What should I charge for ads on my website?

Question

I am starting a website for my city that lists and keeps up to date ALL possible information for all the bars in my city. There are about 120 in total. I plan to keep info like reviews, live music information, dress codes, maps, happy hour specials, etc. On the front page I plan to have a "what's going on this weekend" section that has 2-3 of the major events for the upcoming weekend. They would stay up for 1 week prior. If I had 500 or so unique visitors each day thurs-sat what do you think I could charge a bar to have their event at the top of the list for a week? I feel like I could charge a pretty good fee because these people are only at the site to look for something to do on the weekend. It should be VERY effective advertising for the bar. Can anyone take some guesses at an appropriate weekly rate?

Answer 1

if you are not a naturally born sales person it is a rather hard thing to convince someone they should pay for being listed on Internet site. my 2 cents: first, work it out with the bars if they want to post small discount coupons on your site (5$) - that way they can measure what impact your site has on their business. then you and they can approximately calculate what is your contribution and you can negotiate a lead commission.