Banner ads are one of the greatest forms of
free advertising available to today's online marketer. If you are
unfamiliar with the basics involved in utilizing banners your affiliate
sites may offer, or if you own your own site and want to increase your
traffic, this page will help by providing in depth instruction.
Lets start by
exploring what makes up a banner. A banner is nothing more than a picture
that is linked to a website. Two URLs (Site Address's) make up this image.
The first is the target url. A target URL is simply the site you want
people to land on when they click your banner.
We will use an ASP banner for example :)
If I wanted
this particular banner to take people who click on it to my ASP referral
site (how I get credit for people joining under me) the
target url would be
my asp referral id site:
http://www.autosurfpro.com/cgi-bin/ref.cgi?r=aspwebmaster
By right clicking on the
banner above, I can reveal the image source of the banner. An image source
is where the banner ad is hosted on the internet. So, right click on
the light blue banner above and click properties. This will bring up a pop
up that lists the banners details. Click and drag over the URL address you
will see in the address area. Copied and pasted, this is our image source:
http://www.autosurfpro.com/images/perfect1.gif
If you know how to copy and
paste, skip this paragraph :) To copy and paste text, you click and drag
your mouse over the text you want. This will highlight the area of text in
blue. Now right click your mouse, (or hit control c on your keyboard) Hit
copy on the box that appears. This info is now saved and can be inserted
into a text file, email, or wherever else you need to save it.
Many companies
will give you the html code for banners they let you use. This is GREAT!
All you need to do to get the 2 URLs you need (the image source and target
url) is the is copy and paste the URLS within this code. Here is an
example, the urls are highlighted and appear in between the " "s marks.
<a href="http://www.autosurfpro.com/proplus2.html"
target="new">
<img src="http://www.autosurfpro.com/images/perfect1.gif"
border="0" width="468" height="60"></a>
Isn't that
easy? Remember to only copy the urls, everything in between, but not
including the " ".
If you know
html, and want the banner to appear on a particular site you are working
on, copy and paste the html code, add a <center> tag before it and
</center> after it (or whatever applies to your sites layout.
A lot of
companies only need the two url links to have your banners shown at their
networks. Remember you can determine if you have the right urls by
entering them into a fresh browser. When entering the image source url,
you will be taken to a site that only has your banner add on it, and
nothing more. If the image fails to load, it is not a valid image source
or you have copied the address incorrectly.
Some companies will ask that you upload your banner ad to their server so
they can host the image themselves. These companies usually do this for
several great reasons including making sure the banner file size is not to
large, to insure the image is loaded quickly when it is called &never goes
offline, thereby not displaying.
Uploading a
banner to a banner exchange is very simple. All you need to do is go to
the site you see the banner you want to use. Right click on it, then hit
save as "whatever" and select your desktop as the destination for it to be
saved at. Minimize all windows and look at your desktop. The last file you
see will be the banner gif you just saved. When prompted at the banner
exchange you joined to upload a banner, hit browse and point to your
desktop. Select the "whatever" file and hit upload. You will only get an
error if the banner does not meet the criteria of the particular exchange.
I.E. the actual size is to large or small, or the file itself exceeds the
size in bytes the company allows.
To check a
banners details, simply right click on it as it displays on a site, or on
the file you save to your desktop containing it.
Once you have
got this all down pat, it is time to get multiple streams of visitors, all
from unique outlets. Here are my favorite, and what I consider to be by
far the best available exchanges you can join for FREE!! I appreciate you
using these particular links to join. In doing so, you will also earn me
free exposures so I can get us more ASP users! This helps us both!
http://www.want2c.com
http://www.vesperexchange.com/signup.php3?referrer=151816
http://BannersGoMLM.com/cgi-bin/ref/index.cgi?dist=autosurfpro
Click on the bottom of these, it says Link Exchange and Bpath to
join these two:
If You are
interested in building your own banners from scratch, or to have us make and
or host banners for you, please email me at
webmaster@autosurfpro.com.
