The most obvious, and most typical revenue generating tool used on websites throughout the internet is the ubiquitous banner ad. Having been a part of the commercial Internet virtually from the beginning, the banner ad has since morphed into a variety of formats and sizes.

Pros and Cons of Banner Advertising

(Excerpted from Joomla Cash!) Banner advertisements are easily implemented, whether by using Joomla's built-in Banners Component, or by directly including in your template the code directly from a banner ad program, or by using banner-ad solution, such as the popular open-source package OpenAds. (Available from www.openads.org.)

Provided you blend your banner advertisements unobtrusively into your content, and take care not to bombard your users with a deluge of commercialization, banner ads can provide a modest, but worthwhile income to even the smallest of websites. The key is to balance the advertising needs without compromising your content, which is the reason your visitors are coming to begin with!

Depending on banner ads for revenue, however, leaves the publisher vulnerable to natural ebbs and flows of website traffic. Also, depending on what type of banner you decide to run on your site, your visitors may be required to click on the ad before any money is earned. Bear in mind that typical click-through rates on traditional banner advertisements run between 0.5% and 1%, and you can quickly see where moderately busy traffic levels would need to be maintained to draw a steady, reliable, and sizable income. (End Excerpt)

In the next section, we'll look at how to evaluate and select potential ad formats to run on your site.