Banner AdsWritten by Bob Osgoodby
When Internet Advertising was in its infancy, banner ads quickly became a major player. Statistics were readily available, and they allowed campaigns to be planned, evaluated, and changed within a matter of days instead of weeks.Businesses developed with sole purpose of managing and distributing these ads. Click-thru rates were developed, and people starting placing banner ads on their web pages. Three basic plans ultimately evolved. The first was basically a "swap arrangement" where people simply traded banner ads with one another. This was difficult to manage and people usually kept these swaps buried in some remote corner of their web site. The resultant traffic they generated was minimal to say least. The next iteration, promised a bit more as they actually tracked click-thrus, and for each one you got for them, they would put your ad up for a like number. When that turned into a business, they typically traded on a two for one basis. They would give you one exposure for each two you generated. Others actually paid for click-thrus instead of making trades, but very few people retired on income generated that way. Some actually sold banner ads on their web sites, and while that was viable in early days, it is of questionable value today. A third method uses banner ads on your web site, either for affiliate programs you might be involved with, or to allow someone to easily navigate about your site. This will probably be sole survivor in saga of banner ads. Now that medium has matured and novelty has worn off, click-thru rates will continue to drop. Trading banner ads is a thing of past, and all but gone. People realize that banner ads take away from primary message they are trying to get across on their web site. Careful banner placement however, can still be a valuable player in your advertising campaign, but they must be used wisely. We've all seen web sites with indiscriminate use of banner ads, and this should be avoided. Sometimes it's almost impossible to determine what site is all about because of all home page ads that are displayed.
| | What Makes A Great Online Ad?Written by Bob Osgoodby
Trying to sell your product or service online differs from all other forms of advertising, and very few people seem to realize that this is completely different from all other traditional forms of advertising. Print media allows use of attention getting graphics. Radio allows music or jingles and of course TV provides both visual as well as auditory stimuli.Now a Web Page can also do this, but you have to get people there to see and/or hear your message. Spending a lot of money for a Web Page that no-one sees is like putting a "Bill Board" on a major highway and putting your Ad on back of it. Sure you may get an occasional person who walks behind it, but you are not accomplishing your purpose. The bottom line on any advertising campaign is to design your ad so that it gets attention. Classified Ads in Newspaper are a good place to start in designing your online ad. In order to do this, you will have to examine classifieds for a few days. Which ones run day after day and are really commercial in nature. They all have something in common, and after awhile you can get to spot them. OK - with that behind us, we have to get our message across with words - and only words. All "great" ads have three things which make them work. The first is an "attention getter", second is "tease" and third is "call for action". A great ad will first get someone's attention. If it doesn't do this, you are wasting your time and advertising dollars. An "attention getter" is basically title of your ad - you must use powerful words here - FREE GIFT, EARN WHILE YOU SLEEP, I WAS REALLY STUPID etc. are just a few examples. Don't forget that FREE is one of most powerful of these words. Titles that promise BIG EARNINGS or $$$$ EARN THOUSANDS $$$$ have become passe, and should probably be avoided. Next we have "Tease" - your purpose here is not to sell them something immediately. If we were selling a used refrigerator, we might say something about it to get them to call. Our purpose here is to get them to contact us for further information. You give them enough information to pique their curiosity. Don't try to sell them here - you simply don't have enough space to present your offer properly - in fact you could turn off a prospect if done improperly.
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