(note: you will be given a banner farm at safshop.net once you have registered with many variety to suit your site -- below is just an example and we do have tamer ads for more conservative sites)

1. Always place banners where people can see them - high on the page. While some say that the top of the page is the prime spot, recent studies show higher click rates for banners placed on the right of the screen, near the scroll bar.
2. Make sure the banner is related to the content. If your audience is interested in your content, they'll be more likely to click on a banner that complements it.
3. Don't stack banners. More is not better. Internet usage studies show that when people see a stack of 3, 4 or 5 banners, their click rate decreases sharply versus a clean page with a single banner.
4. Add supporting text.
5. Rotate the banners. If you have a lot of return traffic, use several different banner designs to change up what people are seeing. Banners that are left to gather dust, will become part of the background and no longer stand out.

About Search Engines
About Search Engine Rankings
Search Engine Positioning
Webmaster Tools and Resources

Promoting Your Own Site: About Search Engines

More traffic means a greater chance of having people click on a banner! The key is to be listed high in the search engines. There are so many sites out there, that you really have to work hard to be noticed. Let's start with some of the top search engines (in no particular order):

· AltaVista: One of the largest search engines on the web in terms of pages indexed, AltaVista is known for a broad range of coverage and powerful searching features.

· Yahoo!: The web's most popular search service, Yahoo! and has a well-deserved reputation for helping people find what they're looking for quickly and easily.

· Direct Hit: This search engine counts the number of clicks a site gets when someone searches, then ranks them according to who got the most clicks.

· Excite: This search engines provides a crawler-based web page index, as well as access to human-powered directory results from LookSmart.

· GoTo: This search engine sells its main listings. You can pay to be placed higher in the searches, a policy that helps keep results more relevant. Gathers non-paid results from Inktomi.

· FAST Search: This was the first search engine to hit 200 million web pages and has continued to be one of the largest indexes of the web.

· AOL Search: This is AOL's member search engine, allowing people to search across the web as well as AOL's own content from one place.

· HotBot: This search engine combines results from Direct Hit with secondary results from the Inktomi search engine, which is also used by other services.

· iWon: This portal also uses results automatically generated by Inktomi. Has a very large user base that is encouraged to view and click on more results with 'points' incentives.

· Ask Jeeves: This is a question and answer search engine that attempts to send the user directly to the most relevant sites that match the question.

· Google: This search uses link popularity as well as content relevance to rank results. Does not sell rankings and is good for general searches in which the user is in need of suggestion.

· LookSmart: This is a human-compiled directory of web sites. Works in partnership with MSN Search, Excite and many others, providing them with results.

· NBCi: This is another a human-compiled web directory, supplemented by search results from Inktomi. (Formerly Snap)

· Lycos: This started out as a search engine, then shifted to a web directory, similar to Yahoo. Its listings come from a variety of providers.

· Microsoft's MSN Search service is a LookSmart-powered directory of web sites, with secondary results that come from Inktomi.

Promoting Your Own Site: About Search Engine Rankings

When people use search engines, they will never view the 24,587th listing out of 329,836. What they will most likely do is pick from the top ten sites - top twenty at the most. The key is to get into the top ten. If you can accomplish that, there's no stopping you! Here are some ideas:

· Pick Strategic Keywords. Take some time to really think about what a person might enter into a search engine. Have a friend or outside associate give you some words off the top of their head. And try to use two word phrases - single words are so common that you'll have far too much competition.

· Place Keywords High on Your Page. Make sure strategic keywords appear in the crucial locations on your web pages. These include the page title, page headline and first paragraph of text. Remember that tables and Java script can "push" your text further down the page when being reviewed by a search engine. Just something to think about!

· Have Relevant Content. Your keywords need to be reflected in the page's content. That means you need some HTML text on your page. Large sections of copy via graphics look pretty, but search engines can't read the graphics and miss out on text that might make your site more relevant.

· Expand Your Text References - where appropriate. For example, a sports memorabilia page might have references to "fans" and "collectors." Expanding these references to "sports fans" and "sports collectors" reinforces your strategic keywords in a legitimate way. Your page really is about sports memorabilia, but it accounts for some of the variables in people's search habits.

· Use META Tags. They can help you overcome problems with tables, frames and other trouble areas. META tags will also help you control your site's description in engines that support them. You should use META tags, but keep in mind that they are NOT a guarantee that your site will appear first.

· Submit Your Key Pages. Most search engines will index other from your web site by following links from a page you submit to them. But sometimes they miss, so submit the top two or three pages that best summarize your web site. Be patient. It can take up to a month (or two) for your "non-submitted" pages to appear in a search engine, and some search engines may not list every page.

· Verify And Maintain Your Listing. Check on your pages and ensure they get listed. Then monitor your listing every week or two. Watch for trouble, and resubmit if you spot it. Resubmit your site any time you make significant changes. Search engines should revisit on a regular schedule.

Reference: Search Engine Positioning

http://www.123promote.com/workbook/seminar.htm
A variety of tips and advice for your site and to achieve Top 20 status on most search returns.

http://www.searchpositioning.com/
Tons of marketing and promotion resources, placement improvement tips, articles, discussion forums, and useful links for webmasters.

http://www.searchenginewatch.com/
Articles on search engines, tips on improving rankings, and how to maintain good search engine design.

http://www.infoscavenger.com/
Monthly newsletter points Webmasters and Web marketers to the best tips on making your site come up earlier in search engine results.

http://www.rankthis.com/
Free service that quickly finds where your site ranks with keyword searches on the major search engines.

Reference: Webmaster Tools and Resources

http://www.webreference.com/
Articles and other information covering topics from browsing to authoring, HTML to advanced site design.

http://www.webmasters-resources.com/
Links to scripts, HTML tutorials, hosting services, site enhancement tips, and more.

http://kresch.com/
Center for free high quality webmaster tools and search engines.

http://www.freesitetools.com/
Everything a webmaster could need and more - lots of great free stuff!

http://webknowhow.net/

Tutorials, tips, and more about design, JavaScript, promotion, hosting and more.

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