Gunggo advertising....

I got an interesting email from a lady from an ad agency wanting to advertise with us and take our entire ad space! :eek:

She mentioned pop-under and interstitial ads (both of which I'd never allow on the site, as I find them annoying, so I'd never impose them on our members!)

My concern though is why would they want to advertise here? I know the new cartoon is coming up and all, but I still don't think we get the amount of traffic to interest them... my first reaction was is this a spam email?

However I have checked their website and it seems genuine enough?

Anyway here's the email I got (as well as Mark and Chris):

Hello Neil, Chris and the TCL team,

My name is Carol Lam contacting you on behalf of Gunggo advertising.

I am inquiring to purchase your entire pop-under or interstitial inventory in US, CA, UK, and AU.

I am also seeking to fill 300x250 banner traffic you have on a 70% revenue share.

I have a big budget and am looking to start immediately.

Please contact me if you would like to discuss further revenue generation for your website.

Thanks and Regards,

Carol Lam
Publisher Account Manager
E-mail: [email]carol@gunggo.com[/email] | Tel: 416.637.5079 ext 2221 | Fax: 416.352.1228 | Skype: carol.gunggo |

I'd definately like to approach this one with caution though... the reason being we are sitting comfortable right now in terms of revenue for hosting. At the end of the day we are a fan/hobby site and not a business.

Big things are not accomplished with complacency Neil...this is not a knockout on you or the team in general but if we want to take the site to an even higher level and be comfortable with having no out of pocket costs to upkeep the site then we must think in big terms and take every opportunity that comes to us. This sounds like a big opportunity that could benefit the site and members as well since we could potentially have no out of pocket costs for upkeep and be able to provide members with things like giveaways, etc.

Tread with caution but communicate with them and see where theyre going with the proposal.

We want to do a bigger and better design for the site...one done by professionals. Then we need to think BIG

Chris here...

I also received the same e-mail - their website is real and the woman has clearly done her research to be addressing us by name, ThunderCats is a bit of a buzz word right now and so perhaps our site is a more appealing piece of Internet real estate than we think?? :)

I too would like to tread with caution as this e-mail is very random and out-of-the-blue, but I definitely think this is worth exploring. Like yourself, Neil, I would NEVER allow interstitial ads or pop-up ads on the site as they are seriously annoying and would just drive people away from the site. But, in terms of banner space, if they were willing to pay up front and were willing to talk chunky money, I'm too much of a capitalist not to listen!! LOL! ;) :D

Has anybody tried doing a Google search for Gunggo advertising? If these guys are scammers then there might be talk somewhere online... :)

EDIT: I just wanted to add that my motivation for saying this is nothing to do with the (perhaps rather mad) idea I threw out there about redesigning the site yet again - the only reason I say this is because I would love to see us build up a nice little nest egg so that if, for example, our hosting costs did go up because of traffic to this site, we might have raised some funds that could cover it. If we found in the fullness of time that this didn't happen, then we could think creatively about what to do with the funds, but yeah, I'd love to see us build up a nice kitty so we can have no worries about keeping this site online! :)

Take care... :)

I found this thread on a forum via Google:

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=609647

The thread is a bit dated, but it doesn't fill me with enthusiasm for this company! :D I just wonder if its simply a poor man's version of Google Adsense?

I do think we should enquire though, at the same time mentioning in the reply we have a policy of no Pop-Under, Pop-Up or inter..watsit ads. Banners are cool though such as the ones we have now.

I believe we have space for one more forum ad (positioned at the top under Contacts - ThunderCats Lair - Archive etc...) and maybe another one on the front page...but then again the new rolling video channel will occupy that...

Guess it don't hurt to hear them out... does someone want to start to contruct a reply?

Chris here...

Hey Neil, that thread tells me two things:

1) They're legit
2) They're rubbish! :D

However, like you, I think this would be worth exploring. For a reply, maybe something short and sweet like:

Neil replying said:

Hi Carol,

Many thanks for your e-mail, and for your enquiry regarding advertising on ThunderCats Lair.

Unfortunately we have a policy of not featuring interstitial, pop-up or pop-under advertising on our site. However, as you may have seen we are currently exploring opportunities from various different companies and organisations for banner adverts.

I note you say that your company has a big budget. Please can you advise us what sort of advertising rates you'd be able to offer, as well as what payment method you prefer, and I can then put this to my colleagues on the site for us to consider and discuss.

Many thanks for your interest in ThunderCats Lair, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best wishes,

Neil
ThunderCatsLair.Org Site Admin

...Something like that maybe? :)

Take care... :)

That my friend is perfect! ;) I'll send it off now.

Chris here...

"blackiecats, post: 45095" said:

That my friend is perfect! ;) I'll send it off now.

LOL, thanks Neil! Let us know what the response is! :)

Take care... :)

It seems this company is pretty much like Google ads, so I'm just gonna skip it. It's obvious (like Google Ads) their will be a payment threshold to reach before payment is issued. If we put ads up from another company we might be taking clicks from the Google ads, which will subsequently mean it takes longer to earn enough to then get paid by Google.

Below is the reply I got anyway, for the team to view:

Hi Neil,

I can offer you a 70% revenue share on all our campaigns on your site, averaging a $0.20 - $0.35 eCPM rate. We offer payment terms based on your preference, so anything from PayPal to bank wire to check.

Please let me know how this works for you.

To expedite the process, you can sign-up for a publisher account and input your payment information on the following link:

http://gunggo.com/Publisher/Sign-Up

I will personally set up your account and set you up with your tags.

Warmest Regards,

Carol Lam