Dare2Click Blog

When I first thought about this subject, three things went through my mind.  Do I want to approach this as an owner, a member or a joke?

As an owner, it irks me to no end that members do not bother to use text impressions, banner impressions and credits.

As a member, I am embarrassed to admit that until last night, I had never assigned a text impression .  I do set my banners up on many of my surf sites, then promptly forget where and when to go and reapply impressions.

And I started to think of a joke I could make…….”A bannerimp, textimp and 3credits were all out circulating the web one night….. ”

Eureka Moment Friends and Followers!  It was no joke.  That opening line, which I thought first to represent my lame attempt to mimic, “A Frenchman, Englishman, Irishman…..” is in essence the whole purpose of this post.

Banner impressions,  Text impressions and Credits do no good sitting on accounts.  Be you an owner or a member, if you leave them sitting, not only are you losing valuable advertising routes, but, and this really is a no-brainer, why do you bother being a member of anything if you don’t use that which you are handed?

Out of respect to myself as an owner, and my pride as an active member I have decided to take a completely unbiased look at the three items in the title of this post, remove some of the more mysterious grey areas and simply show you them all in their naked state.

A Banner is a method of advertising.  Short, sweet and to the point, their purpose is to fit in small places where a splash page will not or where copious text is frowned upon.   Their best feature is that in most cases, you don’t have to make them!  I can’t think of one site that I belong to or advertise, that does not supply me with eye-catching banners.  Their worst feature is that every site already has them and lots of them are well-known.  Sigh, it’s a catch-22.  But if you are even slightly talented, you can convert a banner into something personal.  I know, I’ve done it.  And If I can do it, just about anyone can.  I’ll even help you with my next blog by listing some of the free programs I use to create banners with almost no effort or talent necessary. Stay tuned til next week, I will do it for sure then.

One other part about banners that I get into difficulty with is actually knowing how to set one up.  It gets me confused, although, I admit, I’m getting better at it now.  You see, some sites want a total of two urls to set up a banner.  Some just want one.  Finding that information can also be a bit confusing depending on the site.  I do have a simple way that I used to learn how to set up my banners and I will try to explain it here, lol.

When you are faced with needing two urls to set up a banner, one is going to be your personal referral url and the other is going to be the url that creates the visuals of the banner.  Your personal referral url WILL always end with your referral information, be it a number or a nicname.  The second url will always end in .gif or.jpeg, something that indicates that the url is a picture.

http://www.dare2click.com/?rid=54838                                                                                  and

When I join a new site, I always copy the pertinent information and place it on a notepad page. This referral url is always on there.   I also always copy and paste my surfing url here, the url for my chosen splash page, and the url for the banner graphics of one or two of the offered site examples of banners. This way, when I am ready to post my information on another site, it’s right there handy without having to return time after time to the site I want to advertise.  Confused?  Yeah it’s a bit long, I admit, so here is what I put on my note pad that keeps me clear.

login url:…..surfing url………splash url…….referral url……….banner graphics url….

By centralizing these urls each time I start a new te, I’ve got all the info I need to set my advertising up.

A Text Ad is just an ad that uses short bursts of text, or words, to grasp the attention of as many people as you can!  Most te’s offer you the option but unlike splash pages and banners, text ads are not normally supplied.  There’s a simple reason for that, lol, and I laugh because, well, hopefully as you read the reason, you’ll laugh too.  Text ads are in essence words YOU would choose to tempt others to click on your text ad.  Chances are it was the words of the owner that made you join his/her site.  If you want the sign ups, you have to gather new members.  Now, I can hear you whining again…..”my words never sound right…”  or “I never know what to say….”.  It’s really quite easy, all you need to do is think of a few words that pop into your mind when you hear the name of your favorites surf sites. You can do that, right?  It’s a breeze,  let’s look at a few of mine and I bet you’ll get the hang of it within minutes…

RelentlessChaos:  awesome new graphics; car-crunching wolf, Gunthar; safe surfing.

ZaneyClicks:  The name alone; bonus after bonus; Hover if you want to.

Dare2Click:  Addictive Game; Bonus after each 10 pages; Fantastic admin( okay, I admit, this one’s too easy ;))

But, surely now you see it is easy to do.  The toughest part is making sure you make your ad short and sweet.  Most sites have a limit of about 30 spaces to each ad.  This is what 30 spaces looks like…..123456789101112131415161718192….. and if you try it out, you’ll see that my short but descriptive words all fit!  So in 30 spaces, or less, I’ve created a full tempting text that readers will hopefully click on .  No guarantees as it’s all in their reading.  You must pique their interest, make them want to find out what is behind your ad.

And now we come to the worst stop on this trip.  CREDITS.  That I even have to include them here is really quite painful for if you don’t know what to do with the credits you build on a te, just why in the world did you join??  Please, enlighten me.  Why do so many leave their credits sitting on their account?   Did you not join to advertise?  You know, that is what a te does!  It ADVERTISES!  And as with any other advertising, you must pay for that.  Luckily on a te it’s normally free, your “payment” is measured by your credits.  OOOHhh I hear a whine ” I have a big launch coming up, so I am building a large credit base to use then.” Ah, I see, well here’s a thought my friend.  When you advertise regularily on a te, you are in essence, branding yourself and building a trust between you and your readers, and they do the same when you view their sites in rotation.  Don’t you think it makes more sense to consistantly have your picture, sites and name out there in the public view rather than just all of a sudden bombarding them with the announcement of your new all-important launch?  I do!  I’m going to trust the suggestions of someone I’ve come to know through my surfing than some newcomer all in my face.  If you think you’ll be low on credits, earn the love of your admin, buy a few extra, they’re usually very reasonable and if an owner knows you’re involved in a large launch AND you’ve been actively showing on his te, you may be surprised at how helpful he/she can be.

Well, that’s it guys, I’ve handed you all sorts of free advertising hints and ideas in this post and have hopefully tempted you into using all those extras you’ve been avoiding.  FREE!

Camille, Owner and Surfer, Dare2Click.com