Here's a few things to keep in mind while creating banner ad

• Keep it Simple: Stay simple. Don't get too complicated with heavy text and confusing colors.
• Make it smaller in size: preferably under 12K. This way - the banner will be quick to load.
• Make it Easy-to-read
• Always use ALT tags for text display on those surfing without images
• Verify that the banner clicks-through to the appropriate page on your website
• Limit your use of animation
• Include a call to action (e.g. Order Now, Visit Web-Site etc.)
• Test your banners in dif
  Target Your Market
  Your market is not everybody, as so many small businesses assume. It is the people/organizations who need, want, have the money--and the willingness--to pay for what you are offering. Identifying them can be complicated and expensive, or it can be relatively painless and cheap.How much do you need to know about them? Enough to have all the clues on how to reach them, and what to say, when you do. Finding your target is vital, so whatever method you choose, do it properly and test your assumptions.ResearchThe best place to start is with what you already know. What does your company know about its clients? Do you already have a perfect client--the one you wish you had more of? Examine their demographics. Who are they, where are they, what are they spending, what are they earning, how many employees do they have? And any other information that may help you build a clear picture.Now, identify what need your product or
  Banners are perhaps the oldest and most common mode of advertisement in the Internet. In its simplest form - it acts like a billboard, spreading a promotional message and helping interested visitors to visit concerned web-site.

  Difference between a physical billboard and on-line banner advertisement lies in ability of the later to measure campaign effectiveness. Unlike traditional ad media like TV or print where measuring audience response is difficult - its possible to obtain clear and accurate measurements of success or failure of on-line ads through web traffic analysis.

  How good is banner advertisement for your business ? Should you adopt this known and trusted method or prefer new ones like search engine based Pay-per-Click (PPC) advertising ? The answer lies in your requirement and an understanding of what banner advertisement can deliver.

  Let us discuss various concepts associated with on-line advertisement and analyze how banner advertisement works.

  Banner or Pay-per-Click - What Kind of On-Line Advertisement Suits my Business ?

  An Organization usually creates online advertising campaign for achieving following goals:

  • Building brand awareness
  • Increasing website traffic
  • Creating leads and sales
  You need to analyze your precise requirements and prioritize the objectives of planned ad campaign. If the objective is brand building or pure promotion - banner advertisement is ideally suited. However, if you are more keen on leads and sales - targeted advertisements such as search engine marketing could be better option. In many cases - a mix of banner ad and search engine marketing could be the answer.

  Key Concepts Associated with On-Line Advertisement

  Before proceeding any further, it is important to understand a few key concepts associated with on-line advertisements in general and banner advertisement in particular.

  Impression

  Impression is a measure of how many times an ad has been viewed. How many people have viewed a banner ad or received an "impression" by seeing the ad - is a measurement of responses from the ad delivery system. Once a visitor has viewed a banner on a web page - an impression is recorded. Banner views are different from page views in the sense that there may be multiple banner views within one page view. There is another distinction between page view and banner view - some banner serving software do not count a banner view unless the visitor stays on the page long enough for the banner to be fully downloaded from ad server.

  CPM

  CPM refers to cost per thousand (M here stands for 'Mille' - the Roman numeral used to represent 1000). CPM is commonly used by the advertising industry to describe how many people have viewed the banner ad (ad view) or received an "impression" by seeing the ad. In other words, this is the price an advertiser pays for displaying his/her banner 1,000 times. For example, an advertising rate of $10 CPM, means the advertiser is paying $10 for every 1,000 impressions, or $0.01 for each banner impression.

  CTR or Click-Through

  When a visitor gets interested in promotional message of a banner, he/she clicks on it to learn more and is automatically transported to advertiser website. Every time someone clicks on the banner, it is called a "click- through," and the "click-through rate" is expressed in terms of percentage of users who click on an advertisement (i.e. ratio of ad clicks to ad impressions). In other words, click through ratio is an indication of effectiveness of the a banner.

