by Colin Eyo

After a long day at work, Mark sits down at his computer desk to clear up some of his bills on the web. Just as he is about to go offline, something catches his eye on the top of the web page. "You Can Make THOUSANDS of Dollars Online Today. FREE Info!" Curious, Mark moves his cursor cautiously over the banner and thinks of all the things that he could do with an extra couple hundred dollars. He then presses on the two most powerful words in the business world today... "Click Here!"

Got Him.

From a marketer's point of view this story ends on a happy note but in the real world this is not always the case. The average click through rate (CTR) for a web banner is 1-2% and even less for banners of poor design. The lower the CTR of a banner, the less traffic your site recieves. Without traffic you lose money on the web.

Are your banners designed as effectively as possible? Check and see for yourself. Below are 10 rules you should follow when designing a web banner for a higher CTR.

Keep your banner design as simple as possible. Avoid using excessive font and color choices, as they tend to make banners look busy and cluttered. - Make sure the information matches the content of your site. There is nothing worse than clicking on a banner that takes you somewhere you don't want to go.

Make sure that the general idea is clear in the sense of where the banner leads. This can be accomplished through imagery or text.

Keep you banner as large as possible. Studies suggest that larger banners have higher CTR's. Depending on the application, try to get your banner to 468x60 pixels, which is standard size for large banners. - Keep your file size as small as you can. Creating banners that are of large file size is just asking for trouble.

At optimum, a banner should be between 10-12k - Use action words. Invoke action from your prospects by using powerful words such as "Get It Now!" or "Click Here!" Tell them what to do to make them do it. - Animate your banner. Animated banners have a higher CTR than non-animated ones.

Give your banner design pizzazz by adding some simple animation.

Create a sense of urgency. The key to successful banner design is getting the readers to act now. Text such as "One Time Special" or "Limited Time Offer" gives the sense that if they don't act now they miss out.

Try to use the Word "FREE!" Everybody loves FREE stuff. Try to incorporate a free offer into your banner design to lure visitors to your site such as "FREE Report!" or "FREE Info"

Use italic type. Italic type, used sparingly, has been known to increases CTR. Less is more in this particular application.

Rotate your banner design. Try to keep your banner fresh and exciting. As a general rule change up your design every 500,000 exposures.

By keeping these important rules in mind you can greatly increase the CTR of your banner designs and increase online profits.

Sound like a lot of work for one person to handle? At Worldprofit these rules have become second nature to our design team. Let us design your banner and take the weight off your shoulders. Email us at webmaster@universeprofit.com We would love to hear from you and offer a no-obligation quote on any of our design services. Just getting started? Get our free design instruction series at http://www.universeprofit.com/24info.htm

Thanks for reading.