Using Banner Ads to promote your site:

Banner exchange-Web site banners-often thousands of them-are rotated through other registered Web sites.

While no fee may be charged, each Web site must agree to display the other banners and advertising for the exchange service.

Tracking - Identifies the number and percentage of visitors, the type of operating system, the type of browser, and the domain

Two common ways to track visitors to your site are to use a tracking service and to analyze server logs. Analyzing server logs gives you the most information about the users and their actions. A tracking service supplies you with some HTML code to place on your page(s) and reports back to you with information on the traffic in exchange for a fee or the placement of their logo on your site.

Using a hit count to measure traffic does not give an accurate count of the number of visitors to the page. The server will log a hit for each element on the page that is downloaded. If a viewer opens a page with nine graphics, the server will record 10 hits, one for each graphic and one for the page itself.

A good banner exchange will:

Target Marketing - you can specify exactly which types of web pages you want your ad displayed on

Eliminate Competition - you can specify which catagories of banners that you don't want displayed on your site.

Provide Statistics - tell the number of ads you have shown, how many impressions your ad has received and how often it was clicked on.

Banner ads are the top form of promotion on the Web, but they are not effective at building brand awareness. The recommendation for building brand awareness is extensive use of logos and slogans.

Other ways of using the internet to promote your site:

E-Mail

E-mail blurbs - a tagline added to every e-mail

Targeted e-mail / Opt-in e-mail are options.

Spam e-mail / Spam marketing are not!

Search Engines and Directories - understand the technology and submit your site for listings

Trading Links - develop your own partnerships with non competing web sites, ask business partners to trade links

Newsletters - Online information delivered via e-mail on a regular basis to promote your site

Other Web Site Promotion Techniques:

Blurbs - What' s your line, use it everywhere!

Displaying the URL on all printed material and packaging.

Developing promotional items and handouts with your URL - coffee mugs, mouse pads (advertising specialties).

Don't forget marketing with traditional media:

Press releases for news papers, magazines and radio

Sponsoring community events, local team sports

Attending trade shows and exhibits.

Making Money from your site:

Above we desribed banner ads in terms of promoting your site. In the context here, we assume your site already has a following, or some traffic, and now you want to get paid for some of that traffic.

Pay-per-impression

Much like "traditional" media advertising, you supply the medium, and someone pays you to advertise on it based on your traffic. You, the webmaster, receive a commission each time a merchant's ad or link is displayed on your site, the visitor merely has to view the ad to earn you a commission.

Generally offers the lowest commissions, as compared to other types below. You are usually paid a negotiated fee per thousand "impressions" of an advertisement banner.

CPM refers to the cost per thousand impressions of an ad.

Pay-per-Click

You earn revenue from your web site by displaying banner ads for various online merchants and web sites. However, now you earn a specific amount (usually a few cents) "per click-through" you send to their site.

Revenue from these program dependent on two things: increasing the amount of traffic to your site, and improving click-through ratios by finding ads that fit your visitor's interests.

CPC refers to the cost per click of an ad.

Clickthrough is the percentage of times people who view an ad click on it to visit the site it advertises. It is a standard measurement of the effectiveness of banner ads.

Impressions measure the number of times the image for a banner ad is downloaded. While this is an important measurement, it is not as important as clickthrough.

CASIE refers to the Coalition for Advertising Supported Information and Entertainment, an advertising industry group that was formed to establish guidelines for interactive advertising.

Pay-per-lead

Receive a commission for each sales lead for a product or service that you refer to a merchant's web site.

Merchant is mainly looking for a way to widely distribute their product or service, they are willing to pay you for each user, subscriber or member you attract.

Affiliate Programs

Potentially more income as you now receive a payment based on actual sales of a product or service. Your commission for each sale of a product or service that you refer to a merchant's web site is usually a few percentage points of the transaction. The key is matching the products or services with the theme of your site.

The Affiliate is the party that promotes the products or services in exchange for a commission. (The sales agent).

The Merchant is the company that has set up an affiliate program and has agreed to share a commission. (The provider of the goods or services).

Publisher sites

A publisher site is one whose primary revenue source is advertising. They are usually search engines or Web directories, and they rely on repeat business. Those advertisers pay for exposure to customers who visit the publisher site to use its content. A publisher site must have more content than advertising if it hopes to attract users.

Marketer sites

A marketer site is a Web site operated by a company that hopes to sell some product or service to the customer. Marketer sites usually contain few if any banner ads for other sites. A user who clicks on a banner ad on a publisher site is taken to the marketer site to get more information and make the purchase. Marketer sites generally have few ads for other sites because they want users to stay and buy something.