How to Put Advertising Banners on your Web Site

So, you've got a pretty cool website and its doing a little bit of business. Maybe it's really more of a hobby, but it has some potential to be big. You might have thought about taking on some advertisers. (Take on a few big sites for a monthly fee). Maybe you've emailed a few potential advertisers, but haven't really got a response. Is this the way to go about this?

Have you heard of banner ad networks?

Consider a network where an advertiser who wants to buy, say, 50,000 ad impressions for a short run of one week on sites of a particular nature. If a network has 50 sites of that kind registered with it, each drawing 1,000 page views, it can sell these 50,000 ad impressions right away, and then run them over 50 different websites. The owner of a member site is happy to sell his inventory, the advertiser is happy to be able to buy his ads at one place, and the network is happy because it gets a commission on the sale! A truly win-win-win situation.

Also, the network serves all the ads off their server. It tracks traffic and response rates to these ads. It sells ads specific to your niche topic to advertisers who desire this narrowly targeted audience - at higher CPM or CPC rates than the default ad campaigns. The network also allows you to run some personal campaigns on the site.

You won't be a millionaire overnight, but ad networks are a great way to help pay for hosting while you build traffic to your site.

Some Recommended Banner Ad Networks

Recommendation #1: The FastClick Ad Network

The FastClick Ad Network  is the leader in banner ad networks. . They feature CPM, CPC, Invue, Skyscraper, Interstitial, Super banners (728x90), and a great pop under program.

FastClick looks like a winner with a professional design and a big selection of stats. FastClick is a full-service advertising network committed to providing web-based solutions that meet the needs of online Advertisers and Publishers.

In 1999, Cofounder Jeff Pryor recognized a need in the advertising industry to create an online service dedicated to flexibility, efficiency, and accuracy. The goal of the service was to provide online advertisers with ad serving and tracking solutions that could be molded to their individual needs. Within the following months, a business was created that provided a winning combination of serving tools and a quality network: FastClick.

The above passage comes straight from FastClick's website. Its been the experience of many webmasters and sites that FastClick is something really special. If you can get accepted by them, you can be sure of one of the most comprehensive ad networks ever known. They have the best ad serving technology around, with amazing statistics and a fantasic interface which is intuitive. They support 468x60 banners.

They also have an industry leading pop under window program which pays high CPM. If you are having trouble being accepted to their network, they have been known to let people in who only wish to run their pop under campaigns, so be sure to make a note on your applicaiton.

FastClick has a minimum payment of $25.00, but you can set it at any higher level you wish. (You have control) They will also mail you a check or if you wish they will send you payment to your PAYPAL account. They always pay on the 20th of the month. (They never miss ed a payment in the four years I have been a member) The money you recieve on the 20th is your earnings for the previous month.

Go to their website and fill out a FastClick application, you'll be glad you did.

Recommendation #2: Casale Media

Casale Media is taking the online advertising industry by storm by offering unprecidented flexibility for both publishers and advertisers in pop under serving. They pay premium rates (70% of their price) to publishers, and allow many great features to publishers including frequency cap selection, and a default system which allows you to serve pop unders when you have no other ads to show with other vendors.

Casale is really friendly with live stats so you can see how you are doing in real-time.