page views a month and you don't know what's the proper CPM for each banner?

Anyway, to give you a benefit of the doubt. CPM ranges differently from keyword and niches.

For a blog that has news and celebrity info (entertainment) the CPM is lower. I don't know what advertising agency approached you, but on the leading CPM we have tried it's around .20 - 1 USD per CPM

Now if your niche is more target specific.. make the CPM 1 - 2 USD

I wouldn't be surprise if the advertiser who approached you will give you a very low CPM. Considering that the leading CPM companies don't approach a website instead they are the ones being approached.

Even so you said you have a million page views. (true/false)

I recommend Internet.com. Their main focus is on CPM. ,Ref If you want people to enjoy the list for its own sake, pack it with useful content. Dispense wisdom that folks can't get elsewhere, and that will make them want to stay subscribed. For an announcement list, it's better to send out fatter messages less often. Resist the temptation to include too much advertising, and never put an ad at the beginning of a message - people will assume it's spam. As our friends at the search engines will tell you, a resource that has links to lots of other resources will attract more visitors than will straight content. Many mailing lists consist of nothing but links. If the list itself is the point of the exercise, then there's no reason not to include links to whatever appropriate resources you can find. If you simply keep an eye out for new links of interest to your audience, you can make up quite a useful little weekly or monthly list with comparatively little effort.

If the point of your list is to generate traffic to your site, you should approach things a little differently. The name of the game is to feature scads of links to your own site, and few or none to other sites. Instead of including self-sufficient content, include only "teasers," or blurbs that whet the reader's appetite for more info. For example, instead of a couple of paragraphs announcing that your new widget can handle twice as much widgetry as the previous model, include just a short blurb that says something like "Would you like to be able to process twice as many widget-units in the same amount of time? Now you can! Click on over to the site to find out how."

As with a banner ad, the name of the game is enticing people to click, and marketing types study psychology to figure out ways to push peoples' buttons (or vice versa). People are suckers for questions, and of course for "special deals." Also, people are more likely to click if it sounds like they will "get" something. You and I know that all they're going to receive is information, but make it sound as if they're going to "get" some tangible benefit (a free goodie, a chance to win something, a sneak peek at something new, etc.).

A discussion list can also be a good traffic-generator. When someone asks a question on one of our Web Developer's Journal discussion lists, I don't have time to write out an answer for them, but I do have time to give them a link to an article on our Web site where the answer might be found. Monitoring a discussion list is also an excellent way to get ideas for new content. If you see lots of people asking about a certain topic (especially if they aren't getting many good answers), then that topic is a good candidate for a new article. In fact, sometimes list members post answers that are so well-written that they can serve as articles themselves. Of course, you must get the writer's permission to do this.

As mentioned above, your mailing list software can be set up to include a blurb of text at the end of each list message, and this blurb can be used to tout your site. Change the blurbs often, keep them short, and keep them relevant. If the blurb includes paid advertising, keep it very short. Advertisers will try to talk you into making them as long as they can get away with. Gently remind them that yours is not an "opt-in" spam list, but a valuable resource which is read by wealthy scuba divers (or whatever), and that if it begins to resemble spam, the readers will all disappear in a cloud of bubbles. Ref.>

Make it easier on yourself and ask a flat rate for displaying their ads on your website, which can either be sitewide or not. Why should you worry about CPM (Cost per thousand) anyway. Just tell them that you do not have prices for CPMs. If they want to advertise, set your fee and that's it. I am obviously hoping that you know how much to charge for displaying ads on your site say for a week, two weeks or one month.

If they are not sure, give them a freebie of say one or two days. They can test it and after that pay or remove their ad. Simple. Forget CPM

Google AdSense automatically calculates your CPM. You can look at your CPM for your website's history, but I also suggest looking at your last month's CPM, year long CPM, etc. Figure out about how much CPM you are making with Google AdSense.

