Placing those ads on your site are designed to do just one thing, make you and the advertiser money. No its not rocket science but there is a science to doing it right.
There are 3 simple rules to follow and you will convert those ads into the revenue you intended them to be when you decided to place them in the first place.
1. Dont sell Viagra to pregnant women! Basically what this means is that each page on your site probably offers something different than all the other pages on your site, otherwise you would have terrible redundancy on your site and that would be bad, but thats for another discussion. Lets say you have a site offers travel services, and this particular page is about a certain destination that you offer. Then your ads should fit the page, an offer such as Home Loans, or Grocery Coupons would be what is know as Shotgun Marketing, which basically means that you are just firing an ad at there and praying that someone who sees it will be interested. This click and buy ratio will prove to be VERY disappointing. A proper ad such as discount air tickets, or Travel Insurance will produce a much higher, click and buy ratio, this is what is referred to as Target Marketing. Remember, the internet is a spontaneous buying medium, so when the visitor is on that particular page, this is when the interest in this particular subject is at its peak! They are already thinking travel, you are offering them the Up sell, meaning you not changing the visitors train of thought, your offer is just blending in.
2. Put the steak in the middle, and leave the salad on the side! Where do you place you banners On the side At the bottom of the page Somewhere between the Im offering this for free and Look at my fancy graphics area of the page Obviously the most profitable place to set the banner is on the top of the page, and is highly recommended if that space is available! Most of the time website owners have reserved that spot for theyre own offers and the like. The second best place on a page is just before your start the page content. An animated 468 x 60 banner should be centered and placed just before you begin your page content. Remember these banners are what pay you money to keep your site going, and if all goes right, some change in your pocket. Move other items on your site to the side and make room for those banners. Banners placed inside the test of the page content (not at the end) would be the third option.
3. I dont read the fine print, do you- What size banners do you use DO NOT waste your time placing small banners on your site (unless they are for banner exchange partners)! Small banners are a waste of space, first of all, how much information can the seller fit into such a small area How noticeable will it be to your site visitor If youre trying to sell something, then SELL IT! Ad size should be 468 x 60 or larger, and centered on the page, this ad WILL NOT be missed by the roving eye of your potential buyer. Although they may have not elected to click on it, odds are they certainly did not miss it, because it was big enough to at least catch theyre eye.
Finding the right advertiser, who pays the right commission, and who is offering the right product for a particular page on your site, will require a bit more work than the standard snatch and add type of banner farming, but the rewards will be much greater and prove to be well worth it in the long run. Remember this, anything worth having, is worth working for, and money is worth having
About The Author
Derek Arnold is the President of , a webmaster resource site offering many tools for webmasters, marketers, and designers.
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There is lots of freelance help available on the internet, from writers, editors, proofreaders and other professionals in the writing industry to software developers, graphic designers, web designers and all manner of other technical and business specialists.
Thanks to the increasingly popular outsourcing exchanges, such as Elance.com, SmarterWork.com and ContractedWork.com, it is now very easy to find and hire the right contractor for your project at the right price. If you need help with a technical project, such as software development or web programming, there are even exchanges like RentACoder.com that specialize in these disciplines and organize their participants according to their individual skills.
Using an outsourcing exchange is quick and easy. You simply post a description of your project requirements (in sufficient detail to allow a contractor to estimate its cost) and within hours you will receive proposals from a number of freelance specialists, each one eager to win your business.
You can even use an outsourcing exchange as a research tool, to get an idea of the likely cost of a development project that you may be considering. However, you should beware of posting repeatedly without awarding a contract, as this will earn you the reputation of a time-waster and may adversely affect the response you receive to future postings. As a buyer of freelance services, posting your requirements is usually free. It is the contractor that pays for access to the service, either as a monthly subscription or as a percentage commission on the value of contracts awarded.
If you decide to award a contract in response to a posting, you can protect yourself (and the contractor) using escrow payments. You simply pre-pay the contract value into an escrow account (an interim bank account provided by the exchange operator) knowing that it will only be released to the contractor when you confirm that the work has been completed to your satisfaction. Likewise, the contractor benefits from the reassurance that funds have been reserved to pay for his services. For complex projects, it is even possible to administer phased payments via the escrow account and, in the event of a dispute, take advantage of an arbitration service.
One of the benefits of online outsourcing exchanges is that they provide access to contractors from all over the world. Several countries (such as India and parts of Eastern Europe) have very low labor rates but a highly skilled and professional workforce, making it possible to buy high-quality services very economically. Most of these professionals also speak and write English to a very high standard, making formal communication no more difficult that with a local contractor. The instantaneous nature of internet communication means that it is no longer necessary to collaborate face-to-face.
Of course, the use of freelance contractors is not without its risks. To ensure that your project delivers the results youre expecting, you should follow a few simple guidelines:
If you take the freelance route, it is important to ensure that all rights to profit from the final product, or any materials produced in its creation, remain yours. If you do not, it is possible that a contractor employed to contribute to your project could claim the result as his own and use or sell it independently when it is completed.
You should keep a paper trail linking yourself to anyone with whom you discuss your project, including emails, letters, faxes, and even written records of telephone conversations. This will establish the relationship between you and your contractors, and will prove the source of any confidential details. Although this paper trail may never be needed, if problems arise youll be glad you made that little extra effort.
About The Author
Copyright Tim Coulter. All rights reserved.
Tim Coulter is a consultant and software developer who helps netpreneurs to harness marketing technologies.
He is also the author of ClickBank - The Definitive Guide The Ultimate ClickBank Tutorial & Reference Manual.