Why advertise? With the continual increase
in the number of websites that are available for access today, it is not
particularly surprising that most of the sites that are made do not get
seen by other people. After the construction of your pride and joy on the
Internet, it is therefore necessary to advertise your site across the web
to let everyone know of the location of your site and give it a route of
access. If you have a product to sell, it is obvious that you have to give
it some promotion, get people to see it and touch it, it is the same on
the WWW, you have to get people to come and have a look.
What is banner advertising? There are many
types advertising techniques that are readily available on the web for
you to use, but using banners can have a dramatic effect on your hits.
The rectangular box above is an example of a banner exchange program, here
I am advertising someone else's website by letting the company place banners
into the box on my site. In exchange for my advertising, the scheme also
sends my banner (advertising this site) to somewhere else.
In effect, it is like an 'advertise my site and I will
advertise yours' scheme with strings attached. The critical thing is HOW
MANY BANNERS DO I HAVE TO SHOW TO HAVE ONE OF MY BANNERS SHOWN? This
is where price comes into it, if you don't want to pay, you usually get
a 2:1 ratio where you show 2 and they show 1 of yours. If you pay up, then
you pay for impressions (the number of your banner they show), the more
you pay, the more your banner is shown.
The small details. The
quality of the service, the speed of download and the size of banner accepted
all depends on the program you join. The ratios may be good, but if the
browser can't wait for it to download, then it is not going to count as
a hit for you. If the server keeps on crashing, then again, your
hits don't count. Therefore, it is necessary to get yourself a well established
banner exchange program with decent ratios, large enough banners and a
solid internet connection.
The size of banner depends on the exchange program, but
they are usually one of the following sizes.
The 400x40 pixels is the standard size for a banner
exchange program (the image above is 3/4 of the actual size). This size
obviously takes up the least amount of room on your webpage, and is usually
smaller in data size than the other two so takes less time to download.
The 400x50 pixels is the next size up. This is the
size used by GSAnet banner exchange. Although horizontally the same
size as the 400x40, the extra vertical room helps to attract more attention
to the banner and thus helping you get more traffic.
The 468x60 pixel banner is the largest common banner and
is used often by larger commercial advertisers who pay for exposure.
It is great for getting the message across, but can be a nuisance when
designing your site.
What to do to start your advertising run? Firstly
you have to get yourself registered with a banner exchange program. Choose
one taking into account of all the things mentioned above, then read the
instructions given by the program. Place your HTML code given by
the banner exchange program onto your webpage (to make a little box like
the one at the top of the page).
With the banner requirements, you can either make your
own banner or choose one out of the Asylum Banners Collection (this site..)
When you have sent the banner to the program, then that
is all there is to it!!
Asylum Banners Navigation Bar:
|
|
