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ART TALKS

The Art of Networking: Section One - Banner Exchanges
by Rebecca Kemp

A banner is a small electronic classified ad, usually with some eye catching graphics and/or animation, and a short message on it. The hope is that it will entice a visitor to click on it and visit your site. Most banners are sized 468x60 pixels. Don't ask me why this standard was settled upon. It is, however, a Westernized standard since the Japanese tend to use 200x40 pixels. You should create your banner with some image editing utility or have a professional create one for you. There is a science behind creating banners that make people want to click on it. Generally, have something in the color red, something flashy (but not too flashy), and a button that says "Click Here" on it is a good place to start. This is by no means a rigid, must-be-followed rule. Sometimes breaking all the rules is better. Humor works especially well! SUPER SECRET TIP! Want to create one on the fly? Try MediaBuilder's 3D Text Builder at http://3dtextmaker.com/. You can enter in your own text from dozens of available fonts, choose your color, animation and effects, press a button, and viola! You have a ready made banner! Just save your creation and upload it to your web site. Ok, so now you have a banner that tells the world that they should come visit your site. Now you need to get someone else to plaster it on their web site! The more times your banner shows up on other peoples' sites, the better for you. You want to be seen, you want to be remembered and most of all, you want people to visit your site! There are a lot of free banner exchanges on the web. A banner exchange service allows people to enter their banner and their site information on-line, in a program that will automatically swap your banner with hundreds, even thousands, of other banner and other sites. The thing is, you must display other peoples' banners on your site. That's why it's an exchange. The best known free banner exchange program on the web is Link Exchange at http://adnetwork.bcentral.com/ You submit your banner to them. You then display the Link Exchange banner code on your site. Every time someone sees two banner displays at your site, someone sees yours somewhere on another site. That's called a, two to one or 2:1, ratio. "What? That seems unfair!" you say? Unfortunately, that's standard in the free banner exchange industry. Some are better, most are the same, some are worse. You have to shop around and read the fine print. Here are some other free banner exchange programs: Smart Clicks: http://www.smartage.com/promote/smartclicks/index.html Banner Exchange from Web World: http://exchange.webworld.nu/ Banner Mall: http://www.bannermall.com/ Bpath: http://www.bpath.com/ Ok, that should get you going, but wait right there a minute! Before you run off and join, let me be completely frank. Read this next part and then make your decision. Why These Programs Suck Ha! Surprised to see the above heading? After all that I've mentioned about banner exchanges, you'll note that not once did I offer you my opinion about them. Well, there it is in the black and white. They suck - and here's why: Suck factor one: These free banner exchange programs tend to not be as discriminating as they claim they are. They say they're targeted, but I've tried ‘em all folks, and they're not. When I say ‘targeted', what I mean is displaying banners on your site relevant to the content on your site. You can only hope that your banner is being shown on other sites relevant to your banner. Usually the extent of ‘targeting' you get is porn or non-porn. Ok, that's a little extreme, but I'm not that far off. Suck factor two: Most people are so used to seeing banners now-a-days, they're used to tuning them out. We're so overloaded with everyday advertising from TV, magazines, radio, etc., that people have a "seen that, done that" attitude. Suck factor three: Banners are looked upon as something that gets in their way of the true reason they came to your site in the first place. People visit your site to view it's content, not some irrelevant banner. They ignore them at best, they're pissed off at them at worst. It can give your site a very unprofessional look. Suck factor four: Usually, a banner is displayed on your main page. Most of those free exchange programs want you to put them right at the top of your main page. My question is this, why do you want them to leave when they just got there? With a banner right there on your front page, you're tempting them to leave before they get to see anything on your site. Ok, so now you're probably wondering, "If they suck so much, why does everyone use them" and better yet "Why should I bother to have one of my own?" Well, there are better programs and better ways to use and display banners at your site. I use banner exchanges predominately on my links pages. For what is a banner but a super-duper, hyped-up link? But, I also have one, and only one, free banner exchange on my main page - my own. Yeah, that's right, my own free banner exchange program. My banner exchange program is strictly for sites nearly or exactly like mine. They way, I only display banners that have to do with the content of my site, period. So, it doesn't seem disturbing or out of place to the visitor. Not only that, it's a 1:1 ratio. Every time I display a banner, someone sees my banner. There are lots of other people doing the same thing I do. They run their own highly targeted banner exchange that runs off of their own web site. Here are a few examples of ones I know about: The Wildlife and Fantasy Banner Exchange (my own): http://www.wildlife-fantasy.com/bp/ The Poetry Link Exchange: http://www.scribedesigns.com/banners/ The RPG Exchange (role-playing): http://www.rpghost.com/exchange/ Zine - X (for Internet magazines): http://www.zine-x.com/ There are literally hundreds of them. Try a search for your content at Alta Vista and add "banner exchange" at the end of it, e.g. "motorcycles banner exchange". SUPER SECRET TIP! Download and start your own banner exchange program at Banner Plus http://www.gadnet.com/bplus/ For more in-depth pointers on banner exchanges and banner programs, check out http://jimworld.com/promote9.html Go To: Section Two: Link Exchanges Page 1 Section 1 Section 3 Section 4 Section 5

 

This article was reprinted with permission from Rebecca Kemp. Please visit her sites at: Becky's Wildlife and Fantasy Art http://www.wildlife-fantasy.com The Artists' Rant Board http://www.wildlife-fantasy.com/forum.html Wild Speculation http://www.wildspeculation.com Quantum Muse http://www.quantummuse.com Quantum Musings http://www.quantummuse.com/musings.html

 

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