I'm looking to advertise on a website, and they told me the minimum was $10K a month, but since I'm a startup, they said they would give me half off. I'm looking to drive traffic to this targeted market. Is this a good deal? The Alexa rank of the site is in the top 1,000.

It seems a bit steep to me, but I’m almost willing to try anything as long as I can effectively measure the results. You’re going to need to know what CPL (cost per lead) is the maximum you can bear. It will vary from industry to industry, and your product/pricing model, but 15% of your cost per acquisition (CPA) is a good start (or, in other words, what are you willing to pay for a new customer?)

I wrote a blog post last year about this, and measuring the results of paid sources MUST equal or better the conversion rates from SEO, or other free sources.

http://www.pearanalytics.com/blog/2010/free-marketing-tools-for-startups/

Also, you can try advertising for a lot less on sites like buysellads.com.

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How can I drive traffic to my web company?

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