by R.A. Rowell; Website Designer
Image © Lyn Lomasi; All Rights Reserved
One of the “old school” ways of promoting your website is to create banner ads. In the past, banner ads have been considered one of the best ways to effectively promote your site and attract a new audience to your content. By sharing your banner ads with other websites, whether you’re paying for ad space or finding free ways to share banners, you can greatly expand your website’s visibility. So, you may be asking yourself, should I create banner ads for my website?
What Can Banner Ads Do For Your Website?
The most obvious benefit of having banner ads is that you can attract traffic from other websites to your own. While the monthly fees of advertising on other websites can be expensive on certain high traffic sites, it can be worth the investment. The trick is to choose websites with traffic that’s targeted to your website. After all, you want the end result to be visitors that convert into sales or ad revenue. If you choose your ad venues well, the increase in traffic can be quite rapid compared to building your website through social media and SEO alone.
What About Free Banner Exchanges?
One popular way to get banner ads for your website onto other sites quickly is to participate in free banner exchanges. As with anything free, though, there are some pros and plenty of cons. The real pro is that it costs you nothing except putting another site’s banner on your site. But there are a couple of major cons.
First of all, if you want to place your banner on multiple websites, you could be filling up your website with a lot of banners to other websites. This is especially bad if you run a website that participates in affiliate programs. That’s because it’s likely that your traffic will click more often on the exchanged banners rather than what you actually what them to click.
The second major con is there are many sites out there that you don’t want to exchange banners with at all. There are websites that gather lots of banners in order to become a “portal” or “directory” website and don’t even have any real content. They tend to be created for the sole purpose of “black hat” link building, and you don’t want to be a part of that tactic.
These “link farms” are very spammy, and in fact, having your banner there can actually hurt your SEO. While you may get some traffic here and there, it most likely won’t be targeted and you’re helping them more than they’re helping you. Plus, since those sites are frowned upon by search engines now, your ranking could take a severe hit.
If you do decide to do a free banner exchange, choose sites that you actually want to be associated with. You also want it to be a site that’s not a competitor but that can still send you relevant traffic. Essentially, you want anyone that you do a free exchange with to be someone you don’t mind having as a partner and vice versa.
What about sharing banners with people you already know? If you and your friend or family member want to exchange banners on your websites, that’s fine, to a point. As long as they’re not competing and you can send relevant traffic to one another’s sites, these can be useful exchanges. Otherwise, they may just not do very much for either of you. Just be very careful when doing anything for free, especially banner ad exchanges.
Are Paid Banner Ads Worth It for My Website?
Sure, the monthly cost of ad space can be expensive. But, if you choose websites that already drive the right kind of traffic in large enough quantities, you can have a very strong return on investment. Make sure that websites you choose aren’t too pushy with their ads and that the websites actually attract the type and amount of visitors that they claim. Also, be sure that websites you want to advertise with don’t have too many other banners on the same page or competitor links on the same page.
Some banner ads are significantly less expensive than others. There are others that will be extremely overpriced. It really depends on how competitive your particular niche is when it comes to advertising. A lot of websites offer sales and deals on their banner ad space, as well. So, be on the lookout for these on websites that you frequent or social media.
Also, you may consider inviting other websites that aren’t competitors but are related enough to your niche to have paid banner ads on your own website. Like with the banner exchanges, if you’re a website that makes most of its money through affiliate programs, this could come back to bite you. But, it can also be a great source of revenue. It’s even better if the advertising website links back to you somehow. But when you’re offering paid ad space, don’t make it a requirement.
In the end, banner ads can end up being a profitable advertising tool for your website. Plus, they can even be a useful revenue stream for your own website. Just be sure you do your research and choose valuable advertising partners. Ad space on the internet is always going to be valuable, so don’t underestimate what you and other websites can offer in that way!
What do you think of creating banner ads for your website?
What Can Banner Ads Do For Your Website?
The most obvious benefit of having banner ads is that you can attract traffic from other websites to your own. While the monthly fees of advertising on other websites can be expensive on certain high traffic sites, it can be worth the investment. The trick is to choose websites with traffic that’s targeted to your website. After all, you want the end result to be visitors that convert into sales or ad revenue. If you choose your ad venues well, the increase in traffic can be quite rapid compared to building your website through social media and SEO alone.
What About Free Banner Exchanges?
One popular way to get banner ads for your website onto other sites quickly is to participate in free banner exchanges. As with anything free, though, there are some pros and plenty of cons. The real pro is that it costs you nothing except putting another site’s banner on your site. But there are a couple of major cons.
First of all, if you want to place your banner on multiple websites, you could be filling up your website with a lot of banners to other websites. This is especially bad if you run a website that participates in affiliate programs. That’s because it’s likely that your traffic will click more often on the exchanged banners rather than what you actually what them to click.
The second major con is there are many sites out there that you don’t want to exchange banners with at all. There are websites that gather lots of banners in order to become a “portal” or “directory” website and don’t even have any real content. They tend to be created for the sole purpose of “black hat” link building, and you don’t want to be a part of that tactic.
These “link farms” are very spammy, and in fact, having your banner there can actually hurt your SEO. While you may get some traffic here and there, it most likely won’t be targeted and you’re helping them more than they’re helping you. Plus, since those sites are frowned upon by search engines now, your ranking could take a severe hit.
If you do decide to do a free banner exchange, choose sites that you actually want to be associated with. You also want it to be a site that’s not a competitor but that can still send you relevant traffic. Essentially, you want anyone that you do a free exchange with to be someone you don’t mind having as a partner and vice versa.
What about sharing banners with people you already know? If you and your friend or family member want to exchange banners on your websites, that’s fine, to a point. As long as they’re not competing and you can send relevant traffic to one another’s sites, these can be useful exchanges. Otherwise, they may just not do very much for either of you. Just be very careful when doing anything for free, especially banner ad exchanges.
Are Paid Banner Ads Worth It for My Website?
Sure, the monthly cost of ad space can be expensive. But, if you choose websites that already drive the right kind of traffic in large enough quantities, you can have a very strong return on investment. Make sure that websites you choose aren’t too pushy with their ads and that the websites actually attract the type and amount of visitors that they claim. Also, be sure that websites you want to advertise with don’t have too many other banners on the same page or competitor links on the same page.
Some banner ads are significantly less expensive than others. There are others that will be extremely overpriced. It really depends on how competitive your particular niche is when it comes to advertising. A lot of websites offer sales and deals on their banner ad space, as well. So, be on the lookout for these on websites that you frequent or social media.
Also, you may consider inviting other websites that aren’t competitors but are related enough to your niche to have paid banner ads on your own website. Like with the banner exchanges, if you’re a website that makes most of its money through affiliate programs, this could come back to bite you. But, it can also be a great source of revenue. It’s even better if the advertising website links back to you somehow. But when you’re offering paid ad space, don’t make it a requirement.
In the end, banner ads can end up being a profitable advertising tool for your website. Plus, they can even be a useful revenue stream for your own website. Just be sure you do your research and choose valuable advertising partners. Ad space on the internet is always going to be valuable, so don’t underestimate what you and other websites can offer in that way!
What do you think of creating banner ads for your website?
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