When you say “banners” or “flash banners” people tend to think of banner ads. That’s because usually web banners are by definition a form of online advertising. And you too probably use them to advertise…

But how about placing your own banners on your own website? I’m talking about banners that lead to another page within your website. This way you could “advertise”…

• a promotion or a special offer,
• an article or any content you’d like your visitors to read
• a new product
• a newsletter or subscription
• your blog
• etc.

Although these in-site banners can vivify your website and emphasize certain parts of it, you should use them carefully. That is because users have developed the so called “banner blindness”, which is the tendency to ignore banners. So my advice is, if you wish to opt for an in-site banner, make sure it doesn’t look like a “banner ad”. The best bet is to design it to be in tune with the rest of the website, so that it looks like valuable, on-topic content.

Example:

You can find the banner above on the NewScientist website. It’s role is to promote the subscription to the printed edition of NewScientist. The perfect example of a well-done in-site banner.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 at 5:43 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.