Then raise the rates a considerable amount more. They approached you, so they will probably accept your rate. If they don't, you can always negotiate. Just make sure that they're paying you more than Google AdSense is paying you.

Hope this helps :)

Since you are running AdSense right now, your AdSense earning will be a good gauge of how much you should demand.

Anyway, instead of CPM, I would think demanding a fixed monthly payment will be better both for you and your advertiser. This way, you do not need to install any system to track and report the page views to your advertiser (since you only got 1 advertiser). CPM could lead to argument if your advertiser receive too little traffic from you.

However, if you think that your site has higher potential, you should not agreed to any exclusive deals. Keeping AdSense on a less noticeable spot still enable you to keep your option open, as well as being able to see the trend in how your user interact with your site.

There is actually a simple answer. :)

How much are you making now with AdWords for your site? (No need to answer that.) Let's say it's $1000/month.

And you get 1 MM visitors / month. How much would you have to charge to make exactly what you're making now?

1,000,000 / 1,000 = 1,000 Which is the number of single M's you are serving up.

To make the same amount you're making now, you'd want to charge $1 CPM. That's our baseline and anything you get above it is moving in a positive direction.

Double it. In our scenario we make $1 CPM's worth of revenue, so ask for $2. Why double it and not triple, quadruple? Because it's an experiment. If the agency responds right away with a YES, then you can probably go higher with another agency down the road. This gives you a great starting point, and you've just doubled your revenue.

The friction in this situation comes from the idea of losing out on money you could be making. Remove this from the situation and create an experiment-rich atmosphere.

If the $2 isn't accepted, you should be given something below that and you'll still be making more than you already are. If you're offered less than $1 (your baseline) then you're better off with AdWords for now.

Congrats on such a popular site! Keep your eye on the sky!

Advertising rates are very dependent on the quality of your audience. Are they looking to make a purchase decision based on having visited your site? If so, how much would that sale be worth to an advertiser.

You can get some idea of the value of your site by running ads through Google AdSense. This market is primarily considered "residual" advertising - advertisers expect a fairly substantial discount from the direct advertising buys that they make.

I run social bookmarking site, Faves.com. As a social networking type site, we appeal to a "general internet audience", and as such can't expect much of a premium over residual ad rates.

We have historically been able to sell ads between $1 and $2 CPM - with a very similar audience size to your site.

The best way to set your price is to get multiple clients bidding for placement. By running AdSense, I know it's not really worth talking to anyone to replace my AdSense inventory unless they're ready to pay be substantially more than $2 CPM.

I would also warn you to beware of unsolicited advertisers. Many of them are running scams and will try to place Flash ads on your site that contain viruses or other mal-ware. It's worth it to do your homework to verify that your buyer is legitimate, and has a history of paying their invoices in a timely manner.

their are technically no normal rates for CPM, CPM is actually a dying way to advertise, but since google adsense is covering cost then i would say ¢10 is a good start even lower since these are the first time buyers then you can raise or shop it around with data on the CPM so anything from ¢10 and below should be a nice rate. Good Luck

it depends from what ads you want to use, banners ratio should be lower than for popunders, you will get more from http://poponclick.com

New sites usually ask for about $10 per 60000 impressions

Established sites usually ask for about $40 per 60000 impressions

I would say the latter about $40 per 60000 impressions

I aslo think you should check out buysellads.com. it is an ad marketplace where people buy and sell ad space. You should get a good idea about what to charge them and get good comps. By comps I mean sites that have similar site statistics for you to compare your site with.

Personally I think you should go and set up google ad planner and set the price as much as you want. You can go to adbrite.com and check what the price in your category is.

The must important is when an advertiser buy an ad make sure you contact him and get his feedback. Did he get great result or not. Maybe you will have to change the ad format or placement. On top of that remember the advertiser is king so gives him after 1 month of great service a bundle package for multiple months….

CPM is $5 Cost Per Thousand Impressions.