BANNER EXCHANGES
Everyone who has surfed the internet has seen banners. They are everywhere. It’s a rare page that doesn’t have at least one banner on it. Banners can be a great way to advertise your site. Using a banner exchange is a easy free way to do it.
Banner exchanges are definitely not all created equal. They more than
any other promotional application on the internet really range through
the spectrum. Some are just darn mean with what they offer and some are
generous. However some that sound really good don't always offer just
what they appear to.
How they work.
You put a banner on your site. Every time your banner is viewed, you get
credits and your banner is displayed on the site of someone else in the
network. Most banner exchanges offer a banner building service or a ‘build your own banner’ help aid. If you are seriously going into using banners it's better to buy yourself a good graphics tool and create your
own. Banners must be a specific size and almost all banner exchanges have
rules about where you can place the banner and how many other banners
you can also place on a page. Some police the sites in their network and
catch cheaters, some are not as diligent.
Choosing a banner exchange is much more difficult than choosing any other
program. The credit ratio you get, the bonus credits you receive to sign
up and a myriad of other things make it harder to decide. Not only that
but there are a lot more banner exchange programs than any others so you
have a lot more choice to wade through.
If you have more than one page on your website, sign up for several exchanges and use different ones on different pages. Don’t use more than two on the same page or it will get cluttered and most exchanges get annoyed
if you abuse their system.
SOME IMPORTANT POINTS TO CONSIDER
Filtering. Some sites allow you to filter what banners are shown at your site.(not including adult, all the banner sites listed here are general
purpose not adult although a few do have a special section for adult site
banners).
Filtering can be very important to some businesses. If you for example
are a website developer you might not want banners from other developers
showing up on your site. Being able to filter out the competition can
be very important.
URL display. Some banner companies only allow you to promote the url (website address) that you signed up to show banners on. This can be a disadvantage if you have more than one site and want to leverage the hits from one site to promote another.
Banner size. Some offer only one size banner others offer a variety of
sizes from buttons to large banners. Depending on your web site design
banner size could be important.
Animation. Some sites allow you to freeze animation of banners. Some people don't want annoying animation distracting their visitors from their site. Having this option can be important in some circumstances. It’s also important to note if this is the case when you sign up. You banner design
may have to be rethought if some sites will only display one frame of
your banner advertisement.
Credit Ratio: Some offer a very generous credit others don't, but they
may offer a different twist or aspect of marketing that another company
does not. Don’t just go on ratios when you choose a company.
A WORD ABOUT CHEATING.
It may seem like a good idea to create pages with long streams of banners so you get a bigger hit rate. However how would your feel if it was one of
your banners that was in that long list that on one looked at? There is
no point trying to push your hit rate up and cheating others out of their
exposure, someone might do the same to you. Don’t cheat. A lot of
banner exchanges do check their sites and throw out people who are caught
cheating.
USING BANNERS ON YOUR SITE.
Most companies only allow you to use one of their banners on a page,
so if you want to show two or more banners you will need a second company.
We advise all our clients to use at least two. That way you can compare
the effectiveness of your banners from the different banner networks.
If a network does not work for you, find another one.
If your aim is to produce a professional web site we don't suggest you
use more than two banners on a page. More makes the site look tacky and
promotional. No banners can often make a site look unused so using at
least one gives the appearance of a well oiled site.
Which companies you use will depend on what you are looking for in a site
and what look you want. If you are going for as many hits as possible
a multi level referral company may be for you. If you want a clean site
that gives the appearance of less advertising you might not want a company
that plasters it's name on the bottom of their banner.
This is not intended to be a comprehensive list of every single banner
exchange on the internet. However we have looked a most of them, dismissed
quite a lot, and signed up for quite a few. Some we recommend and some
we don’t, however you need to decide for yourself which to use based
on your website and needs. All these sites are general family use banners.
We have listed the advantages and disadvantages (as we see them) of each
company, and displayed one of their banners so you can see what they look
like. You can then decide what is best for you. If you wish to sign up,
click on the name or on the conclusion link and it will take you to the
site.
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