Many websites carry narrow advertising banners on the tops and/or sides of their pages. There are two basic categories of banner advertising: free banner exchanges and paid banner advertising.

A site providing you with a banner can only guarantee that people will see your ad. They cannot guarantee that anyone will read it or click through to your site. Your chances of getting click throughs increase when you develop effective banner advertising that motivates people to see your site. Among the millions of people using the web, some are bound to be in the market for your product or service.

Banners on search engines and directories
First, let's examine paid banner ads. You can advertise your site on search engines and directories which allow you to target specific segments of their large audiences. You can specify that your banner comes up in specific categories, such as Business, Marketing, Manufacturing, Engineering, etc.

Popular search engines like Yahoo or HotBot will cost you $25 - $40 Cost Per Thousand (CPM) to purchase a minimum number of impressions, usually 100,000. (However it is possible to get special deals through services we will discuss later.) So a banner ad on Yahoo would cost you approximately $2,500 to $4,000 per month - comparable to an ad in a small circulation trade publication.

When you pay for more impressions you can expect a lower CPM of $20 - $25, and even less if you make a long-term commitment. You will pay double ($40 - $80+ CPM) for highly specific categories such as "fasteners," or "dog grooming." But getting more targeted audiences may be worth the difference.

Banners on high traffic web sites and sites for specific audiences
If you run your banner on a high traffic web site like CNN or Newsweek you will pay $20 - $30 CPM. You will get a broad but not targeted audience. If you advertise on sites for specific audiences, you will pay $30 - $80 CPM. For example if you are an investment banker you might advertise on www.quote.com, a stock site; if your site is about a transmission specialist with national outlets, it might make sense to advertise on www.CarTalk.com.

Free Link Exchanges
When you find a site with content related to your site, you can e-mail the webmaster of the site and politely ask if he would be willing to create a reciprocal link with your site. This is a slow and ongoing process, but the time spent can prove very worthwhile.

A number of services, in which membership generally free, allow you to set up link exchanges between your site and others with similar or related content. Some to check out are:
www.linkexchange.com - one of the oldest link exchange services on the web. It also allows members to buy small quantity ads, like $100 for 1,000 CPM, on Yahoo. It has over 50,000 members and displays 3 million banners daily.
www.clicktrade.com - allows you to reward other sites for linking to you.
www.smartclicks.com - offers free targeted banner ads as well as click trades.
www.bannerswap.com - a free service that gives you credits for click throughs generated on your site. That should encourage members to give better placement to the banners so they will work.