Do you want to make the big money online? – Of course! One step forward is the selection of good advertisement. The Internet offers several methods…
Banner ads
They belong to the most common advertisements in the Internet. They are graphic elements with a message that are included in the regular site. Regularly ads are payed according to views or clicks. The big problem with banners is that many users ignore them because of the masses and their eternal presence. So it is very important where to place a banner and how to construct it. Usual solutions are:
- Skyscraper: Very high banners usually at the sides of a website which are even visible in parts when you scroll down.
- Content ads: Advertisements, which are integrated into the content of a website. Sometimes they are also included close to the menu bars and other interaction fields. For this reason some users see an advertisement not knowing that it is one.
- Video ads: Similar to normal banners except they aren’t static.
Pop-up and Pop-under advertisements
This method is very eye-catching because the ads open in an extra window and aren’t ‘just’ a part of a website. This means that every visitor has to deal with them. So the advertiser can be sure that everyone will see his advertising. But that’s why such obtrusive ads are unpopular. Many Internet users have a pop-up blocker to get rid of this annoying advertisements. Because of that you should think about placing such an advertisement on your website. A pop-up or pop-under gives you the most money but it also gives your visitors a bad feeling of your site.
Layer ads
They are equal to pop-ups but don’t open in a new window and instead of that they lay over the website-content in a JavaScript generated window. These windows frequently have a hidden close button so that the visitors have to analyze the ad before they can reach the websites’ content. Advertisements of this kind are often blocked and disliked just as pop-ups.
Web sponsoring
Another variant of Internet advertising is web sponsoring. Web sponsoring means a sponsor invests some money into a website and as counter-performance the sponsor will be presented on the website with a logo or something equal.
AdSense
This service from Google makes advertising very simple. It provides you with plain text-ads through a javascript that needs to be integrated in your website. But if you haven’t the right keywords on your site you very often earn just a few cents per click.
ContentLink, IntelliTXT and LinkWords
This type of advertising constitutes a new trend. More and more big websites have those hyperlinks within continuous texts. You get a little JavaScript snippet to integrate in your website and the it automatically highlights interesting words and generates money for every click.
Interstitial ads
These are websites which are displayed before you can enter the requested page.
Also see my post about making a good banner.
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Mark Zuckerberg did it and many others! They build successful websites and applications, and you can do the same! The first and most important thing is the idea. If your idea has potential then why not give it a try! Many people haven’t thought of becoming famous and rich by their websites but they were wrong.
What do you need to start your own website, blog or web application?
The idea – it’s the A and O to be successful! Are there already sites that do the same as yours? Is it possible to make money with your idea (sell premium content, banner advertising) or do you just want to be popular?
The website – do you master (x)HTML, PHP and JavaScript and maybe another language like Java? The point is – make yourself clear what is possible with your capabilities and what not. Maybe hire a professional programmer, but keep in mind that they are very expensive. Also nowadays it’s essential to permanently keep an eye on your sites’ security.
The design/layout – in the internet you find millions of examples of good web-designs. You can also find a lot of guides and tutorials that will help you step by step.
The server – how big is your project? Do you think you need a server right from the beginning? Or is a Shared Plan enough for a few weeks? If you have a heavy-load online application, calculate your budget carefully. Nothing is angrier than having the ultimate website but not the resources to host and operate it.
The breaks – After your project is running and even during the building time – take breaks! Turn off and do anything apart from thinking about your website. It’s a very important, maybe the most important thing you should take care of unless you want to lose the view on the whole.
When to start your website? – Now. Don’t lose time.
Good Blogs and Sites for more information
- OnStartups, Advice for Software Startups. Invaluable guides for entrepreneurs.
- DoshDosh, Internet Marketing and Social Media. Many tips and tricks on how to make the big money with any kind of website.
- Mashable!, The Social Networking Blog. See the ideas of other people and learn from them.
Do you have a banner for your website or blog? If not, create one right now! In order to do this, I summed up a few basic tips.
1. Be professional: A banner is your virtual business card. People are getting their first impressions of your website based on your banner ad, so you must to be sure that it presents you in the best possible manner. This means you should be very careful with using correct spelling and grammar. Also, choose font sizes, styles and colors that maximize your banners readability. If you don’t do so some people might get a bad feeling of your site.
2. Ask for an action: What do you want people to do when they see your banner? Most probably you want them to visit your website. Write something like “click here” or “enter now” on it. On the Internet you can see many examples of this strategy.
3. Keep it simple: Most people are looking at a banner for less than a second. You must be sure that the message of your graphic can be easily understood. Organize your banner/advertising clear and concise to increase the possibility that the viewer gets your message. It’s very important to use just a few plain words because you can provide the user with more information on your website.
4. Raise attention or emotion: Use words like free, secret or other to raise the user’s attention. Make the viewer curious in your website. Maybe use a pun or contrast.
5. We want benefits, not features: What’s the difference between a feature and a benefit? A feature is the service you offer your visitors. A benefit is the effect on your visitors. What seems to be most appealing to you? – “We are specialized in finding deductions” (feature) or “Pay less tax” (benefit)? It is only important to say how your service improves your visitors life and not how you do that.
6. Test it: Design several ads and think about different slogans. Then run them for a short time and compare the traffic you get by the different ads. Use the most successful one and be sure your banners are always up-to-date!
7. Other important things to know: Be sure that your banner isn’t bigger then 20kb that it loads quickly. Also use the common formats as you can see at the bottom of this post.
If you don’t know where to place your banner, take a look at Google’s “AdSense Ad-Locations Heatmap”
- Ads closer to the center of the page tend to perform better
- Ads above the fold tend to perform better than those below the fold
- Ads placed at the end of articles tend to do well, even though they’re below the fold
- Ads placed near site navigation or by images or other rich content tend to do well, too
Standard Internet Ad Sizes:
Ad Size Ad Type
468 x 60 Full banner
392 x 72 Full Banner/ Vertical Navigation Bar
234 x 60 Half Banner
125 x 125 Square Button
120 x 90 Button #1
120 x 60 Button #2
120 x 240 Vertical Banner
728 x 90 Leader board
160 x 600 Wide Skyscraper
120 x 600 Skyscraper
300 x 600 Half Page Ad
This week I will present you 5 extraordinary fonts from deviantart.com, an outstanding community for art lovers.
Advent – This font features 7 weights (regular, light, extra light, regular oblique regular rounded, bold and extra bold) of advent along with carefully adjusted kerning. Unless written approval by the author Andreas Kalpakidis only personal usage of it is allowed.
Sliced AB – The typeface includes many of the key elements you need in a font, upper and lower case, as well as numerals and punctuation. Created by Alex Banks.
Bobel – by Chris Pitney. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
Manu – Both, Oktober and Manu, are fonts designed by Alen Stojanac. The author grants permission to use, alter and distribute them, either commercially or non-commercially.
Oktober
See our Font Tests
If you want to see these fonts’ appearance before downloading them, have a look a our Font-Tests (.pdf) – Font Test with 8px, Test with 12px, Font Test with 14px, Test with 18px and Font Test with 26px font-size.
Please follow the license agreements, they can change from time to time.
Easter is coming and as the holiday approaches, it’s time to get into the right Easter spirit. Out there you find a lot of bad wallpapers and icons for Easter. That’s why I carried together a few high-quality and well-made works.
Wallpaper
Happy Easter! 1280×1024
Easter Eggs 1152×864
Happy Easter! 1024×768
Easter bunny 1600×1200
Icons
Oslo Easter, a iconset of 12 icons
Easter icons, 4 beautiful icons