  How Advertiser Pays for Banner Advertisement

  Universally, there are two modes of payment for banner ad -

  • CPM
  • Click-Through
  In some countries like India - there is a third mode of payment based on duration of time a banner is hosted on a web-site. Typically, special server-based software called 'ad-server' rotates banner ads in specified places of a web-site. It also keep track of impressions, click-thorough and other vital statistics. In CPM mode of payment - advertiser pays for number of impressions based on an agreed CPM. For example, if a site charges US$ 9 per CPM - for $450 the advertiser gets $450 / $9 CPM * 1000 = 50,000 impressions If percentage of click thorough is 2 - 4%, advertiser may expect ~ 1000 - 2000 new customers visiting his/her web-site. This is apart from brand building based on number of impressions. In Click-Through mode - Advertisers pays a fixed fee for every click, no matter what is the number of impressions. In time-based banner advertisements (typical in India), advertiser pays a fixed fee based on monthly or quarterly rate, irrespective of the number of impression or click-thorough.

  Types of Banners Advertisements

  Traditional banner ads were static in nature - usually a .gif or .jpeg image file. With technology advancing - new modes of banner ads appeared in ad scene. Following are some of the popular modes of dynamic banner ads

  • Expanding - Banner gets bigger on clicking - often have a button labeled "Expand". Rather than jumping to another website - these banners simply open up and reveal more information
  • Animated - Common mode of banner ad these days. However, too many images/messages may render such banners hopelessly large in size, slow and downright irritating. Exercise caution on banner design
  • Drop-Down Menu - These have embedded HTML and allow the user to choose options from a drop-down menu. This mode of banner is ideal for co-op advertising where several businesses can advertise together
  • Interstitial - These appear in a separate window as the website loads. These ads often contain large graphics, animation, and streaming presentations.
  • Java, Flash, and Shockwave - These allow for rich media presentation including video and audio. Common browser toolbars such as Alexa, Google etc. suppress this type of banners
  • Floating Ads and DHTML - These banners float over the content a website and generally perceived as intrusive, although they do get a high click-through rate.
  • Unicast - These are just like little TV ads that run in a separate window.
  Checklist for Banner Designers

  Here's a few things to keep in mind while creating banner ad

  • Keep it Simple: Stay simple. Don't get too complicated with heavy text and confusing colors.
  • Make it smaller in size: preferably under 12K. This way - the banner will be quick to load.
  • Make it Easy-to-read
  • Always use ALT tags for text display on those surfing without images
  • Verify that the banner clicks-through to the appropriate page on your website
  • Limit your use of animation
  • Include a call to action (e.g. Order Now, Visit Web-Site etc.)
  • Test your banners in diff
    Why Is It So Difficult To Collect Timesheets?
    It’s an all too familiar story: It’s Friday afternoon, and you need to finish your accounts and get those invoices out so you can stay in control of your cash flow. You look over your staff timesheets and see that, as you predicted, many of your staff haven’t submitted them yet. You chase them up, only to find out that one of your staff is at a meeting at a client site and cannot be contacted, and a couple more have already left for the weekend. Then there are those that have to be told three times to do their timesheets. How are you supposed to cope with this and still have time to run your business?There are a number of methods to deal with this type of situation when it occurs. There is always the possibility that you will find yourself in this situation even with the very best of planning, so you need to have some kind of coping strategy. Here are a few coping mechanisms that you can use:1 – Wait until next week to do your invoicing.
    the objective is brand building or pure promotion - banner advertisement is ideally suited. However, if you are more keen on leads and sales - targeted advertisements such as search engine marketing could be better option. In many cases - a mix of banner ad and search engine marketing could be the answer.

    Key Concepts Associated with On-Line Advertisement

    Before proceeding any further, it is important to understand a few key concepts associated with on-line advertisements in general and banner advertisement in particular.

    Impression

    Impression is a measure of how many times an ad has been viewed. How many people have viewed a banner ad or received an "impression" by seeing the ad - is a measurement of responses from the ad delivery system. Once a visitor has viewed a banner on a web page - an impression is recorded. Banner views are different from page views in the sense that there may be multiple banner views within one page view. There is another distinction between page view and banner view - some banner serving software do not count a banner view unless the visitor stays on the page long enough for the banner to be fully downloaded from ad server.

    CPM

    CPM refers to cost per thousand (M here stands for 'Mille' - the Roman numeral used to represent 1000). CPM is commonly used by the advertising industry to describe how many people have viewed the banner ad (ad view) or received an "impression" by seeing the ad. In other words, this is the price an advertiser pays for displaying his/her banner 1,000 times. For example, an advertising rate of $10 CPM, means the advertiser is paying $10 for every 1,000 impressions, or $0.01 for each banner impression.

