4. Good ad copy This one is kind of a given, but you should always include good ad copy in your banner, lots of fancy animation and pictures won't entice them to click, they look after grabing attention of visitors. It's actual text that will get people wanting to check out your product. Try to emphasis benefits, not features of your product or service. Tell people how your product will make their life easier. Keep your wording short and concise, if you can use words that have be proven to attract people such as 'free','proven' and 'secret' do.

5. Fake factor Many of very successful banner ads of late have incorporated some kind of fake elements in them. There are various fake element's banner designers can use, such as fake scroll bars, fake text links, fake selection boxes, fake text boxes, fake submit buttons to mention just a few. Banners with fake elements perform so well because people think there clicking on a link to go to another page on current site (as in fake text links) or they think they are click on a button, but in fact they are actually clicking on a banner with a picture of a button and text link.

These fake banners are made using Print Screen button usually found on right side of any standard keyboard. Simply open a webpage or application and press 'print scrn' then crop image around button or scroll bar area (the area you want to fake) and then paste it into your banner, and that's it, you have fake elements in your banner. Alternatively designers simply draw buttons, scroll bars etc. using their graphics program.

Well there you have it, five most important pointers to remember when desiging banners. I'd normally end article now but before we end, I want to talk about targetting your banner.

Always, always place your banner on sites that cater for your target audience (ie - people most likely to buy your product). There's no point putting a banner for a new golf club you sell on a site dedicated to software, visitors to site simply are not going to be interested and you're just wasting your money. You should be aiming to place golf banner on golf course websites, sites like PGA.com, generally golf related sites, this way you are much more likely to make money. If you are not exposing your banner to your target audience, none of above tips and tricks can save you.

Provocative questions startle your prospects and compel them to find out more. Here are 2 more examples of provocative questions:

"Why are you paying so much for your health insurance?" "Do you really expect to get rich working for somebody else?"

4. GET PERSONAL

Personalization also attracts immediate attention. Your personalization can be individualized or group oriented.

Use INDIVIDUALIZED PERSONALIZATION when you're communicating directly with one person by email, postal mail, telephone, etc. Use your prospect's name. It's number one attention grabber. Merge it into subject line and opening line of your email message. Do same in your postal mail. Include other personal information you know about them. But be careful not to overdo it.

You can personalize with a name when you're communicating directly with one prospect. But how can you get personal with a prospect visiting your web site, reading your ad or listening to your radio commercial?

Use GROUP ORIENTED PERSONALIZATION when you're NOT communicating directly with one person. You can get personal by referring to known characteristics of prospects in your targeted market. For example, use phrases like:

"When you started your business..." for business owners. "Your favorite NFL team..." for sports fans. "Every mother knows..." for women with children.

Group Oriented Personalization isn't as effective as using a person's name. But it still attracts attention because your prospect can react with, "that's me".

Take some time today to plan how you can use these four proven techniques to attract more attention to your sales messages. The results will probably surprise you. So will increase in your sales and profits.