Free Banner
Services
The
following is a roundup of free banner services to promote
your site, as well as free banner designers and other
banner resources on the Web.
- LinkExchange - This
banner service is the biggest and best-known of
its type. We've used this service since June,
1996, and have found them to be reliable and
competent, two qualities that are quite rare in
the banner industry. You get one exposure of your
banner for every two hits to your page. Banners
must be 400 X 40 pixels in size (to get a free
banner, go here or here). Note: LE
recently started a "Deluxe" program,
which requires a larger (468X60) banner that must
"be placed on the first screen view of the
pages they are on." In exchange, LE says
you'll get better exposure and "increased
visibility" among other advantages.
- 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. Along with Link
Exchange, SmartClicks is one of the Web's
most reliable banner services.
- GSAnet.com - Banner
services are a dime a dozen these days, but if
you're looking to get the most exposure for your
Web site, GSAnet.com is hard to beat. This
service offers you some of the best ratios of any
major link exchange. If you display their banner
at the top of your site, you'll get an impressive
1-to-1 ratio of displays for your banner.
- 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.
- TrafficX - This new
free banner exchange "guarantees"
traffic for your site. If you abide by their
terms, and you don't receive any clickthroughs
within one month of placing their code on your
page, you'll get 10 free credits and get your
banner placed on their font page for one week.
- Kewl X-Change - Here's a
new exhange program, with a novel twist. Rather
than giving you credits based on banner
impressions, Kewl X-Change is based randomly,
meaning whenever someone clicks the Kewl X-Change
banner, it will randomly choose one of its
members and bring that person there. It's
definitely a different approach; might be worth
exploring, particularly if you have a small site
with little traffic.
- Frank's Free
Banners - OK, so you've signed up
for a banner service. What's next? Well, for one
thing, you're gonna need a banner. That's where
these guys come in. This site's the place to go
for getting a free banner for your site.
- KorCar Free
Banners - This site is offering free
animated and static banners. Linkback required.
- Order a free
banner - This site is offering free
banner graphics. They even offer animated
banners. Just fill out the form on their page,
specifically what'd you'd like. Responses are
promised within 48 hours.
- Banner Power - New banner
service that allows you to either earn
advertising credits or cash. Their banners are a
larger-than-usual 468 by 60 pixels. (Animation is
OK, but the size should not exceed 11,000). Each
time you display two banners, a banner promoting
your site will be displayed on another member's
Web site.
- Paramount Banner
Network - This banner exchange
accepts banners that are a larger-than-average
450 pixels wide and 70 pixels high (GIF or JPG
format) and no larger than 14,000 bytes in size.
GIF animation is OK. If you go with Paramount,
check out Wired 2000's offer of 1,000 free banner
impressions.
- 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).
- BannerWeb - New
banner service that allows you to submit up to 10
banners simultaneously and have the most
effective ones shown the most often,
automatically. Note: this service is currently in
"beta test mode."
- LinkTrader - This banner
exchange offers a higher-than-average 70-to-30
ratio. Banners must be 400 by 50 pixels. 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.
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