Banner Advertising

Banner Advertising


Take banner advertising for instance.  Usually, this involves paying a website to host
your banner ad, and when a user clicks on it, he or she is directed back to your site.
This is the relatively cheap cyber equivalent of a commercial—something that’s
relatively targeted (at least in demographical information; i.e. advertising baby products
on a site that caters to new moms) but still not as targeted as search engine traffic—
which actually penetrated the user’s mind, and uses the same keywords he or she is
thinking.
Of course, banner advertising does not have to be paid advertising.  Here’s an idea:
create multiple sites (but do NOT duplicate content) and then place banner ads taking
your users from one site to the next.  Or, you could barter with other websites in
exchange for a banner ad.  Banner ads don’t really count in estimating overall links (the stuff that gets you high ranked), at least not to the extent that organic SEO links can.
However, if you have an artistic or commercial design skill, you may find it useful to go
ahead and create a banner ad using fancy font text (still appropriate to your site theme)
or other decorative shapes or objects.  In general, avoid GIF animation, and opt insteadfor Flash or another dynamic technology.  Of course, some users hate flashing banners
altogether, regardless of technology.  Keep banners simple and make sure you convey
a message…not merely an attitude or a thought that leads nowhere.
There are “standards” of banner sizes to consider.  Here are standard sizes to choose
from:
468 x 60  Full Banner
728 x 90  Leaderboard
336 x 280  Square  
300 x 250  Square  
250 x 250  Square  
160 x 600  Skyscraper
120 x 600  Skyscraper  
120 x 240  Small Skyscraper
240 x 400  Fat Skyscraper
234 x 60  Half Banner
180 x 150  Rectangle
125 x 125  Square Button
120 x 90  Button
120 x 60  Button
88 x 31  Button
In addition to trading banners with other companies, networks or search directories, you can also set up banners for affiliate network opportunities or even for self promotion.  Soyes, it is a smart idea to create a banner now before you suddenly find out that you
need one and have nothing in the works!