Q: What exactly is a banner?

If you’ve never made a banner, there’s a few things you should know. I’m not going to tell you how to make a banner image now. That’s something you would do in your image program, and there are so many options I couldn’t tell you what to do. If you have an image program but don’t know how to use it, I suggest getting a nice, thick book to help you with that.

First of all, a banner is a 468×60 image, in other words, it is 468 pixels wide and 60 pixels high. This is the standard size. Most topsites require you to submit a banner this size to their site and reject any other size or shape.

When designing a banner, keep in mind that this is the advertisement that your potential customer will be seeing when deciding whether to visit your site and/or call you. It needs enough information to give them a reason to click it. If you don’t have a website, you may want to put a phone number on, so that someone who can’t call right now can write it down to call you later.

But you don’t want too much information. The space is small, and it should be the colors and images that catch the attention of the surfer.

It also needs to be attractive and sexy, so most banners have photos and some sort of effect.

Most banners are animated because animated images are more eye-catching and you can put more info on a banner if it is animated in two or three frames. Just make sure you test your banner before putting it out on the web. Someone who reads relatively slowly should still be able to read all text on the banner. If your text goes by too fast, they won’t be able to read it at all! Slow down your animation if you need to. Each frame can be assigned its own speed in a good animation program.

If you have an account for phone sex on Niteflirt, you are permitted to put a banner on your account linking to your site, provided you provide only Niteflirt-safe services there. You can also display a banner to another flirt’s account. You can even put a banner in the space on top of a listing next to the profile thumbnail.

The last consideration is that many toplists host banners, and some of them – I’m thinking Phone Sex Central here – have a very low filesize they require, in order to keep their site from loading slowly. More frames, images, and effects mean a larger filesize. You may not be able to make your first, second, or third choice and still stay within the limit. Design is an art, and skills come with practice. Good luck.