Many merchants think nothing of spending a small fortune on cardboard advertising material with a lifespan of a few weeks, or days in some cases, to be seen in stores with a few hundred customers and yet appear reluctant to invest in a sensible quantity, quality and variety of link banners that may be seen by millions on their affiliate sites on the Internet! Naturally there are some notable exceptions, including those who bombard affiliates with such a vast array of new links that it would be a full-time job keeping up with them.
Otherwise intelligent and successful merchants have managed to stun me by remarking that there is no point in wasting resources on producing graphics for Internet marketing purposes as the whole thing is just a flash in the pan! Well, if that is true, its one hell of a long flash and the pan is getting larger by the day!
Somewhere between those extremes are the merchants who have arrived at the correct stance and it is their efforts that reap the best rewards. Nobody would dream of asking a shop keeper to promote their products without the aid of point-of-sale material, media advertising campaigns and all the other resources that are brought to bear. These tools are an investment in future profit and this article is about the banners used to advertise merchants and their goods. Various factors merit a mention and here we will consider the size factor.
There are fashions in banner graphics, just as there are in every other field. Today the merchant populations creative departments might seize upon the 120 x 600 skyscraper - whether it works and is convenient to the affiliate community and site visitors, or not. Tomorrow, it may be that 240 x 60 is in. This would not, in itself, be a problem were it not for the fact that all other sizes tend to be neglected during any particular fad. If one wants a vertical strip that requires a great deal of scrolling to reveal the message that hot dogs are the best thing since sliced bread,, one can have it in any one of nine sizzling colors. If not, one had better look for someone elses hot dogs to promote...
It is no good providing a small assortment of huge banners produced by ones twelve-year-old child, (or a huge assortment of tiny banners that will be overlooked by anyone with less than 20/20 vision) upon joining a network and then doing nothing more until complaining, a year later, that selling on the Internet doesnt work!
Although you might think your gigantic, or miniscule, banner is fabulous and potential affiliates might even agree with you in general, it is unusual for an affiliate to want the advertisers material occupying the lions share of a page, or so little of it that it may as well not be there.
Both the huge and the tiny have their place, of course, but you should provide as wide a range of sizes as you can if you want to attract affiliates across the board. Most affiliates will be reluctant to use advertising material that does not enhance their layouts and a sensible merchant should not want his, or her, advertising to look out of place or wrong.
Why, then, do so many merchants seem surprised at getting no result from a handful of unimaginative (and even misspelled) text links and a single unattractive graphic, reproduced in a limited range of sizes and replaced annually if at all
My shopping malls, to name but one example, are based around 125 x 125 graphics and merchants who provide nothing close to that size range are often simply not included, even though it is with regret that they are left out. Slightly larger or smaller, 120 x 90, for example or 180 x 150 can be handled if the banner is so appealing that space is made for it.
At times I have created my own banners and submitted them for approval because I felt strongly enough about wanting to include a particular merchant but this is time-consuming and requires skills that may not be available to some people. If you want to be presented well by affiliates you need to present yourself well to affiliates.
Online since 1998 as a webmaster,working mainly with small businesses and freelance tradesmen, Linnet Woods is editor of MarineZine, a free online nautical magazine, is active on several internet-related forums and has more than a dozen content sites at .
In previous articles, the importance of providing a variety of banner sizes and making banner content sharp and relevant were discussed. Here we will look at the secret weapon you should not ignore...
Many merchants seem blissfully unaware of the potential of alt tags, as the little pale yellow rectangles with text in them, or tool tips that come up when your mouse passes over a graphic are called.
When a graphic fails to load, or the site visitor browses with the capacity to view images turned off, for speed or because a particular firewall is in use that refuses to show images, the alt text appears in the space that should have been occupied by each image, assuming that someone has input some text...
The same alt text, as it appears when the cursor pauses over a graphic, is also commonly used by web surfers as an aid to deciding whether a thumbnail image is worth clicking on to see the enlargement.
Supplying banners without any alt tags at all is a bad idea because it encourages affiliates to choose between leaving them that way and being penalized by some search engines as a result, or typing in whatever text seems expedient.
Equally, it is a sloppy and unprofessional practice to supply banner links to affiliates that include alternative text content such as: 120x60-springcol-03 or Banner56098347.
Either the affiliate will leave it as it is and visitors who are about to click on the banner may be put off doing so by the appearance of what may be interpreted as sinister code, or the affiliate will replace the text with whatever he or she thinks is appropriate. If you are lucky and the affiliate has the time, can spell and write reasonably pertinent copy, all is well. If not...the fault lies more with the originator of the unmarked or badly marked banner than the end-user.
When you think about it, the existence of the alt tag; is a huge opportunity to add a sales message that would never fit on the graphic itself. You can capitalize on this inbuilt resource, as some of your competitors are already doing, or risk having the message of the banner itself diluted by the contents, or lack thereof, of your alt text captions.
Seasonal graphics are another important weapon and we are not just talking about the most obvious events either but, whilst we are mentioning them, there is no harm in having a seasonal banner that remains the same for years provided there is nothing to identify the banner as specific to one year.
Instead of trying to think up a new Valentines Day or Christmas banner every twelve months and creating something that is not particularly attractive, pick a design that works and stick with it, by all means. It is not every merchant who can afford to spend a fortune on such things and it isnt strictly necessary either. At LWA Malls - http://www.linnetwoods.com/malls/ - for example, it is noticeable that a great many people like the traditional and comforting seasonal images best.
Peoples lives contain other seasons, apart from the universally-timed ones. Consider banners that catch the attention of people who have just been promoted or started their retirement or celebrated their tenth year in business or any one of a large number of milestones shared by a large number of people. Identify seasons that bring people to your store and make banners that will help affiliates guide visitors enjoying those same seasons to your online presence.
In conclusion: Make the effort to provide good-looking banners in a wide range of sizes to your affiliate partners; keep your website address off banners and the contents of text links and dont forget to make the most of the advertising oppportunity provided by those alt tags.
Online since 1998 as a webmaster,working mainly with small businesses and freelance tradesmen, Linnet Woods is editor of MarineZine, a free online nautical magazine, is active on several internet-related forums and has more than a dozen sites at .