Banner advertising is a form of online advertising using banners embedded on a web page to advertise or promote a product or service. Banner advertising is one of the earliest advertising methods online. It is still widely used today because banner ads have prove to be very effective in capturing web visitors’ attention.

Although many people find banner ads to be a distraction, it is also precisely the reason why they are so effective. The visitors’ attentions are drawn to the banners as soon as the web pages are load up. While banner ads are effective in drawing attention, you also need to be careful and not over do it.

If you are looking to create some banners yourself or outsource it to graphic designers, here are a few tips to bear in mind when designing your banners.

First of all, if possible include a bit of animation in your banners. Animations will give a different feel to your banner ads as compare to non animated banners. However, do not overdo it as heavy animated banners tend to load up more slowly as compare to static banners.

Also include a catchy slogan and a call for action. In this way, people will tend to remember your business more easily. Adding a call for action will let people know what you are trying to get them to do. For example, if you offer a free trial for a certain product, you can put a call for action such as “Click here to get your free trail now” into your banner. This will let your web visitors know what they should do to get the free trial.

Last but not least, keep things simple. No point designing an animation intensive banner which loads slowly or a banner that has too many messages for web visitors to digest properly. At the end of the day, you just want your message to be delivered across.

Google is going to retire their Google Adsense referral program during the last week of August. During that time, referral ads that featured Google products or offerings from Adwords advertisers will no longer display any ads.

Although the referral programs is not that lucrative as compared to other monetization programs, at the very least it is an additional source of revenue for some webmasters. While I did not actively promote this program, a quick check around find some webmasters making decent money off it.

I believe the reason Google canned the program as it is not giving the desired results that Google is hoping for. Many webmasters have in fact given up on the Google Adsense referral program even before news leaked out. I guess Google is not the only one to discover the referral program is not working at all.

If you have been online for a period of time, most likely you have already come across Squidoo. Otherwise for those who are new to the internet, you may want to check out Squidoo. Although Squidoo was set up only a couple of years back in late 2005, it has become one of the most trafficked websites on the internet.

Squidoo is essentially a user generated content site. Squidoo consist of a network of lenses. These lenses are basically pages that are created by users like you and me. These lenses can be anything under the sun although internet marketers are primary the most active users on Squidoo.

The ease of use and the simplicity in creating a lens is what makes Squidoo such a hit with internet marketers. You can easily set up your own lens within minutes of signing up for an account. Besides that, you can also generate revenue from these lenses as well. Squidoo is also a revenue sharing site whereby the revenue earned from your lenses is split between you, Squidoo and appointed charities.

Most internet marketers used Squidoo as a platform to promote products or even linking back to their sites.Do not underestimate the traffic that Squidoo can bring to your sites. Traffic from Squidoo are usually very targeted and in some cases resulted in sales especially if you are promoting a good product or services. It is no wonder some internet marketers are able to make a full time income just by marketing on Squidoo alone.

If you have not start using Squidoo to drive traffic to your sites, you are seriously missing out on good targeted traffic and some money as well. Make Squidoo part of your marketing strategies and you will be able to see some decent results soon.

Article directories can be a great source of traffic if you know how to utilize them properly. The best part of using article directories as your traffic source is that they are free. Basically, article directories are constantly I need of original and unique content for their visitors and you as a article publisher or author will provide the very content that article directories need in exchange for exposure and traffic. It is a win-win situation for both the article directories and you.

Most established article directories are well indexed and placed highly in the search engines. By submitting your articles to these article directories will ensure maximum exposure for your sites. Even if your sites are brand new, there is nothing to stop you from having your new site being indexed and placed highly in the search engines within days if not weeks. It works especially well if you are targeting longtail keywords.

Another benefit besides the high search engine rankings is the targeted traffic you can get from article directories. People visiting these sites are normally looking for specific information and through these article directories; you get a lot of targeted traffic, saving you much time and effort.

Also, submitting articles to these article directories will allows you to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise while also building your credibility. It will definitely bode well for your online business, especially if you are in a niche that requires a certain degree of credibility. This is an extremely important part of article marketing in which a lot of marketers failed to envision.

The key to getting constant traffic from article directories is to keep on submitting articles on regular basics. Do not overlook the importance of regular submission. Even up till this day, my sites are still getting traffic from old articles submitted a couple of years back. If you are not currently employing article marketing as one of your main marketing strategies, isn’t it time for you to consider doing so.