A banner exchange program is a network of websites that group together to promote each others website. This is a free service and to join you simply submit your website with the network.
Most banner exchanges are set up with an exchange rate of a 2 to 1 ratio. Which simply means that for every two banners your site displays, your banner will be shown on one of the other sites in the network one (1) time.
Each website that participates in the network displays a banner on their web page. The banner will advertise another persons website that is a part of the program. With each site being linked to the network, every time your page is viewed, the banner will change with a new advertiser. The idea is a rotating process so everyones banner will be displayed (depending on the ratio).
To find a banner exchange program, you can go to any major search engine to search for networks you may want to consider. You can find banner exchanges that have from hundreds to thousands of sites participating in the exchange program.
The Concept:
Participating in a banner exchange program may sound somewhat appealing since this is a free service, but you need to read on.
First off, lets take a look at how much traffic you may get from this type of marketing, or I should say, how much targeted traffic youll receive.
If you are in a banner exchange program that offers a 2 to 1 ratio and you displayed your banner 1,000 times, you would get your site displayed 500 times.
At this point it would seem like this is a good marketing venture, but its important to know that the click through rate on banners has changed considerably.
Today most viewers ignore banners whereas the average click through rate (the likelihood that someone will click on the banner) has dropped to a half percent. Now if you take the figures above (500) x 1/2 percent, you will get (2.5).
So this means that for every 1,000 times you displayed a banner, you may only get 2 to 3 people who actually clicked on the banner to your website.
Still not convinced, well lets take it a step further. With some banner exchange programs the network may not categorize the websites in the network. There can be hundreds of banner ads with each one promoting to a different market trend. So this would mean your chances of getting targeted traffic to your website are slim.
You can end up getting a lot of traffic from people that has no interest in what you have to offer (that appeal is starting to wear off a little, isnt it).
If you do a little researching, you will find some banner exchange networks that do categorize and will give you a better ratio than 2 to 1.
So if you want to get the best results from using a banner exchange, our advice is to look for networks that categorize and offer the higher ratio.
Our point of view on using banner exchanges is not necessarily to give a negative view, but that we feel there are other ways to promote your business that will give you far better results.
The truth of the matter is, years ago banner exchanges worked very well and were extremely popular. As the Internet has grown, as well as the people who use it, this form of marketing will give you little results in todays Internet.
John Kovacs is the CEO and founder of A Home Business Opportunity. His website mainly focuses on supplying free marketing tips, resources and support for home startup businesses and Internet marketing. To get a step-by-step guide in building an online business, visit
Weblogs and Podcasting in the Marketing Mix
It is rare that such a speedy development could have been watched as it happens now for Podcasting. But for this there are some good reasons. Weblogs have become an established Publishing Tool with millions of users and readers. Furthermore users are able now to handle multimedia applications and do own computers and mobile music players. But the up to date hype should not be reasoned by the users, which rather do not have expert skills in marketing, but by the industry following those millions of users. Also investors again are very active in the reach of weblogs and IT at all.
Studies state that about the half of mobile music player owners already has downloaded a podcast. By those preconditions the way for commercialization is free. But, too, it seems to be necessary to do so, because the industry needs the users to become offered industrial products. This probably is not without conflicts, because users might have their reasons to go to those new independant media channels.
Advantages and disadvantages now opposite to the in common low costs for distribution at the internet now rely again in the quality of produced media. The quality of course is better with the better but costly equipment. But, quality does also has its costs and it seems that for now a reliable business model does not exist. Whereas there already is the option to include adverts at podcasts the option of paid services is discussed again. Weblog comments on the latter option sometimes are humourious and users now are offered software for a more professional production of podcasts.
RSS Newsfeeds in the Marketing Mix
The RSS Data Format, compared to the Hype of Podcasting, does exist for a far longer time. It is popular now, but it seems that it does not have the same broad acceptance like weblogs. By this one might describe weblogs as medium for the masses and RSS Newsfeeds, as long as those do not become integrated in a website, as a medium for niches. Opposite to this big portals now are offering the opportunity to integrate RSS News in personalized news pages. By this and with the opportunity to reach a broader audience also big players do start RSS Activities. Furthermore niches of course not neccessarily are less important.
RSS is build by the data format XML, which gives some interesting possibilities. Interested users may receive RSS Newsfeeds by subscription. Furthermore XML offers the opportunity to integrate Newsfeeds and their content into websites. Meanwhile there is a good range of newsfeed search engines and for those, too, do exist submission tools.
Up to Date Articles and Studies on Podcasting and RSS are to be found at the May Revision of FOLDEN and later on at the Internet Trends Archive. FOLDEN is a monthly updated Directory on E-Marketing and iMedia with two News Rubrics and a free Newsletter.
FOLDEN Homepage
http://www.folden.info/
Related FOLDEN Rubrics
http://www.folden.info/weblogsandblogs.shtml
http://www.folden.info/rss-content-tools.shtml
Copyright, Impressum and Terms of Use
This article may become passed on at a whole, with its links and copyright. The author of this article makes no warranties on the usefullness or the correctness of any kind of this article, readers do use this information on their own responsibility.
Frank Brauer
Consultant