    CTR or Click-Through

    When a visitor gets interested in promotional message of a banner, he/she clicks on it to learn more and is automatically transported to advertiser website. Every time someone clicks on the banner, it is called a "click- through," and the "click-through rate" is expressed in terms of percentage of users who click on an advertisement (i.e. ratio of ad clicks to ad impressions). In other words, click through ratio is an indication of effectiveness of the a banner.

    How Advertiser Pays for Banner Advertisement

    Universally, there are two modes of payment for banner ad -

    • CPM
    • Click-Through
    In some countries like India - there is a third mode of payment based on duration of time a banner is hosted on a web-site. Typically, special server-based software called 'ad-server' rotates banner ads in specified places of a web-site. It also keep track of impressions, click-thorough and other vital statistics. In CPM mode of payment - advertiser pays for number of impressions based on an agreed CPM. For example, if a site charges US$ 9 per CPM - for $450 the advertiser gets $450 / $9 CPM * 1000 = 50,000 impressions If percentage of click thorough is 2 - 4%, advertiser may expect ~ 1000 - 2000 new customers visiting his/her web-site. This is apart from brand building based on number of impressions. In Click-Through mode - Advertisers pays a fixed fee for every click, no matter what is the number of impressions. In time-based banner advertisements (typical in India), advertiser pays a fixed fee based on monthly or quarterly rate, irrespective of the number of impression or click-thorough.

    Types of Banners Advertisements

    Traditional banner ads were static in nature - usually a .gif or .jpeg image file. With technology advancing - new modes of banner ads appeared in ad scene. Following are some of the popular modes of dynamic banner ads

    • Expanding - Banner gets bigger on clicking - often have a button labeled "Expand". Rather than jumping to another website - these banners simply open up and reveal more information
    • Animated - Common mode of banner ad these days. However, too many images/messages may render such banners hopelessly large in size, slow and downright irritating. Exercise caution on banner design
    • Drop-Down Menu - These have embedded HTML and allow the user to choose options from a drop-down menu. This mode of banner is ideal for co-op advertising where several businesses can advertise together
    • Interstitial - These appear in a separate window as the website loads. These ads often contain large graphics, animation, and streaming presentations.
    • Java, Flash, and Shockwave - These allow for rich media presentation including video and audio. Common browser toolbars such as Alexa, Google etc. suppress this type of banners
    • Floating Ads and DHTML - These banners float over the content a website and generally perceived as intrusive, although they do get a high click-through rate.
    • Unicast - These are just like little TV ads that run in a separate window.
    Checklist for Banner Designers

    Here's a few things to keep in mind while creating banner ad

    • Keep it Simple: Stay simple. Don't get too complicated with heavy text and confusing colors.
    • Make it smaller in size: preferably under 12K. This way - the banner will be quick to load.
    • Make it Easy-to-read
    • Always use ALT tags for text display on those surfing without images
    • Verify that the banner clicks-through to the appropriate page on your website
    • Limit your use of animation
    • Include a call to action (e.g. Order Now, Visit Web-Site etc.)
    • Test your banners in dif
      A Stupid Question
      This is a stupid question but it has to be asked.Does your sales letter create as many sales as you would like?What proportion of them respond to your advert?What is just as important, how many of those that responded actually purchased your product?How can you improve the response rate?How many new email addresses did you capture?Do you have an 'opt in' strategy so that you can mail them later with more offers without being accused of spamming?Let us look at the sales letter first.The headline.Does it stand out? Does it grab your attention?Does it shout, "READ ME, READ ME, READ ME".On the other hand: Does it give a tantalising hint at something interesting inside. Something of real benefit to the reader.Does it ask a question that can only be answered by reading the content of the letter?The letter itself.Is it speaking to a group of people? Or is it a one to on
      stry to describe how many people have viewed the banner ad (ad view) or received an "impression" by seeing the ad. In other words, this is the price an advertiser pays for displaying his/her banner 1,000 times. For example, an advertising rate of $10 CPM, means the advertiser is paying $10 for every 1,000 impressions, or $0.01 for each banner impression.

