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Create Successful Banners
When having only seconds to grab the attention of the viewer, it's vital that your banner screams LOOK AT ME !! You can accomplish this goal through your text, color, graphics (in ths order). Therefore, it pays off to spend considerable time on those five to ten words you can place on that little box of advertising. Practise with different combinations of text until you feel that you have a good copy, then ask your friends about their opinion (it always helps to get different opinions).
Bright colors almost always out perform the purples and the blacks which are less effective. Use yellow, orange, blue and green. Contrast is also important. Red text on yellow background is more effective than blue on green.
Animated banners have multiple advantages over static or single screen banners. Use them to add in additional information. A three screen animated banner easily provides enough room for five to seven words per screen, which provides for enough info delivery. Just make sure the text that you choose for the first screen is compelling and attention getting. Emphasize your web site's premium benefit. Why should people visit your site? What's in it for them? Create your headline (the first screen, or your static banner) based upon your site's single most prominent benefit.
Banner size should be maintained at an ideal size of 3-5K, if you can deliver your desired info and creative objectives. If not, up to 8K is OK. Banners larger than 10K take too long to load and you run the risk of the visitor not seeing your banner at all.
There is no reason not to brand every banner you create. This can be accomplished by placing your product, company logo, or your name on one of the screens in the animation process, or simply giving the name of your company, or domain name, or a picture of your product. When average click through responses are in the 1-2% range, why waste 98% of the impressions by not telling the viewer who you are or what your product is? With branding you can get your name, your product name, continually in front of people, even if they don't "click" on. With time, your logo or name will be recognized (if it persists, there must be something to it).
Do not try to grossly mislead your visitors. If you do this, your visitors will resent you and it will lead to much more harm than benefit in the long run.
When building your first screen animated banner copy (or static banner), make use of curiosity, fear, humor, the big promise (things people respond to). For example: "Warning, you must see this before you purchase xxx!"; "Do you need xxx?"; "Never worry about losing xxx again!"; "Do you know how to xxx?" etc.
The single most important aspect of banner advertising is the use of the word FREE. So make sure you offer something for free at your site (free trial offer, free contest, free subscription to an e-zine, free advertising or marketing, free download of software, etc.).
Don't assume your viewer knows what to do next. Insert the words "click here", or "click here now" within your text.
In case you are looking for a good banner exchange, try Free Webmaster Tips.
Good Luck!
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