Banner exchange

The term banner exchange is defined as the mutual exchange of advertising banners on websites . A banner from the other website is displayed on one website and vice versa. The banners (mostly 468 × 60 pixels) are linked to the other website . Often times, the linked websites are about the same or a similar topic, but it doesn't have to be. The linking often takes place for social reasons (e.g. friendship of the webmasters ). The operators of the websites promise to achieve a mutual exchange of visitors, from which both sides ultimately benefit.

It is easy to swap banners between two websites. For several or even many websites that want to exchange banners with each other, it makes sense to regulate the banner exchange centrally, as the number of "agreements" between the websites would otherwise grow squarely (with 6 websites there are already 15, with 10 Sites already 45 agreements). The use of a banner exchange system is ideal for this. The websites then only refer to a URL of the banner exchange system for the banner image and a URL for the banner target. The banners are usually displayed in rotation, which means that all websites involved are advertised equally on the other websites using a banner. Banner exchange systems also offer the option of exchanging banners in various common banner formats at the same time.

In order to create a fair balance between heavily frequented and less frequented websites, the banner exchange systems usually use a points account and statistics. There are banner exchange services that reward views and others where only the clicks are rewarded with points. A banner exchange via clicks can be described as fairer, as the position of the banner on the website is also evaluated, because the more visible a banner is, the more clicks it is (e.g. in the upper part of the page).

The operator of the banner exchange system usually reserves a small part of the overlays. The factor, usually given as a ratio, is often referred to as the ratio . A ratio of 9:10 means, for example, that a banner exchange participant receives 9 displays of his own banner or incoming clicks from other websites for 10 external displays or outgoing clicks from his own website.

In general, you don't get any money for this banner exchange, and you usually don't pay anything.

In some larger systems such as BannerChange , it has meanwhile become established not only to exchange advertising banners, but also to exchange text links with one another. The reason for this is that text links can usually be better integrated into the layout of an existing website and are therefore generally perceived as less annoying by a visitor.

Banner exchange systems

Banner exchange systems are usually free services on the Internet that enable simple, centralized banner exchange. The participant logs on to the system and stores one or more banners, as well as the associated target URLs , which should be referenced when clicking on the banner. For their own website, the participant receives an HTML snippet made available by the banner exchange system, which he can insert at the desired location. If someone visits the participant's website (or the website on which the HTML snippet is stored), the visitor is presented with a banner selected by the banner exchange system. The system is based on give and take. Depending on the system, the operators themselves show a small percentage of advertisements. This is used to finance free systems.

The implementation of the banner exchange systems are very diverse. The HTML snippets, for example, sometimes contain JavaScript or ActiveX code or browser- specific hacks to display banners. Depending on the implementation, the banner exchange system can run on all or only some browsers. However, there are also banner exchange systems that get by without such trickery and can be used on any browser.