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The TRUTH About
Free Banner Advertising
Banner
exchange programs are a very popular means of advertising on the web. A
banner exchange is exactly what the title suggests. You simply display a
company's banner on your site, and in return they will display yours.
It sounds
like a fair exchange, but when you learn a bit more about how people react
to banners, the exchange isn't all that fare. Here are some solid
facts about banners and banner exchanges:
-
Banners are not as
accepted as they were about 10 years ago when the web was fairly new.
People simply do not click on them anymore because they feel a sales
pitch is being thrown at them.
-
Most people come to a
web site for a reason - to order a product, find information, etc.
Clicking on a banner means they have to interrupt their brain flow to
read something that could be totally unrelated to what they came to
the site for. In other words, banners can distract people.
-
Most people that join
these banner programs put the code all the way at the bottom of their
page, which means that's where *your* banner will be displayed.
Who do you think is going to see it? Yep....not many.
-
There
are numerous banner exchanges out here, but from what I've seen they
all pretty much give the same results. Yes, there are some that are
more popular than others, but popular doesn't necessarily
mean better (more on that later).
-
The more
traffic you have coming to your site, the greater they benefit you. Why?
Because most programs display your banner based on your page hits. So,
if your web site is only getting 10-15 hits/day, then your banner will
not be displayed as much as a site getting 400-500 hits/day.
*NOTE*
Many programs give you free credits (or banner displays) when you join, so
you will immediately receive a bunch of banner displays at the start of
the program. So when your "# of displays" suddenly drops off,
don't think anything is wrong, you've just used up all of your free
credits (or displays).
I have the
same feeling towards banner exchange programs, that I do for the free
classifieds. They do bring some hits to your site, but they are not as
effective as the search engines or the paid classified sites. Again, don't expect a traffic
explosion from these banner programs UNLESS your site is
already getting lots of hits (at least 500/day). And even still, I
wouldn't expect any miracles.
The
misconception is that joining a banner exchange will rapidly increase
traffic to your site, but they mostly benefit the web sites that already
get many visitors. More on that later...
So what
happens is, they produce a slight increase in a web site getting small
traffic, and they produce a larger increase in web sites already getting
lots of traffic.
Really fair,
huh?
How
Banner Exchange Programs Work
Most banner
exchange programs operate on a visitor ratio, and 2:1 is the most popular.
Meaning your banner will be displayed once for every 2 hits your web site
receives. So if your web site gets 1,000 hits in one week, then your
banner will be displayed 500 times. (Now you see why traffic is so
important).
BUT
just because your banner is displayed 500 times,
doesn't mean the someone will click on it. And getting the click is what
makes the program useful. Of course, a lot of that will depend on how
effective your banner is.
An above
average click-thru ratio is at least 2%. 3% is considered excellent, in
most cases. So if your banner is displayed 500 times, 15 clicks would be
considered an above average click-thru ratio.
Most people
that join banner exchanges receive anywhere between a .05-2% click-thru
ratio. Again, now you see why having a web site that is already getting
good traffic is so, so important. More traffic = more banner displays =
more clicks (hopefully).
Again,
I am not a big fan of these types of programs, but if you decide to join
one, two popular ones are Link
Buddies and Free-Banners.com.
They both use the 2:1 ratio. You also earn
money when you get people to join under you.
With Free-Banners.com,
you earn 10 cents for every person that joins the banner exchange under
you. You
can choose to have the money sent to you, or you can turn it into displays
for your banner.
The Big
Banner Exchange Myth!
"The more banner
programs I join, the better."
Okay, if you do the math,
surely if you join 17 different banner programs, your banner will be
displayed more, BUT if your site is only getting 10 hits per day, your
banner won't be displayed that often with any of those programs.
And remember, a display
doesn't necessarily mean a click. Don't forget, the average click-thru
ratio is a .05%-2%. So a web site getting 10 hits per day is looking at
one click per week, per program. (on
average).
I can't tell you how many
sites I've seen with umpteen banners on them. Banners dramatically slow
down your page loading time, and they clutter up your site - which makes
it it look very unprofessional. I mean, do you see Microsoft with 5
banners on their site?
Now, I ask you....is it
really worth junking up your page with 5 or 6 different banner programs
that are only bringing you 5-6 hits/week total?
THE BOTTOM LINE:
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If you are going to
participate in a banner program, choose one banner program
and stick with it. When it comes down to it, they all pretty much
yield the same results in the long run. The success of the program
depends more on your web site's traffic than it does the actual banner
exchange program.
-
Use them to supplement
your advertising campaign, but don't rely on them to carry the weight,
and bring in loads and loads of traffic.
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The best way to use
banners is on your own site and use them to advertise affiliate
programs that relate to the theme of your site instead of participating in an exchange.
There is a lot of hype over
the free banner exchanges. While they may bring you some traffic, they
will NEVER be the medium that takes your traffic to another level.
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