Affiliate Banner Exchanges

Promotional Skills for The Chronically Amateur
(How to Get Your Message to the American Sheeple)

Part 14: Affiliate Banner Exchanges
by Shonda Ponder

© 2002, Shonda Ponder

Banner exchanges are similiar to link exchanges, except they are usually administered by a third party company, sort of like your email list managers, which we discussed earlier, are. Of course, if you wanted to, you could use your advertising banner rotation tool to exchange banners, on a much smaller scale, which would probably only be as effective as link exchanges.

Some banner exchange companies will pay you to promote their banner scripts on your website. These types of programs are called affiliate programs. We will discuss affiliate advertising programs later, as they will be a good source of revenue to help support the cost of keeping your web site online, and they work a little differently than affiliate banner exchanges.

Getting visitors to your site is only the first step. Let's face it, most Patriots out there are more concerned with working with solid recruits than paying any mind to how many visitors come to their web site. The problem with that way of thinking is that it tends to stall the process of gaining new recruits.

In certain marketing circles, a study was done to determine the effectiveness of web site advertising. This study turned up some interesting statistics. For instance, did you know that only 2% of your visitors will ever click on any advertisement on your site? If they all did, you'd have a better chance at getting your own message out to the public, due to the revenue it would generate for your organization. But, the cold hard fact is, they don't.

Out of every one-hundred people who visit your web site, only two will click on a banner. But, what is worse, only 2% of all the people who click on banners (which is only 2% of the people who visit your web site) will ever purchase anything from an advertiser that is on your website. Wouldn't it be nice if all your visitors clicked on an advertisement and followed through with making a small purchase? If this were the case, affiliate advertising would be all you would ever need to support your cause.

The truth is, affiliate advertising is a great way to support your cause. The trick is getting enough people to visit your web site on a daily basis in order to be able to reap the benefits. This is why link exchanges and banner exchanges are important to your promotional endeavors.

"But, I am not concerned with making money. I'm concerned with getting my message out."

What you have just said in that one sentence is where a lot of the Patriot community have failed. For instance, every month you have to pay for the bandwidth that your traffic uses on your web site. Let's suppose you barely have enough to cover your bills and you live on minimum wage. Especially if your work OFF of the internet requires phone calls and travelling expenses. The costs of supporting a growing organization can be tremendous -- especially if you want it to grow. The cold hard fact is, without money, you will never be able to do anything with the information that you have. And, without visitors, you will never be able to recruit. Attracting financial support will allow you to pay for advertising that will help you get your
information out to millions of people that you could never reach before.

But, if you are only concerned with being a small web site owner, and you have no plans to do any more recruiting or to grow, or to do more than you can afford to do out of your own pocket with no help, stop here. After all, if recruits were all you needed, then you should ask yourself why those websites who are getting millions of hits every month are still begging for donations?

Of course, it's easy to put a link up on your web site and say, "Please donate to my cause." The problem with that is that the general public sees that as a sign of failure. Most of the public won't support something that is not widely supported, and they will not invest in a company that does not turn a profit. Yes, it is a catch 22 in most areas. Without money your organization cannot grow. And without visitors, you do not get support. Also, the ratio of visitors to your site who will donate to your cause is equal to the ratio of visitors to your site that will respond to advertising.

Banner exchanges will help you attract visitors to your website. And, many times a banner exchange will do the job better than a link exchange simply because your banner will be posted on a great variety of web sites that are seen by many people who have never heard of you before -- whereas link exchanges only work by word of mouth if the visitor has been to your site and requested an exchange. Most banner exchanges do not pay you to host their banners, although some do. Rather, they will return a one to one exposure.

For instance, if someone clicks on the banner you have placed on your website, then your own banner will be advertised throughout the exchange everytime someone clicks on the banner exchange company's banner that is on your site. Some companies have millions of member sites in the exchange.

It's always good to find the one that works best for you.

This is Part 14 of "Promotional Skills for the Chronically Amateur"