Telecommunications advertising - sponsorship, pay-per-click (ppc) and text links.
The TelecomsAdvice website has been established since 2000 and the home page has a Google page rank (PR) of 5. More specific subsidiary pages covering, for example, mobile phones, voip, broadband, fax to email, DECT etc., range from PR5 down. Try searching Google for 'business telecoms' we have been top of the natural search results for years. Alexa show us ranking highly for 'office telephone systems' and similar keyword phrases
Want to advertise on this site with Google? click here!
Google ads are generally pay per click (ppc) or cost per click (cpc) and priced on a bidded keyword basis. They don't tell us how much they charge advertisers but we get varying amounts depending on varying circumstances.. Or you can place pay per click or other types of adverts direct with us from around GBP0.10, average around GBP1.00, plus vat per click for a keyword bidded simple text ad on keyword related pages. See our sponsorship advertising interface or use the 'contact us' form for more details.
Telecoms and Internet products and services Text Link Ads
Pay per click ads only cost you when clicked - but because they pass through a tracking server the link is not direct to your site and does not improve your site's search engine rankings - link building, including text link ads, are an essential part of a search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy. A direct text link will improve your natural search engine page rankings as well as bringing highly relevant clicks/visitors/consumers/customers from relevant content - but because we can't track it or serve it to the relevant content automatically it has to be paid for on a monthly basis per page on which it appears. The cost would be between GBP10.00 to GBP35.00 per text link ad, per month, per page - depending on the PR rank of the page. You can contact us direct and get a text link to your site from our PR5 home page - or any more specialist sub-page - or go through our advertising agency by clicking on the banner advert below - or you may want to monetise your own site by providing text link ads - click on our agency's banner ad for details.
Telecoms and Internet products and services Affiliate Advertising
We also carry Affiliate advertising for numerous telecoms and Internet products and services. Affiliate ads only cost you, the advertiser, when a click-through is followed by an 'action' (a purchase or sign-up) within a specified time. The clicks are supposed to be tracked by a 'cookie' on the visitor's computer but the system gets confused if the visitor follows different affiliate ads to the same supplier during the cookie life, or the cookie gets blocked or deleted by anti-spyware type applications, or, particularly for commercial customers, they don't buy on-line but resort to telephone order with a sales person after getting contact details from the click-through. Because of this drop-out rate, affiliate commissions have to be relatively high to be attractive to publishers like us. Banner ads for the main Affiliate networks we deal with are shown below but Affiliate ads on our page space are subordinate to our pay per click and text link ads. Affiliate ad links may go through several servers before they arrive at your page so affiliate links do not boost your search engine page rank.
Who is behind TelecomsAdvice?
In 1999/2000 the Oftel Small Business Task Force identified a need and developed a brief for a website based service to give telecoms and related ICT 'advice' to small businesses which don't have their own ICT support staff. Initial advice and technical assistance was provided by SBTF member 'Telerise', a "not-for-profit" EU funded project based at the University of Sheffield. Crucible Multimedia Ltd was established to administer and develop the site - based in Sheffield and able to take advantage of EU assisted area support. Oftel funded the initial site design and promotion, and David Edmonds, Director General of Oftel, officially launched it in August 2000.
On-going funding was from ICT industry main sponsors. Oftel promoted the site to prospective sponsors and funded promotion of the site and its services to small business consumers until its merger into Ofcom. During the merger period, while Ofcom's new policy was developed, promotion to sponsors lapsed and some of the shortfall in sponsorship was made up by direct funding from Oftel/Ofcom. Crucible Multimedia Ltd. also took on related consultancy work.
While acknowledging our success and supporting our work in principle, Ofcom have made a policy decision not to directly support independant initiatives like telecomsadvice and so we are now entirely funded by sponsorship and advertising revenues. We retain our absolute commitment to impartial or balanced editorial and the maintainance of consumer trust while working with ICT suppliers to provide 'advice' which enables informed choice and promotes effective solutions to our visitor's needs. Any supplier of ICTs to UK consumers can have a free entry in our ICT Directory and submit editorial for publication and sponsors' keyword related links will appear on relevant pages.
Information for sponsors
TelecomsAdvice continues to be publicised direct to small businesses and through Chambers of Commerce, consumer and trade associations, banks, accountants, Business Links and other business support advisers. Our initial endorsement and promotion by Oftel (now Ofcom), the former Oftel SBTF member organisations and the DTI's Small Business Service ensures a high credibility rating and a constant stream of visits by our target audience. Our practical, impartial advice ensures a high level of return visits and referrals. We are an encyclopaedia, a reference resource for the generalist owner/manager rather than a magazine for 'techie' enthusiasts. Our visitors are here to find the first step towards an ICT solution - to find-out about applications and technologies, products and services - to get basic 'advice' to enable them to make an informed purchase.
All main sponsors have in the the past contributed GBP5000 per year each. This is continuing with increased functionality through our new sponsorship advertising interface. This interface is also now open to advertisers who don't want to commit to an annual sponsorship. Sponsors/advertisers can invest in keyword related pay-per-click (ppc) text ads which appear on relevant editorial, search and ICT Directory pages. Leading brands which get more clicks from us can get a discount on the ppc rates through annual sponsorship. Our ppc rates (which can be seen after registration through the interface) are based on our experience with carrying Google ads and average ppc rates actually earned with them.
We do not have the systems or human resources to administer a commission based scheme ourselves, however we do carry sponsored links from 'affiliate' networks. These links are also keyword related to the page content through our own interface and earn us commission if a 'cookie' tracked sale or formal registration results from a click thru'. Our own 'direct' ads appear above affiliate ads and affiliate ads are ranked by estimated average earnings per click (epc). Low earning affiliate ads may get pushed off all but their own ICT Directory entry page. During a transition period main sponsor text ads may appear together with their own or their subsidiary's affiliate network ads. Any supplier of ICTs to UK consumers can have a free entry in our ICT Directory.
Further development of the site is geared to total funding we are not reliant on any one company for our continued existence. Content is welcomed from sponsors and non-sponsors, public and private sector, and is published on merit, although we do circulate sponsors with requests for information and sponsors do seem to be more active in providing articles for publication.
We hope the ICT industry will support TelecomsAdvice - to be associated with a consumer advice initiative which reduces the uncertainty and confusion in the minds of consumers which can delay their decision to buy, and for small business awareness of their brands, products and services.
To enquire about sponsorship whether you are a large or small business, principle or advertising agency use the sponsorship advertising interface or contact by email.
Reviewed October 2010