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.