      CTR or Click-Through

      When a visitor gets interested in promotional message of a banner, he/she clicks on it to learn more and is automatically transported to advertiser website. Every time someone clicks on the banner, it is called a "click- through," and the "click-through rate" is expressed in terms of percentage of users who click on an advertisement (i.e. ratio of ad clicks to ad impressions). In other words, click through ratio is an indication of effectiveness of the a banner.

      How Advertiser Pays for Banner Advertisement

      Universally, there are two modes of payment for banner ad -

      • CPM
      • Click-Through
      In some countries like India - there is a third mode of payment based on duration of time a banner is hosted on a web-site. Typically, special server-based software called 'ad-server' rotates banner ads in specified places of a web-site. It also keep track of impressions, click-thorough and other vital statistics. In CPM mode of payment - advertiser pays for number of impressions based on an agreed CPM. For example, if a site charges US$ 9 per CPM - for $450 the advertiser gets $450 / $9 CPM * 1000 = 50,000 impressions If percentage of click thorough is 2 - 4%, advertiser may expect ~ 1000 - 2000 new customers visiting his/her web-site. This is apart from brand building based on number of impressions. In Click-Through mode - Advertisers pays a fixed fee for every click, no matter what is the number of impressions. In time-based banner advertisements (typical in India), advertiser pays a fixed fee based on monthly or quarterly rate, irrespective of the number of impression or click-thorough.

      Types of Banners Advertisements

      Traditional banner ads were static in nature - usually a .gif or .jpeg image file. With technology advancing - new modes of banner ads appeared in ad scene. Following are some of the popular modes of dynamic banner ads

      • Expanding - Banner gets bigger on clicking - often have a button labeled "Expand". Rather than jumping to another website - these banners simply open up and reveal more information
      • Animated - Common mode of banner ad these days. However, too many images/messages may render such banners hopelessly large in size, slow and downright irritating. Exercise caution on banner design
      • Drop-Down Menu - These have embedded HTML and allow the user to choose options from a drop-down menu. This mode of banner is ideal for co-op advertising where several businesses can advertise together
      • Interstitial - These appear in a separate window as the website loads. These ads often contain large graphics, animation, and streaming presentations.
      • Java, Flash, and Shockwave - These allow for rich media presentation including video and audio. Common browser toolbars such as Alexa, Google etc. suppress this type of banners
      • Floating Ads and DHTML - These banners float over the content a website and generally perceived as intrusive, although they do get a high click-through rate.
      • Unicast - These are just like little TV ads that run in a separate window.
      Checklist for Banner Designers

      Here's a few things to keep in mind while creating banner ad

      • Keep it Simple: Stay simple. Don't get too complicated with heavy text and confusing colors.
      • Make it smaller in size: preferably under 12K. This way - the banner will be quick to load.
      • Make it Easy-to-read
      • Always use ALT tags for text display on those surfing without images
      • Verify that the banner clicks-through to the appropriate page on your website
      • Limit your use of animation
      • Include a call to action (e.g. Order Now, Visit Web-Site etc.)
      • Test your banners in dif
        Selling Skills: What Resources Are Necessary
        As a general rule, salespeople will want to have the following resources available to them as they work to complete sales with customers: 1. A complete understanding of the product or service. The salesperson must be intimately aware of what the product or service can do, and what is not capable of doing or should not be used to accomplish. 2. A detailed understanding of the competition. Having enough experience to know what the competition’s product or service is capable of doing or providing is very often a key component in that sales people need in order to best position their own products in front of the prospect or customer. 3. A thorough understanding of the prospect’s business and how the product or service would be best utilized by the prospect. Being able to talk the prospect’s language or make reference to particularly thorny prospect challenges demonstrates that you understand their business and goes a long way in building
        pays for number of impressions based on an agreed CPM. For example, if a site charges US$ 9 per CPM - for $450 the advertiser gets $450 / $9 CPM * 1000 = 50,000 impressions If percentage of click thorough is 2 - 4%, advertiser may expect ~ 1000 - 2000 new customers visiting his/her web-site. This is apart from brand building based on number of impressions. In Click-Through mode - Advertisers pays a fixed fee for every click, no matter what is the number of impressions. In time-based banner advertisements (typical in India), advertiser pays a fixed fee based on monthly or quarterly rate, irrespective of the number of impression or click-thorough.

