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Advertise on
your Web site
If you're looking to fund
your site by hosting banner ads, there are dozens of companies that will
match you with prospective advertisers. Each company has its own eligibility
requirements, earnings and fees, and contract terms may vary significantly.
Double
Click
If you have a high traffic
site, that is at least one million impressions per month, you can join
other high profile sites which are part of the DoubleClick network.
24/7
Media
This company's commission
structure is based on your site's monthly traffic, with the scale ranging
from 1 million impressions (50% host commission) to 15 million (70% commission).
Burst
Media
To participate, your site
must have at least 5000 page views per month. This service offers you the
flexibility of choosing between targeted and general ads, and their commission
is based upon the length of your contract.
Web Advertising
Resources
These sites will keep you
up to speed with the latest developments in Web advertising.
Ad
resource
News from the world of
Internet and Web advertising, updated daily.
ChannelSeven
This networking resource
for marketers and advertisers boasts resource centers on rich media ads
as well as numerous case studies.
ClickZ
The ultimate guide to online
Marketing, advertising, and e-commerce also features a weekly banner ad
review.
CyberAtlas
The Web marketer's guide
to online stats, including demographics, geographics, hardware and traffic
patterns.
Four
Corners Effective Banners
Dedicated to the exploration
of banner ads in all shapes and forms, Four Corners features articles on
banner design, reciprocal linking, and a CTR banner comparison.
Internet
Advertising Bureau
This association seeks
to maximize the effectiveness of online advertising through research and
international conferences. Membership is open to advertising professionals,
but non-members have access to an array of online resources.
Internet
Advertising Resource Guide
Extensive list of resources,
covering such topics as ethical and legal considerations as well as general
advertising news.
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| The
future of Web advertising
Email as marketing
tool
Recent studies show that
email has become an effective marketing tool when used in conjunction with
banner ads and other techniques. But always ask your visitors if they want
to receive mail, rather than flooding emailboxes with a barrage of spam.
You want to establish a relationship with your customers, not drive them
away.
E-mail
Called Fastest Growing Direct Marketing Tool
This very brief article
outlines the recent growth of opt-in email advertising. In InternetNews.com.
Don't
be a sneak
For the sake of your prospective
customers, this article correctly recommends full disclosure when using
opt-in email for advertising and marketing purposes. In Eric Ward's NetPost.
A
look at email marketing
A brisk, opinionated and
helpful look at the effectiveness of email compared to other forms of direct
marketing. Also gives a quick breakdown of some popular Email management
tools. In Click Network.
I
do not like green eggs and spam: email marketing options
Analysis of why spam is
not only rude but also an example of marketing gone terribly awry. This
article points out that spamming fails to take advantage of one of the
primary assets of Web advertising, the ability to target a specific audience.
In Click Network.
Rich-media advertising
Rich-media advertising
allows you to incorporate streaming video, audio and other enhancements
to spice up run of the mill banner ads. Such ads allow the visitor to interact
with them without leaving the site. Production costs are, of course, significantly
higher, but some anecdotal evidence suggests that rich media ads can significantly
out-perform more "traditional" banner ads.
Anatomy
of an interactive campaign
A case study of Hewlett
Packard's interactive advertising campaign highlights the high returns
possible with rich-media ads, but cautions that there are still technical
problems to overcome. In Adweek Online.
Long,
good buys… without long good-byes
With more case studies
involving successful implementation of rich-media advertising, this article
discusses why both vendors and content providers think rich-media ads could
save Web advertising. In Click Network.
Striking
it rich
This article predicts that
rich-media will comprise 20% of banner ads in 1999. In Upside Today. |
Whether you are trying to
sell a product, promote your site and increase traffic, or establish a
Web presence, Web advertising is a powerful way to get noticed. This topic
center outlines four basic steps to successful advertising on the Web while
pointing out some common pitfalls of Web advertising.
|
CNET
says |
| Want
to advertise on the Web? Here's what you need
to do: |
| 1. |
Outline
your marketing strategy and define your target audience. |
| 2. |
Design
your banner ad. |
| 3. |
Exchange
ads and links with other sites in a unique Web-based bartering system. |
| 4. |
Track
your visitors and measure the success of your Web advertising campaign. |
Step
1: Articulate your Web advertising strategy
Like any venture, much
of the success of your Web advertising campaign will depend on the amount
and quality of time you invest in up-front strategic planning. Whether
your goal is to promote a product, create a Web presence, or drive traffic
to your site, it's important to have a clear idea of your target audience
and what you want them to do after seeing your ad.
Web
advertising secrets
Although this feature was
written at the end of 1997, its discussion of the fundamentals of Web advertising
is still relevant. Explore the advantages of marketing online as well as
strategies for generating awareness and driving traffic. In Builder.com.
Web
advertising terminology
If you're new to the Web
advertising game, it might be wise to take a moment to familiarize yourself
with some common terminology. Learn the difference between impressions
and hits, and the difficulties involved in accurately measuring ad response.
This site also has some good links to other resources. In AdResource.
See
your ad here!
One of the best introductory
pieces on the subject, this feature will help you to articulate your objectives
and target your audience. It also offers some insight into how much you
might expect to shell out for Web advertising real estate. In WebMonkey.
