Alright, I've got a gaming site that gets a fair amount of hits. I've recently been contacted by a few different companies wanting to advertise on my site. And since Adsense recently dropped me from their program (an entirely different topic) I need to get some moneys coming in from my site.

My experience with internetz has so far been 90% web development, 10% marketing. I make stuff, I don't sell it. :-) So my question is this: What billing options are there for advertising and how to I maximize my return? I'm so far aware of the obvious: CPC (x cents a click) and a flat rate style (eg. $15 / mo). Is CPM a tangible billing method as well, or is that used for me to understand how well my advertisements are doing?

While I know there's not a magical "You get X amount per click" answer out there, I would like to know some general averages or anything to get me started on a pricing structure.

If I'm off my rocker, feel free to pick my brains. :-) Thanks.

CPM is probably the most popular for on-site direct ad sales. I usually quote a CPM price then offer to put together a custom package with discounts for a volume purchase (i.e. 500,000 impressions+)

I have certain spots that are fixed fee each month as they are exclusive spots and impressions could vary from month to month.

I rarely sell CPC as Google is probably the best place for them to go for that model.

When I'm contacted by an advertiser, I try to understand their goals. Are they looking for branding, clicks, new product launch, etc. Depending on their goals, I'll put together an insertion order for them to review, and if they are happy with it, they just send it back signed and we launch the campaign.

I'm currently using Google Ad Manager to do my ad serving. Very flexible and lets you compete adsense for your inventory which has helped increase those numbers a bit.