        Types of Banners Advertisements

        Traditional banner ads were static in nature - usually a .gif or .jpeg image file. With technology advancing - new modes of banner ads appeared in ad scene. Following are some of the popular modes of dynamic banner ads

        • Expanding - Banner gets bigger on clicking - often have a button labeled "Expand". Rather than jumping to another website - these banners simply open up and reveal more information
        • Animated - Common mode of banner ad these days. However, too many images/messages may render such banners hopelessly large in size, slow and downright irritating. Exercise caution on banner design
        • Drop-Down Menu - These have embedded HTML and allow the user to choose options from a drop-down menu. This mode of banner is ideal for co-op advertising where several businesses can advertise together
        • Interstitial - These appear in a separate window as the website loads. These ads often contain large graphics, animation, and streaming presentations.
        • Java, Flash, and Shockwave - These allow for rich media presentation including video and audio. Common browser toolbars such as Alexa, Google etc. suppress this type of banners
        • Floating Ads and DHTML - These banners float over the content a website and generally perceived as intrusive, although they do get a high click-through rate.
        • Unicast - These are just like little TV ads that run in a separate window.
        Checklist for Banner Designers

        Here's a few things to keep in mind while creating banner ad

        • Keep it Simple: Stay simple. Don't get too complicated with heavy text and confusing colors.
        • Make it smaller in size: preferably under 12K. This way - the banner will be quick to load.
        • Make it Easy-to-read
        • Always use ALT tags for text display on those surfing without images
        • Verify that the banner clicks-through to the appropriate page on your website
        • Limit your use of animation
        • Include a call to action (e.g. Order Now, Visit Web-Site etc.)
        • Test your banners in dif
          Article Marketing Tips – 5 Powerful Tips You Need
          In ‘Article Marketing – 5 Winning Tips You Cannot Miss!’, my previous article, I promised to reveal more winning tips to increase your sales and traffic using article marketing. If you want to know why you should market with articles, please read the mentioned article. Otherwise, these are the few reasons why every online marketer and author should seize this powerful technique. Article marketing is absolutely free, drives laser-targeted traffic to your websites, pre-sells and warms up your audience and makes them ready to pull out their credit cards and buy your products or services. Are you ready for more gold article marketing tips?Article Marketing Tip 1 – Post at Discussion Boards and ForumsArticle marketers and other internet marketing folks often gather at forums and discussion boards to discuss about the latest developments in the internet marketing arena. Make it a habit to post regularly, even once a day would help greatly. You can pos
          choose options from a drop-down menu. This mode of banner is ideal for co-op advertising where several businesses can advertise together
        • Interstitial - These appear in a separate window as the website loads. These ads often contain large graphics, animation, and streaming presentations.
        • Java, Flash, and Shockwave - These allow for rich media presentation including video and audio. Common browser toolbars such as Alexa, Google etc. suppress this type of banners
        • Floating Ads and DHTML - These banners float over the content a website and generally perceived as intrusive, although they do get a high click-through rate.
        • Unicast - These are just like little TV ads that run in a separate window.
        Checklist for Banner Designers

        Here's a few things to keep in mind while creating banner ad

        • Keep it Simple: Stay simple. Don't get too complicated with heavy text and confusing colors.
        • Make it smaller in size: preferably under 12K. This way - the banner will be quick to load.
        • Make it Easy-to-read
        • Always use ALT tags for text display on those surfing without images
        • Verify that the banner clicks-through to the appropriate page on your website
        • Limit your use of animation
        • Include a call to action (e.g. Order Now, Visit Web-Site etc.)
        • Test your banners in different browsers at different screen resolutions.
        • Get your web designer to make your banner ads for you in a variety of standard sizes if you are not experienced in advertising.
        Conclusion

        Lack of targeting and visitor apathy are two major drawbacks of banner ad campaigns. Because of large scale use or misuse - visitors today treat banners as necessary evil and pay little attention. Click through rate of banner ads are much lower compared to other forms of on-line advertisement such as targeted search engine marketing. However, banner ads are more effective in brand building and work very well when the creative is attractive and ad delivery systems can do some targeting.