Promtion and Advertising - your views / advice

[Garreg]

This may seem a little odd and slightly off topic in this forum, but any help and advice would be gratefully appreciated.
I have a web site which is membership driven. Although the ‘intended’ audience is young people aged 13-19 there is also a large proportion of adult who use the site.
The site has been operational for about 3 months and is growing daily.

The web site is not web hosting orientated, it is based on information and services for Army Cadets and their Instructors (though many of them design and build web sites for their units but mostly use free web hosting services). I presently host and support freely as a type of ‘pay back’ for the effort these young people put into the system.

At present I have 0ver 650 signed up members (on the main site as the forum database is separate) this month –
1021 visits (averages 46 a day)
8057 page views (averages 366 a day)
155220 total hits so far for July.

I’ve installed a banner system (PhpAds) and basically display self promoting banners for the site and some free ones for moderators of the site forum.
An idea of the banners is –
Ad views – 40468
Ad Clicks – 157
CTR - 0.39%


Where I would appreciate anyone’s advice / experience is – how should I utilise the banners system effectively? I’ve been approached by two people enquiring about purchasing some banner ads on the site. Problem is, I have never done this sort of thing before and am completely lost as to what to charge or even if it will work.

Has anyone had any experience of this sort of thing and would like to share the pro’s and con’s with me …… The aim is not to make $$ and I certainly don’t want it plastered with banners. From what I’ve learned it’s seems difficult to make anything out of banner ads, however I though any income gained could be used to promote the site and the things that these young people do ….. Hope that explains things a little.