Banner advertising?

[Rich Z]

I've gotten another query about running banner ads for this site for sponsors. Quite honestly, I just haven't spent much time even thinking about it.

What do you guys think? Is it going to detract from this site if I start accepting advertising? Do I sound like a jerk even considering turning away paying advertisers?

The more I think about it, maybe having sponsors here would give the site more credibility......

[9T8Vette]

Rich i think it's great idea . The advertising will help pay for upgrades to the site and we will have some Ads to look at.Sometimes they run Group Specials on some cool items .Example on DC i have seen LT headers being discounted if you buy 10 sets or more. The Ads are not pop ups are they?

[Rich427]

Rich, I say go for it. You developed the site and it has to be costing you something. I know that you said that you amortized a lot of the start up costs with other sites that you run, but what the hell. If you can make a few bucks, why not.

Just negotiate a good deal. That's a bunch of money for you and discounts for the site members!

[2Vettes]

Sure go for it. We can decide if we want to click on the ad or not.

[Rich Z]

Well let me ask you all this. Is there any particular site that uses banner advertising that you especially like? Well maybe "like" is kind of strong. How about as non intrusive as possible? I do some advertising on my other sites, but I'm kind of stuck in a rut using large rotating banners, and thinking maybe I should try something different.

Nearly all of the corvette forums I have been to tend to use rather small static images, usually down one side or the other. So if you can recall seeing something that you thought was really classy looking, please let me know.

What I need to do from my end is to utilize something that won't be just a pain in the butt to manage. I had some banner ad software like that years ago and it about drove me batty. I had to check expiration dates on each and every ad EVERY day, then manually send out nag notices for expiring ads. Sure made sitting in front of the computer WAY too much like work.

[Zach]

Rich, what about a setup like this?
http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/ (right)

[Rich Z]

Originally Posted by Zach

Rich, what about a setup like this?
http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/ (right)

Yeah, the column of mini banners seems to be popular. But I'm not sure there is really any standard dimensions for them. Nearly every site I go to has different sizes to the banners. For instance,

The site you sent me to -> 150x70
Z06Vette.com -> 100x33
LS1tech.com -> 100x45
DigitalCorvettes.com -> 120x25
LS2Forums.com -> 110x40
And the oddest of all is CorvetteForum.com as the banners apparently are compiled behind the scenes to give one HUGE image displayed -> 134x4413

So my thoughts were to perhaps use a size that would be compatible with everyone else so they wouldn't have to create a new banner size to use on my site. Obviously "standardization" is a concept that has yet to make landfall in this area.

Personally I am leaning towards a 120x60 format because this seems to be standard in the various banner ad software packages I have take a look at in the past. And since there is really no standard, well what the heck. Why not? This would be most compatible with the larger banner ads I have used in the past as well. 468x60 for a horizontal format, and 120x600 for a large vertical banner. That way I could keep things aesthetically pleasing if the time were to come when I thought I should have multiple types of formats available.

One other thing I see as a problem looking at some of the other sites, is that if I were an advertiser, I would feel I was getting ripped if my banner ad was way down at the bottom of that long column. Not that I think that will be an issue here, but I think I would do it differently if it were me.

[MADN3SS]

I say go for it Rich.

I do love Adam's Polishes new ad on Z06Vette.com. It's a Macromedia Flash ad. Don't know if you need anything like that though. He is a feature sponsor over there.

[Z06 Rocket]

As long as they are at the very top or along the sides (like CF). Pop-ups are not what I want to see.

[Rich Z]

No, you won't see popup ads here. Personally I refuse to go back to sites that spring those suckers on my when I go there. So I'm not about to use them myself.