Even though we have all read news about declining effectiveness of banners on web, I still believe that with right 'ingredients' banners can be a good source of visitors and income for most webmasters.

There are five of these ingredients that I'd consider most important, using all or most of them will always enable you to get a higher click through for your various banners. I'll list them and then continue to discuss each one in a bit more detail.

Small file Call to action Animation Good ad copy Fake factor

1. Small file This is one of most important things you have to get right when designing a banner, if .gif or .jpg file is large it will take a few seconds to download and by then visitor might have scrolled down page, meaning he or she doesn't even get to see your banner. If people don't see your banner they definitely are not going to click on it. So make sure your file stays below 10K, 15K at absolute most, it's sometimes hard to do, but if others can do it, we can do it too.

2. Call to action This is one of easiest ways to increase CTR (click through rate) of a banner, on this all experts agree. Using a call to action simply involves having words 'click here' or some other words such as 'sign up now' or something similar.

My thoughts on why using a call to action increases CTR so much include fact that there is so much advertising off-line, such as TV, Radio, billboards etc. etc. With advertising on these off-line mediums, target audiences are generally just required to watch or read ad. All ads online have a link and purpose is to get people to click on ad and visit advertisers website, however with world being so used to off-line advertising many people just see banners and think that's it, they don't realize that they are actually meant to click on it to find out more. That's way having click here or another call to action improves effectiveness of a banner.

This illustrates biggest obstacle you need to overcome to successfully promote YOUR product or service. You must capture your prospect's attention in first few seconds or your sales message will be ignored. This is especially important on Internet where a visitor can simply click away from your website -- forever.

Here are 4 proven techniques you can use to quickly capture a prospect's attention. They apply to all media including Internet.

1. MAKE A DRAMATIC STATEMENT

Did you ever write a headline for an ad, web page or other sales message? You probably used a dramatic statement. It's most obvious way to get someone's attention. For example:

"Lose 8 Pounds In The Next 2 Weeks Without Dieting" "My Doctor Uses These Nutritional Products" "Double Your Sales And Reduce Your Advertising Expenses

TIP: Your dramatic statement will be most effective when it describes a major benefit for your prospect.

2. SURPRISE THEM WITH SOMETHING UNEXPECTED

Unexpected surprises always attract attention. It's often negative attention caused by something going wrong. But you can also use an unexpected surprise to attract positive attention. It happened to me last week.

The office supply company I use sent me a letter announcing an automatic $50 deduction off my total bill for this month. I immediately placed an order for items I wasn't planning to buy for another month or two. I even stocked up on several items I normally buy elsewhere. Their unexpected surprise got my attention and generated a large order during a month I hadn't planned to order anything.

3. ASK A PROVOCATIVE QUESTION