Does your sales forecast call for clouds? Cloud computing – in which hosted services are delivered over the Internet – is gaining traction in many industries as companies look for cost-effective ways to manage IT infrastructures and applications such as customer relationship management (CRM). For media companies looking for cost-effective ways to upgrade their aging tech systems, the cloud may hold at least part of the answer.

Online advertising is in transition. Performance-based pricing has surpassed CPMs as the primary revenue source and now accounts for 58% of online advertising revenue, according to the IAB. Does your sales team have the skills to conceive and execute programs that attract advertisers and deliver real results? Read on.

It’s not easy being in ad sales these days. We bear the responsibility of generating the majority of revenue associated with our publication(s) but have almost no decision-making authority when it comes to the tools, technology and training we need to gain a competitive edge.  

I hear more and more media executives lament how their salespeople can’t sell digital or that they’re not using a consultative sales approach. There’s a remedy for this: Train your sales team to use web analytics platforms.

For new or small publishers, navigating the myriad of advertising server options can be tough. There are dozens of vendors out there, and most require a back-and-forth sales process, a high monthly fee and a bit of research.

However, If you want to just get your advertising operation off the ground without significant technological or financial investment, here are our favorite options for bootstrapping your ad serving:

The display advertising units that the Online Publishers Association released last year are gaining traction among OPA members, and even some non-members.