SmartClicks - An innovative banner service
that goes above and beyond most other link exchanges in
many ways in that you can target your banner to a
specific audience. We've used SmartClicks for two years
and have generally been impressed, particularly with
their targeting control panel and stats. Along with Link Exchange, SmartClicks is one of the Web's most
reliable banner services. Your banner here will be 468 by
60 pixels.
HyperBanner
- A competent, well-run free
banner exchange service with a twist: its banners are
Java-based. The advantage to this approach is that you
can have far more informative and eye-catching banners
than is possible with standard image banners. The only
drawback is that Java banners take longer to load. Still,
this is clearly the trend of the future and someday all
banners will likely be Java-based. HyperBanner allows you
to target specific geographic regions and/or topics (such
as software, children's content, sports, etc.)
CyberThrill - This
affiliate banner program promises to pay you 20 cents for
every unique visitor you steer to their online gambling
service. We've been disappointed by every aspect of this
service, including their non-responsive customer query
department. We've also had numerous complaints about
non-payment from many Webmasters. This is a scam.
Safe-Audit Banner Service - Safe-Audit is a reasonably reliable
commercial banner service. This British-based company
offers complete and up-to-date statistics, so you can see
how your banners are performing at a glance. The only
quibbles we have with Safe Audit are the site's
cumbersome interface and the fact that it's not always
easy to get a response to your questions. Note: not all
sites are accepted for the program.
Banner Wizard - This
freeware utility offers a spreadsheet-style program that
helps you to calculate the costs involved in banner
advertising and "to optimize your Web advertising
strategy for best possible results."
Four
Corners Effective Banners - Just signing up for a banner service is only
a small part of promoting your site. In order to draw
hits with your banner, you need an effective design. This
site is the best we've seen for offering tips on making a
banner that people will want to click on. They even
display a list of the Web's most successful banners, so
you can get an idea of what works.
Brian Frye's Free Banners - If you've signed up with a banner service,
then you can get Brian to make a free static banner for
your site. If he creates a banner for you, he requests
that you link back to his site.
Link-Me
Banner/Reciprocal Links Exchange Database - One of the best ways to promote
your site is through reciprocal links. This resource is a
good place to start. This site also lists over 500
"free-for-alls," which are basically bulletin
boards that you can add your site to (and believe it or
not, they do pull in traffic).
Penny Web - This is a banner service that
claims to let you "promote your site at no risk with
guaranteed visitors" and to "generate income by
hosting banners." Our own experience with Penny Web
was disappointing. We get a lot of traffic here at The
Free Site, but apparently not enough to generate income
with Penny Web. We never received a cent for our
participation with this program. Their "host
reports" site that purports to give you your
account's current data was cumbersome and difficult to
get meaningful information from. Their tech support was
not helpful. Our advice: be wary of any banner service
that claims to pay you.
Cybermeals -
This commercial ad banner
service claims to pay you for displaying their large (486
X 60 pixels) banners on your pages. We tried this service
for several months on a page that receives around 1,000
hits per day. The results were disappointing, to say the
least. Cybermeals wound up generating a grand total of 10
cents for us in November, 1997 on one of our pages that
generated 33,000 hits that month. In October and
December, we were paid zero. Oh well, 10 cents is better
than nothing. Be wary of this service.
BannerSwap - This banner service also offers
a 2-to-1 ratio. Our own experience with this link
exchange was disappointing. We often had far lower
click-through ratios that we've had with other link
exchanges (using the same banner).
The Banner
Generator- If you
subscribe to a banner service, you'll need to make up a
banner, which this site provides for free. Check out these examples. This service works
with WebTV.
TradeBanners Network. - This service is similar to Link Exchange. We
tried it for several months and found them to be a
competent service. However, our banners consistently got
lower click-through ratios than on Link Exchange or
SmartClicks (even with the same design!)
LinkTrader
- This banner exchange offers
a higher-than-average 70-to-30 ratio. Banners must be 400
by 50 pixels. Our results with this banner service were
less than ideal. Despite the higher ratio, we had few
hits through LinkTrader than through Link Exchange, using
the same banner. Your own mileage may vary. Incidentally,
LinkTrader recently began offering free E-mail accounts,
as well.
Net-On's Banner Exchange - A growing Sweden-based link exchange that
offers you a generous 4:5 banner exposure ratio. Animated
gifs are OK. They accept banners of varying sizes, which
can be a drawback, as you can't take advantage of the
HTML size tags to speed up loading of banner images.
Sometimes their banners don't load quickly which can hold
up your page at times. They still have a ways to go
before they can be considered in the top rank of banner
exchanges.
123Banners - An up-and-coming link exchange
with around 4,000 members. The concept is simple: by
joining, you agree to display advertising banners for
other members, and they agree to display banners for you.
You can decide what type of sites to advertise on and
advertise for so you don't need to worry about
inappropriate material showing up on your pages. You get
one exposure of your banner for every two banners
displayed on your site (similar to Link Exchange).
ContentZone - Be wary of this service, which
was formerly called the Commonwealth Network. We tried
Commonwealth for a number of months and were disappointed
by every aspect of their service. Their account
information center was down most of the time and their
tech support was non-responsive. And we didn't get paid a
penny. Get the details about this service here.
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PowerExchange
- A promising new free banner
exhange program to help you promote your site.
PowerExchange offers a 4:5 ratio and offers you the
chance to target your banners. They offers real-time
traffic reports and ready-made banners, if you don't have
one made up already. Your banner here will be 468X60
pixels.
(They're currently offering 250 free exposures when you
sign up).
The Pop-up
Exchange Network - With
this unique free banner exchange, you can promote your
site with "Pop-up Internet Commercials." Your
ads with this service can be animated and can stream live
audio and music without the use of plug-ins. This is an
innovative service and their "talking" banners
will definitely grab your visitors' attention. Currently, they're
offering all new sign-ups a free copy of Debit Express
E-Commerce Solution, "a $195 value," which
allows your site to accept checks over the Net.