If you're considering using banners and just embarking on the design stage, bear in mind a few simple points, and you'll be well on your way to a successful campaign.

One of the reasons people were driven away from ad exchanges in general is because of cheating. Who would want to put ads on their site, only to get there impressions ripped off by another member using an automated traffic inflation method?

1800banners utilizes a unique IP tracking technology, and has the most advanced anti-cheat system probably ever created for not only a banner exchange, but an adserver system.

Cheating has been eliminated at 1800banners.com and here is how:

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A lot of banner exchanges have died out over the past decade, including some large banner exchanges such as Bcentral.
In the past, I have personally signed up and tested almost every known banner and ad exchange that exists on the web.

Here are what I have learned from that experience:

1.The ad-exchange model didnt fail, and is still a desired form of advertising.

There are alot of people willing to use banner exchanges, as well as advertise with them. But for the most part, most banner exchanges utilize obsolete technology that is no longer relevant in today's marketing environment.

2. Almost every ad-exchange that I joined had poor to non-existent service. Adding the ads and getting them approved took days and even weeks, some exchanges didn't even approve or deny the banners they were stuck on pending.

I can tell you from experience that other banner exchanges out there will provide you with a poor user experience and leave you unsatisified if not angry. At 1800banners, we pride ourselves on providing an excellent customer service whether it be by live chat, phone or email. We approve ads all through-out the day everyday, including holidays, so your ads will be approved same day if not within a few hours of adding them!

3. All of them utilize obsolete technology that has high operational costs, which in turn, they pass on higher advertising fees to their advertisers. Some of them failed simply because they became to large and by using poorly engineered software there operational costs exceeded there income, at which point they either shut down or stopped accepting new publishers.

You may notice 1800banners has great prices! One of the reasons we have great prices is because our custom (database-less) adserver technology utilizes all new state-of-the-art cache systems, allowing us to serve millions and millions of ads at a fraction of the cost that our competitors would pay. Our cost savings is passed on to our advertisers.

At 1800banners, we are making the term "banner exchange" a relevant term in the webmaster vocabulary again by doing everything right that every other ad exchange network has done wrong.

- Provide Excellent Customer Service
- Provide Advanced Targeting And Campaign Control Systems
- Provide Affordable Advertising
- Develop advanced adserver technologies for long-term scalability and expansion
- Provide an easy to use and navigate GUI

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Link: Resurrecting the term 'Banner Exchange'

Rich media has been steadily gaining momentum since its inception, not long after the first banner ad appeared. Recent studies show that in terms of performance, rich media dominates static banners (CTRs (define) have been said to average 1.17 percent, six times that of non-rich media ads). JupiterResearch reports that by 2009, rich media ad units will account for over half of all spending on online display ads.

This usage boost is partially due to the technology becoming increasingly easy to employ. Specialized rich media companies, such as EyeWonder, are expanding their product offerings, allowing advertisers and publishers to consolidate their rich media buys. Others, such as Eyeblaster and aQuantive, offer ad management solutions designed specifically with rich media ads in mind. "Rich media is poised to become the new mass media," said EyeWonder's EVP of business development, Michael Griffin.

With rich media's superior performance and increased usability, one can't help but agree. Rich media is doggedly enticing advertisers, making it easy for them to overlook other formats. But given the static banner's impressive history we must ask: is there still a place for the traditional static banner online?

A lot of advertisers probably ask themselves this question when they are getting ready to buy advertising.

The answer to this question depends on the advertisers budget and targeting requirements.

Guaranteed click-throughs to your website are just that, guaranteed, while impressions have no guarantee. When you buy impressions (and all of your impressions are served), your campaign will stop running no matter how many clicks you received.

Buying click-throughs is generally much more expensive than buying impressions because your ads run until all clicks are delivered.



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I have took the time to research the various free banner and ad creating programs on the web so you don't have to. In this article I will list all of the programs I have found, what I like or dislike about them and which one in my opinion is the best.

TOP 3:

AdDesigner.com (On-Line) This one is easy to get started using, it has quite a few (91) pre-made styles to select from. The only downside is that a text ad is displayed for adesigner.com on each ad you create.

BannerMakerPro.com (Download Program) This program creates more sizes than just standard banners. Once you download the program its very easy to get started. This program has a lot of options and is highly recommended. The only downside is that there is 15 day trial after which you will have to pay $35.00 to continue using it.

www.FlashBannerNow.com (On-Line) HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! This website does not allow you to create banner ads for free, but I would like to mention it here because some of the ads you can create with this program are pretty amazing and would get you a much higher click-through rate than traditional banners.

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