Small Business Notes provides timely, quality information, resources, research, and news about starting, financing, planning, and operating a small business to help them successfully develop and grow a profitable enterprise.
Background
Small Business Notes is a medium-sized (3000+ pages of content), but growing
website that is developing a strong presence in the search engines as well as a reputation
for consistent, quality information, which brings us a substantial number of repeat visitors.
The focus of the site is primarily informational in nature. Instead of chatty overviews of
topics, we provide in-depth resources related to business problems and issues. So, for
instance, should a business be looking for information on managing payroll, they will find
not only how-tos on what is involved in doing payroll, but also relevant tax information,
and suggested software solutions. The goal is to provide the visitor with comprehensive
information that will allow them to learn what they need to manage each aspect of their business.
Advertising
The basic advertising philosophy of Small Business Notes is to offer
an uncluttered site so that the messages received are perceived positively, increasing their
effectiveness. Most of the advertising currently carried on the site is embedded in relevant
material, increasing the probability of the customer clicking through to learn more about t
he product. By offering an uncluttered site, the probability of a customer taking action is
much higher. One value of Small Business Notes is that we can easily develop
relevant articles and materials to supplement an advertising campaign, giving it seamless
continuity with the other material on the site. The most striking element of our advertising
philosophy is that in spite of our relatively low-key approach to ads, the payout level is
comparable to sites with much more aggressive and invasive campaigns.
Advantages
One of the biggest advantages in aligning with a site the size of Small
Business Notes is the nimbleness and flexibility with which we are able to respond to changes
in the market and to the needs of our advertisers. We are constantly developing new material
for the site (the homepage is updated weekly, in addition to new content being added on
a daily basis). While we have a plan for development, it is modified easily as new needs
surface and need to be addressed. Consequently, developing materials to fit with the
specialized campaigns is well within our scope of work.
Primary Audience
Entreprenuers who are considering starting a business and small
business owners who operate businesses with fewer than 100 employees.
Secondary Audience
Academics and students who are studying and researching small business.
Average monthly page impressions: 150,000
Average monthly unique visitors: 50,000
The advertising on Small Business Notes is from the following sources:
Google Adsense ads
These Google AdSense ads come in two versions:
PPC (pay-per-click) "contextual" ads, which are targeted to fit the content of each page. For example, you might find Google ads for accounting software in the "Financial Management" article, or ads for office space in the coverage of setting up an office for a small business.
Site-targeted CPM text ads, which (unlike PPC ads) run only on the sites that you select, such as ours.
Affiliate Relationships
We have affiliate relationships with a very select group of advertisers. Those sites are
continually monitored to ensure that they meet the quality and privacy guidelines that
fit with our site philosophy. Most of these affiliates come through the
Commission Junction network. In a very small number of
special arrangements, we have set up individual affiliate relationships with companies that
offer something of particular value to our audience. One of the primary independent
affiliate relationships is with
Amazon.com
HTML text links
We don't sell text links, and we don't participate in SEO (search-engine optimization)
linking schemes.