World
Weary Web
To combat plunging click-through
rates, this sobering feature offers sound advice on combining Web advertising
with online purchasing. It also offers a strongly opinionated and insightful
analysis of what's right and wrong with Web advertising and revenue models.
In Forbes Magazine.
Advertising's
Brave New World
This article is a bit outdated
and not particularly well-written, but offers some interesting commentary
on the differences between advertising on the Web and in more traditional
media. In ChannelSeven.com.
E-branding
is more important than eCommerce. Here's why
With everyone jumping on
the eCommerce bandwagon, it's easy to overlook the paramount importance
of branding. The real challenge in a crowded e-market is to build up brand
awareness so that when users go in search of a product or service, your
site is the one that leaps immediately to mind. In ZDNet Anchordesk.
Step
2: Create your banner ad
Banner ads are by far the
most popular form of advertising on the Web. Banner ads can create brand
awareness, induce users to visit your site, or be the key to triggering
a purchase. Learn what goes into a great banner ad and where you can go
to create a banner ad of your own in a few seconds, for free.
10
tips for designing effective banner ads
This informative if brief
article highlights all the important elements of banner ad design, including
color, typography, and optimization. Design, color and animation combine
with the right message and technology to create winning banners. In Webreview.
Two
proven ways to waste money on banners
Don't get so caught up
in fancy animation and rich media that you neglect to get your message
across. This article also cautions against targeting only high traffic
sites while ignoring potential customers who frequent smaller, niche sites.
In ClickZ Network.
Banner
ad placement study
This study debunks common
myths about ad placement. Think a banner draws best at the top left of
the page? Think again. You'll be surprised by some of the results. In Webreference.com.
Learn
to make your own advertising banner from scratch
This lively and readable
series of seven brief tutorials teaches you how to create a banner ad using
Paint Shop Pro, then what to do with it when your done. In HTML Goodies.
Headline
Studio
If you're planning on designing
a handful of professional-quality banner ads, consider Headline Studio,
a design application which allows you to customize your Web palettes and
determine GIF animation size and frame rate after you've designed your
banner. In MetaCreations.
•Purchase
Headline Studio for Mac and PC, in MetaCreations.
| CNET
says |
| Here
are three sites that let you create your own banners free, using a highly
interactive technique which makes the process quite painless. It would
be great if all three of them would combine forces and make the killer
web banner-creation site. As it is, each has an advantage or two and all
are missing something that is probably pretty important. By using all of
them and judiciously copying and pasting the output from each, you can
probably come up with something pretty cool, but it won't be as easy as
it could be. |
Instant
Online Banner Creator
This site does exactly
what it sounds like: it provides the pieces for you to glue together to
create a banner ad, then generates the HTML for you to copy and paste to
your page. There's only one font, but you can enter two lines of text and
customize the banner size. Simple but cool.
The
Banner Generator
This site goes the crecon
site one better by generating the banner for you to download. It does not,
however, include any graphics or backgrounds. But it does offer a variety
of fonts and a few standard background colors. If all you need is a simple,
straight-forward banner ad, this will do the trick.
The
Animated Banner Maker
Choose an effect, see a
demonstration of it in action, then just type in some text to make a simple
animated banner. Burst, slither and zoom are a few of the effects from
which you can choose. No graphics, no color selections, but cool effects.
Step
3: Get linked
Reciprocal linking refers
to an in-kind exchange of banner ads or links between sites with a similar
focus. Reciprocal links or banner exchanges can be an effective way to
increase traffic and build a Web presence without paying for prime Web
placement.
Banner
and link exchange services
This brief article explains
how link exchanges work and what kind of success you might expect. In The
Selling Source.
Link
Exchange
The original and often
duplicated Link Exchange, a nominee in the 1998 CNET Builder.com Web Innovator
Awards, continues to flourish by providing small sites with the opportunity
to trade banner ads, target their audience, and get feedback on traffic
and click-throughs.
SmartClicks
This link exchange service
offers software which tracks the performance of your ad and adjusts the
placement for optimal results.
Banner
Swap
This free advertising network
works on the standard 2:1 credit ratio, meaning they expect you to publish
two of their banners for each one of yours they publish. The network provides
statistics on impressions, click-throughs and follow-up page views.
LinkTrader
banner exchange
Besides claiming to be
the best and cheapest way to gain exposure on the Web, Link Trader does
offer a more attractive 10:7 credit ratio.
Step
4: Measure your success
If you've invested time
and energy into implementing a Web advertising campaign, you'll want to
know how successful your efforts have been. The advantage of Web advertising
over traditional media is that you can instantly track visitors and see
results. These articles will tell you how.
Demystify
your log files
What your server knows
about your visitors can prove valuable when you sit down to analyze the
success of your ad campaign. This feature shows how to cull information
about your visitor from the server log files. In Builder.com.
Tracking
your visitors
This series of articles
delves into the nitty-gritty details of tracking visitors, thoroughly exploring
the pros and cons of various techniques. One portion is dedicated to common
quagmires and useful workarounds. In WebMonkey.
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