Web Site Promotion : Banner Exchanges

What is a banner exchange?

Banner exchanges provide webmasters a free source of advertising for their website. They do this in exchange for advertising space on your web page. They usually give you a ratio like 2:1, 3:2 etc... What this means is that for every 2 ads they show on your site, they will show your ad one time on another members site.

How do banner exchanges make their money?

Banner exchanges hope to make money selling the extra ad space that you give them. In the 2:1 ratio exampleabove, they can have a paid ad on a members site half of the time and your free ad the other half of the time. If advertisers are not buying the ad space, then the exchange can place their own ads in rotation promoting their own product or service.

Should I use a banner exchange service?

Only you can make that decision. It has been my opinion that banner exchanges generally do not help a site that dramatically. For example in a 2:1 exchange, If you had 100 hits/day that would allow your banner to be displayed on other members site 50 times. Today's average click through rate is less than 2% and probably closer to 1% that means your 50 free banner ads would result in maybe 1 click through to your site.

Are there any down sides to using the banner exchange services?

Basically, I see 2 major downsides to using the banner exchange services. 1) You have no control over what banners are put on your site, and you have no control on where your banners are seen. 2) There is the very real possibility that you are losing more visitors from your site that follow the banners than you are gaining from using the service to begin with.

A last note on Banner exchanges.

The comments on this page are just one webmasters opinion. It is obvious that banner exchanges have had some success as they have thrived on the internet since the internet became a commercialized entity. For those of you that wish to try a banner exchange service, I have provided a link to a directory of exchanges Feel free to try them out. I would also suggest seeking out smaller exchanges that specialize on your particular subject matter. You may not get as much exposure this way, but I am certain you will achieve much higher click though rates.