Getting Hits- Page 5
Link Exchange & Advertising

If all of the above isn't enough for you might want to place an actual adverts on other peoples sites

There are you can actually do this for free with the many banner link schemes on the net or you can pay to have your site advertised

I. Link Exchange Banners

Link exchanges schemes are not a hundred miles removed from webrings. Most are free to join. What happens is every member submits their "banner" (a graphic advertisement for their site and the link details to go with it)

The member then paste a bit of HTML into their web pages that links to the link exchange server.

Everytime the page loads this code and server leads to a different banner being displayed (some actually rotate through several banners at one viewing)

Think long and hard about these though

Will they disrupt your sites image? Are the people looking at other sites on the scheme going to want to go to yours? Can you control what type of banners are displayed?

Personally I find them more irritating than useful. But if you want to try any search engine will list them for you (e.g. yahoo's list)

II. Paid for Adverts

Okay so you've decided you want to pay someone to display an advertising banner to your site.

You'll need to design ads or get someone to do it for you (there are plenty of design companies on the net) that fits the size requisite of your advertiser.

You will tend to pay for your ads in one of the following fashions

1. Permanent Advert
   Very rare these days. You pay a one off fee and that's your Ad there for a lifetime.
   
   
2. Fixed Period
   Your add will be there for a fixed time period. Common on individual sites
   
   
3. Impression or per view
   Basically your add will be seen a fixed no. of times for your money. A cheap option compared to others, as you can get seen by many for not very much. It is often expressed as Cost per thousand impressions (e.g. $0.50 per 1000)
   
   Doesn't necessarily mean people will click through to your site, but can give you good exposure. Often combined with click thru rates -see beloe
   
   
4. Click Thru or Hits
   Next option up from impressions. Basically you pay each time someone clicks your advert and goes to your site. It usually more expensive as you pay for each click through but remember you'll get free exposure to those who don't Click thru and those who do will usually be the ones who wan't to view your site.
   
   You will often see impressions and click through combined (e.g. you pay a set rate for having the advert display a number of times but on top of that you'll have to pay an additional fee per click thru)
   
   
5. Leads
   Basically you pay for each person who comes to your site and signs up or fills in a form. Again more expensive but if your site is commercial you'll have very good contact with your visitor by this stage
   
   
   
6. Per Sale
   You pay a certain amount per sale (e.g. 1 to 5%) of items from your site. Again more pricey but if your site is commercial you will have
   

What are your options?

1. Get your advert on individual sites

   Many busy sites offer to sell space for advertising directly. Rates vary (so check a few out!!). Ask for details about how many unique visitors the site gets. Can be a cost effective option if you do your research well and select highly visited sites that people might want to jump to your site from.
   
   Big sites can give monitoring of impressions, click thru's etc. but smaller sites may not be able to do this data (hence a fixed time period might be better)
   
   

2. Sign up with an Internet advertising agency

   Loads of these about. For a varying fee they'll get your logo displayed on a load of sites that they pay to advertise on.
   Most work on an impression, click thru or combination of both basis
   
   There are numerous sites that offer to do this. With some there is no guarantee what type of site you'll end up being displayed on. Others only use high hit sites and/or match advertisers to display site in terms of content
   
   As ever use the caveat buyer beware. Shop around, stick with reputable names, remember there are complete rip off merchants out there.
   
   take a look at how well they advertise for other companies.
   
   Check any search engine for a list (here's the list at yahoo)
   
   
3. Affiliate Agencies
   
   These are similar to advertising agencies but work more on a "leads" and "per sale basis"

By A. Duncan ©2001

Page 4

Getting Hits Articles Index