24 replies to this topic

[BuffaloHelp]

I have received many questions regarding banner exchange or affiliate submit request. However, I was never able to fulfill them until now.

I would like to propose this: I'll make a random script that shows everyone's submitted banner, one at a time, when a HTML code is placed on your website. The eligibility is that you have to be hosted by Trap17.com (notice the dot com and not dot NET). You have to submit 3 different sizes so that when others would like to use this service, they can choose among 3 common sizes. The random banner appearance is determined by the "timing" (I'll be using the random sig generator code).

Would this help most of you? I would like to know if this will benefit most and not just "some" Please state what can be improved or modified. All suggestions are welcome.

PS the only thing I will not incorporate is, 'if my site earns more traffic, can my banner show more frequent than others?' I'm trying to create a free, no fee service. Therefore, everyone is equal and equal showing. However the random script may not be so kind and may show one banner more than the other. The difference between this "partnership" and others is that this will be hosted by Trap17.com/banner and not by gracious individual hosting member.

Rough draft of rules:
1. Trap17's banner will be added among the list
2. Periodically your site will be checked to see if you carry the exchange script
3. You can submit up to 2 sets of banners (each set is consisted of small, mid and large banner sizes)
4. The banner, when clicked, will lead to advertised (affiliated) site
5. Small means 88x31, mid means 468x60 and large means 728x90
6. You must host these banners at your Trap17 account! (no imageshack or photobucket) - this will prevent showing inactive site's banner and can be used to pin-point which account has been deactivated *could be changed
7. Flexible (with member's vote) on including other non-hosted Trap17 accounts
8. In English only...?

Or, is this just too much and http://home.free-banners.com/ is more than enough?

[rvalkass]

I would happily participate in a banner exchange here at Trap 17. I have seen quite a few other sites that run ther own systems for members and they have worked quite well, so I am sure it could work here. You would probably need to add some code to prevent your own banner appearing on your own site, as that is pretty pointless, and it wouldn't be that hard to implement.

[Saint_Michael]

well instead of scripting it why don't you just install the affiliate mod it would be alot easy and the randomize is already done, you oculd tweak it from there if you want.

[Dooga]

Free-Banners.com is your free and fast ticket to an invalid xhtml page and javascript errors, so I am supporting this new banner exchange all the way.

[BuffaloHelp]

Just to be clear, the submitted "exchange banners" will NOT be shown in the forum. The submitted banners will have a link code, i.e. Trap17/banners/exchange/size and this link will be placed in those who submitted banners' own website.

And I'm thinking the banner will automatically rotate in like 7 second intervals.

[jlhaslip]

I am indifferent, so I didn't vote. I don't have a site that would benefit, so, I would not be supplying a Banner for my site.. On the other hand, I WOULD use the link to advertise for those who do submit their banners. Has that been considered? And would it be allowed?

[BuffaloHelp]

Absolutely! In fact you'll be doing some favors for other hosting members.

On the side note... does banner exchange program really help out others? How effective is it that so many people ask for exchanges? I hope more people would participate in this discussion.

[jlhaslip]

It is said that having links on your page helps to promote the site as the Bots visit the site and points are awarded (or removed) based on the links your site contains. Theoretically, links should raise your Page Ranking, however, there are instances where the Bots actually lessen your Rank due to the links the site contains. For instance, the Bots identify known "link farms" that are sites which only contain links for the purpose of raising their, and your, page ranking. The Bots will ban these links farms and then either deduct points from those sites which link to them, or remove the sites from their index completely. A delicate balance ensues. Yes, you want links, but you must take care to include links which are valid for your site. For instance, if my site is about Hockey and yours is about Llamas, there is not a valid connection and we may lose points because of that.
Which raises a question, can the Banner exchange script you are proposing include 'categories' so that we can include only those categories which might help our sites' ranking as per the last comment? Some suggested categories might be General, Computers, Programming, Communites, Gaming, similar to the breakdown of the main index topics on these Forums, maybe?
Just a thought I had.

[Albus Dumbledore]

BuffaloHELP, on May 4 2006, 05:34 PM, said:

Just to be clear, the submitted "exchange banners" will NOT be shown in the forum. The submitted banners will have a link code, i.e. Trap17/banners/exchange/size and this link will be placed in those who submitted banners' own website.

And I'm thinking the banner will automatically rotate in like 7 second intervals.

i dont get what you mean by this, do you mean that there would be a place, for say on the bottom of the forums that would rotate all of the banners that people have submitted? or what would be happening?

[BuffaloHelp]

I initially thought the banner should be placed in your own page. So the banner will show up in your site...

But now I'm wondering wouldn't it be nice to have member's banner to show in forum as well...?

It's still at work but for now, the ad banner will be placed in your webpage and not in the forum.