Banner Ads

Updated 2009-11-25
Still feel the same way even with faster Internet. It is getting worse with ads down the sides of the page as well. On the other side I do run Google Text ads.  Since these met my criteria of low-bandwidth and no effect on page loading I have tried them. I don’t get a lot of traffic so they haven’t worked out that well but I have accumulated  some credits  .  I have not seen any tangible value in over 2 years.

Updated 2001-02-15
Apparently the “click through” rate for banner ads is in the range of 1 in every 1000. This from people who track these things. Now think…. each banner ad is at least 30k… If you are running these things then 999 people are inconvenienced by having to download an additional 30k to visit your “awesome” site. If you run these on every page you must really like to punish your customers. I really do hate these things.

Published 2000-10-07
You might have noticed this site does not run any ads. There is a very specific reason. I take the time and effort to actually get you to come to this site. If I ran ads you could possibly leave my site on the first page because you clicked an ad that was of interest. All the work and effort I put in to get you here and I just sent you somewhere else for a fee of maybe 15¢. It just doesn’t seem to pay off. My site would be slower(all the graphic ads). I would lose a lot of valuable screen real estate displaying these ads. In addition I find customers tolerate these ads. They certainly don’t like them.

In my personal experience this has happened more than once…… I went to a site looking for something, saw an ad that was of interest, clicked the ad and forgot about the original site. That original site just gave away a potential customer for 15¢. Often sites pay more than that in promotion just to get the customer to visit.

Banner ads can be beneficial for sites like Microsoft, Netscape, Disney, Yahoo and others. They are so large that they know the customer will be back. They are also good for free sites that provide various services “for free”.

Banner exchange ads aren’t much better. You have to show other site ads usually twice as many times as you have yours displayed. Again, do you want to promote other sites more than your own?

In summary it seems foolish to run these ads when it cost you more than the revenue they produce. The problem is the costs are not easily quantifiable and not that obvious. The ads do produce tangible revenue……but at what cost?

Anyway, that is my opinion…..Others have had great success with Banner Ads.