Banner Enchancement - Designing Your Banner

A well designed web site is great to have, but what if no one ever comes to it? Most web sites either rely on advertising, or have used advertising at some point in their existence, to get people to come to view the site. This means that your going to have to have not only a well designed web site but also well designed banners to attract your visitors.

Tip #1 - Flashy is no Longer Catchy

Most people are used to advertisements being on a web page as they browse the Internet and they tend to ignore them all together. In the past, to catch the attention of the surfer, banner designs have flashed bright colors repeatedly and used pictures that change colors. In the Internet that we are dealing with today, this no longer works. People ignore these banners knowing that a poorly designed ad normally means a poorly designed web site. Try to avoid rapid image changes unless they equal a smooth movement (ex. a ball rolling).

Tip #2 - A Banner is a Glimpse of Your Site

Your banners, no matter what width or height, should always try to represent your site, with colors, information, and quality. If you have a purple and green scheme for your web site, don't make your banner red and blue. In relation to this, if your web site is about eggs, don't have a picture of a ham dancing around. You want to show what information you have on your site, not just attract people with catchy images (such as a scantly dressed woman for your site relating to eggs). Yes you want to get people to your site, but you also want people to stay on your site. Wasting your money for traffic that's just going to leave once they find out what your site is really all about is a waste of money. You want to keep the people who click on your banner on your site, so make your banner like your site!

Tip #3 - Don't Show Them too Much

The purpose of your banner is to entice people to click on it. Talking about your site a little bit is fine, but giving a three minute speech isn't. You want to give a little information, then lead them to click on the banner to find the rest.

Tip #4 - Unanimated Banners are Good Too!

People these days are spending much time and effort into making that ham dance just the right way, but have they ever considered that maybe having the ham not move at all is better? Moving images do attract attention, but a nice picture also does the trick. The benefit of just having a single frame is that you only have to display a small amount of information. This will entice people to click on the ad to find out more (see Tip #3). Creating a multi frame image results in the viewer expecting more information that maybe you don't have.

Tip #5 - Don't Just Display Your Domain Name (with a few exceptions)

Unless your web sites's name is "WeSellEggs.com" or "Eggs.com," don't just display your name. Having the viewer guess what's on your site based by your name can be risky, so why risk it? Put a little blurb beneath your domain name with a short (fifteen word max) description. Most sites already have this description in the header, so just copy and paste.

Tip #6 - Make Multiple Banners

Having a wide assortment of banners means that you can "match" your banner with the site it is going on. Yes having contrasting colors makes your banner stand out, but you also want to make it look professional. The viewer of the ad, without even realizing it, is looking at the colors of the page as well as the colors of the banner. Having an orange banner on a green site will turn the viewer away from your ad for no reason other than it doesn't fit.

Now that you have some information, open up your paint program and start making slides (or just a single image if you wish). You can always find an easy program to combine your frames together. Try googling "gif animation program" and find one that suits your needs. Good luck and be creative!

Jeffrey Abbott is a respected author and editor of eMoneyReport.com

Visit the site at http://www.emoneyreport.com and read reviews on programs that help you to make money from your own home. eMoneyReport offers a simple and easy format to find articles relating to all types of online business and website promotion.