The Pestiside Advertising FAQ

Below are some frequently asked questions ("FAQs") about advertising on Pestiside.hu. If you'd like to know more about the site in general, please visit our site FAQ. Meanwhile, detailed information on our advertising terms and rates can be found here.

Why should anyone advertise on Pestiside.hu, when there are already several other print and online publications seemingly aimed at the same audiences?
Because Pestiside is the most cost-effective and hassle-free way to reach its particular segment of readers, especially English-speaking "internationals" residing in Budapest and those interested in visiting Hungary. Think of it as the publishing equivalent of a discount airline: it gets to the same place, but more cheaply and with less hassle. And with first-class service, of course.

But it doesn't seem like a serious newspaper, full of normal news stories and features like all the other second-language publications I see.
We haven't followed the same editorial direction as these other newspapers and websites because we believe many valuable readers in or interested in Budapest and Hungary aren't particularly interested in such news and information. Just as Népszabadság and Hungary's other "serious" newspapers are suffering a catastrophic loss of market share to their tabloid competitors and such online publications as index.hu, we see a growing interest in non-traditional second-language coverage. If you doubt us, just ask a few such target readers yourself how often they make it all the way through one of the other English-language publications offered in Budapest.

So what are these people actually reading, and enjoying?
The Internet, largely for news about things other than Hungary. This explains why many "internationals" in Budapest will know more about insignificant happenings in their home countries than relatively major events in Hungary. In fact, this segment of internationals is almost completely Internet-friendly, many to the degree that they are losing the habit of reading news on the printed page. Not to mention advertisements!

But at least when you advertise in print, you can be assured that your ad is actually appearing somewhere. Paying for Internet advertising seems like paying for air.
No more than buying TV advertising is "paying for air." Meanwhile, someone who sees your ad online can click right through to your own website and find out more about your product or service, or contact you directly.

How about the other online-only English-language publications focusing on Hungary? There seem to be so many, and I have no idea which one is the most well-read.
Yes, it's a jungle out there. There are numerous Internet-only websites aimed at local English-speakers and tourists. Most, however, do not feature any original content, and instead just publish links to other sources (including Pestiside) or promotional announcements. And, unlike Pestiside, none that we know of publicly discloses its readership statistics.

So how many people read Pestiside?
If you want to see how many people are reading on any given day, just click on the small metallic cube that is at the bottom of the center column on every page of the site. This takes you to a service called "Sitemeter," which offers a very conservative measure of traffic. As it is interested in measuring the duration of readers' visits, Sitemeter discounts those visitors who only view one page. (You can only measure the duration of a visit if the visitor clicks on more than one page.) As a result, it tends to "undercount" traffic by about 40% compared to the statistics that are normally offered by most websites. Averaging all the stats we collect, Pestiside sees around 1,000 visits a day, but it can be much more or less, depending on the day, or if we've broken a hot story. In other words, it's a bit complicated. But not as complicated as finding out how much traffic these other English-language sites get, because, as we said, for some reason they don't make any of their statistics publicly available.

Why don't they?
You'd have to ask them. But we are encouraging all of our colleagues to take the few minutes required to install Sitemeter or one of the other free counters on their websites. Likewise, we would urge them to make their advertising rates public, and to move away from the practice of selling advertising by the month or week - which encourages websites to not be forthcoming about their readership figures - towards charging per advertising impression, which is increasingly the industry standard, both abroad and in Hungary.

So how do I advertise, and what does it cost?
It costs as little as Ft 3 (1.2 eurocents) per impression, and is as easy as sending us an ad, or the ingredients for an ad or promotion, and however much money you want to spend, starting at a minimum of, yes, Ft 3. You can find out more about our rates and terms by clicking here.

One last question. Why did it take you so long to start asking people to advertise? Normally, most publications begin by looking for advertisers, and then try to get readers.
Exactly. We decided early on that the best way to successfully launch a new English-language publication would be to focus first on building a loyal readership, and then invite advertisers to join in the fun. Welcome to the party.