We might as well turn this into constructive dialog - does anyone have any thoughts on how to monetize niche online media? Our events went well, but didn't scale.
Thats the route you have to take. Partner with others to develop products. You bring the audience. They bring the products that help the audience. Something similar to what EarlyToRise.com did - created a panel of experts each of whom bought their own product to the table. (http://www.earlytorise.com/meet-the-experts/ )
We have some other thoughts as well, but need to value and compare all the currently available options.
Even with the best sales guy it's very hard to sell when there is no market appetite. Sounds like the demand is there, media never needs to 'run out of spots'.
Its a highly valuable market niche and you are possibly underpricing.
I suggest you increase your sponsorship prices drastically.
We optimised the price in a way that we are able to sell out. It was also the maximum in revenue we could have reached so I think we did well in that sense.
The key here, in running a media business, is how do you go about building enough products that will keep you running through out the year - when there are no events (which for us where the biggest source of revenue).
I think this question will also remain a question to answer for the future, no matter how ArcticStartup will run.
As simple as packaging up paper-work or arranging trips to China to talk to manufacturers etc?