@Sporthi Thanks, I'm glad you liked the post. I know it's hard to come up with a reason that people are interested in puppetry. For myself, I like building things, and I guess I just find that puppets are an enjoyable thing to build compared to other things I could build.... Good luck with all your puppetry!

... School of Puppetry on Why should I use puppets?
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This site is currently being migrated from Puppets in Melbourne. Please be patient whilst I move all the articles across.

Advertising

Information is given below as to why advertising on this site might interest you, how your advertisement might fit the content, and where visitors come from. But first, information about how to advertise here:

Ad spots

There are two advertising spots available ‘above scroll’ (visible at the top of the page), and six spots ‘below scroll’ (once you start scrolling down). Ad spots are shown across every page of this site.

Advertising here includes a small image (that you provide), a link to your website and if you would like, a very short sentence to go under the banner. Each ad spot is made available on a monthly basis, but that can be negotiated if you would like a shorter or longer time frame.

A ninth ad spot is always reserved for School of Puppetry, however, this ad will always be placed at the top of the page in the ‘featured pattern’ area.

Pricing

  • Above scroll $USD 5 p/month
  • Below scroll $USD 2.50 p/month

Which is better? Based on my own stats over the past few years, ads that are directly in the face of the user (’above scroll’) tend to get more clicks per view than ones tucked under the scroll bar.

Pricing is based on the web-standard of 1000 impressions (ads seen - not clicked) per month, with an average of 20 000 page views per month on my site. Even with the more expensive banner, you’ll be paying less than one cent per impression!

Split packaging

If you would like to share an advertising space with another service to reduce costs, split packaging can be arranged. In this situation, a rotating banner ad can be made, with two or more images/links in one ad spot. (In order to offer the best quality advertising for both visitors and your company, no more than four rotating images/links will be added)

Bulk ads

Want more for your money? You can purchase exclusivity on ad spots at a discount by buying up the ad space in bulk. You can purchase all the ad spots to make one long banner; or you can purchase one or more ad spots for three or more months at a time. Contact me for further details.

Technical stuff

File formats in the following would work the best: .jpg, .gif, or .png. Banners should be 102px X 80px in size.

Advertising fees must be paid upfront, and can be made using Paypal. No taxes are charged on advertising rates. Once the advertisement appears on the site, fees are non-refundable, and I can’t guarantee that there won’t be problems with my site that will cause your ad to be offline for any length of time; I can guarantee however that I’ll do my very best to make sure it doesn’t happen and to fix it as soon as possible if it does. Ads are not the same as ‘links’, which appear free of charge on the Links page. This page isn’t as popular as the rest, so if you’re looking for link-love instead of advertising, I don’t recommend it. Additionally, these links are added at my discretion and if you contact me about adding your site, I may choose not to depending on the content and currency (how up-to-date it is). The only other ads that appear on this site are through the use of Adsense for Search (Google).

Also, the above and below conditions/prices may be subject to change in the future, and a notice shall be placed here if any changes have been made. [UPDATE: This info has been changed as of 4th July 2011 to reflect different placement of ads due to a new website design]

Advertise now!

Please use the contact form to make advertising arrangements. Let me know: the placement of the ad (above/below), the type (full ad/split/bulk), the start and end date you’d like for the ad (next month/April/asap). Don’t send files via my contact form, it won’t work! 

Why advertise here?

The content on this site has been recently moved from the Puppets in Melbourne website. Over the course of 2009-2010, PIM received on average 20 000 page loads and more than 300 new and returning visitors per month. Over 2011, that increased to 28 000 page loads and 12 798 visitors per month. (More stats here) Not bad for a niche website. The number of visitors and popularity of the content is why I have migrated it all to its own domain name. I expect that over time, popularity and viewership numbers will increase further. In addition, this website and its content are all unique: no content is scoured from Ehow (although they have been linking to my content as a ‘resource’ as well as ‘using’ some of it too), no copying from Wikipedia, and you can bet your bottom dollar that it’s one of three websites that actively talks about the Australian puppetry community. Additionally, the content here is quickly becoming a well-known resource for puppeteers the world over, as well as a resource for those new or interested in the craft.

Those involved in the business of making and selling puppets, offering puppet performances, or any puppet-related service, would have a captive and interested audience. Although this site has an Australia-based focus to the content, the majority of visitors come from around the world - the US and Canada are the main regions where visitors are based, with the rest being Australia, the UK, Asia, some regions of Africa and South America. If you are involved in any aspect of puppetry, you have the opportunity to reach a wide range of locales with your advertisement.

What content is popular?

So you can best judge whether or not your service matches the content, the following topics are the most popular: making marionettes, making and using muppet-type puppets, and anything pattern related. However, this website aims to develop content in all areas of puppetry, which means that even if it’s not as popular, the content here still garners an audience and can match up with almost any puppetry service. Current keyword trends of the site’s visitors can be found here.

How do visitors find this site?

Predominantly from Google searches and other search engines. Almost 80% of visitors come from these engines, with about 11% from referring sites, and roughly the rest (10%) is from direct traffic. (As this site has been made up of newly-migrated content from Puppets in Melbourne, it may also please you to know that PIM receives a very high Google ranking in most searches on puppetry subjects - usually the first page or two of results, if not in the top three. It is expected that over time, this website will match that ranking) This means that the majority of viewers of my content are looking for something - your service for instance - without necessarily knowing what it is or how to find it. Indeed, the vast majority of people who email me looking for something puppet-related do not know how to find out about a particular service. Performers, companies, puppet designers, and tutors are all people I have referred these enquiries on to. Advertising here may just be what these people need to notice your service.