If you run, or are thinking of starting, a business that depends for its income on selling advertising for websites or blogs, you may be missing out on a great source of revenue close to hand.

You probably spend a lot of time chasing up advertising on the internet. You may also use an agency or two which take 40-50pc of the income they generate.

Maybe it’s getting a bit harder out there now, with PageRank depressed and an almighty credit funk hanging in the air like a bad smell.

Here’s an alternative. Depending on the topic(s) of your site(s), try placing small display ads in the business section of your local newspaper or trade press.

Ask readers to consider internet advertising. You might remind them that it’s very competitive with comparable colour display stuff in magazines, or text lines in the small ads.

I stumbled on this field while following up our plans for a local West Country subNetwork. While assessing the potential for local ads, I saw how many national and international companies are present here in Devon. There are also lots of small businesses that trade internationally, often selling produce online, and also bags of computer and tech SMEs, some on the new technology park set up by the university.

It occurred to me that this was a treasure trove of potential advertisers for the Syntagma network, let alone a dedicated local one. As a source of text-link ads and 125s — which we haven’t picked up on yet, but intend to — it’s a veritable goldmine.

Advertisers don’t have to be based in the U.S. — a common assumption online, mainly because volume-wise it’s such an enormous market. But, for a middling sized digital network, there is literally huge potential in your local area.

A New Series on Business Startups — Part 10

In the third part of a long interview John Evans, founder of Syntagma Media, gave to retail analyst Gerry Reynolds, he discusses online advertising in some detail.

If you’re involved with advertising on the internet, whether as a buyer or seller of space, this will give you plenty of insight into how it works and which systems to use for specific purposes.

Here’s a taster :

Gerry : I’d like now to look in more detail at the essence of the business, its income, i.e. advertising. What are the main parameters of online advertising?

John : Online advertising is relatively new, so it still has more than a shade of the Wild West about it. It’s improving all the time, though, and growing very fast …

Read the whole article.