This help file is broken down into the following areas:
GETTING STARTED / INITIAL
QUESTIONS
What is UKBanners ?
UKBanners is a product created to
bring UK web users to your website.
Web advertising is a costly
business, some search engines charge up to £80 for every
1000 times they show your banner advert !
With UKBanners it's free. For every
10 times one of your webpages is viewed showing adverts for
other sites, your advertising banner is shown 8 times on other
member's sites.
Example:
Assuming your webpages are normally seen 500 times per
day, if you use UKBanners, your banner advert would be shown 400
times on other UKBanners member's sites. People will see your
banner advert and click on it, increasing the number of
webpages seen.
See how it works now ? The
more visitors you get, the more times your site is
advertised, meaning you get more visitors..
By making it UK only,
your adverts are shown to a far more relevant audience than
other services.
What do I need to do to get
started ?
1. Create a UKBanners account (Here)
2. Include the UKBanners HTML code in your webpage
3. Submit a banner to UKBanners
Didn't work ? See trouble shooting.
Can you guarantee me
traffic ?
There is never a guarantee
that your site will have increased traffic, even if you spend
money.
This could be for one or more
reasons.
- Even if you think your
banner is wonderful, that doesn't mean others think it
is.
- Industry standard
clickthru ratio stands at about 0.5%, meaning you
would get a clickthru every 200 times your
average banner is shown (Your mileage may vary).
- The more traffic you
have, the more you will be advertised on our
exchange. It's a geometric growth. If you have little
traffic, things will be slow to start with
- Do not underestimate the
value of brand awareness.
OK, so you may not get a clickthru for your 200+ banner
impressions, but you have been advertised 200+ times.
Just because people see an ad for a soap powder, that
doesn't mean they immediately stop what they're
doing and go to buy some. But next time they want
some thing like they've seen advertised, they may
choose your product.
What's a banner ?
A banner advert is a logo/graphic
that represents your site. It is this that is shown on other
member sites. This is what is clicked for the viewer to visit
your site.
How do I get a banner ?
You can either create one
yourself or have one created for you professionally.
If you create one yourself,
you will need a paint package like PaintShop Pro (www.jasc.com) and then save it in a GIF format.
Can UKBanners create a banner
for me ?
No. We simply don't have the
resources.
What size / dimensions
should it be ?
Banner: 468 x 60 pixels.
Button: 120 x 60 pixels.
These are the industry standards.
The file size must be no more
than 10K (10240 bytes). However, the smaller it is, the
better chances are that it will be fully downloaded when the
user looks a the page.
I don't have my logo
in GIF format. Its in BMP, JPG,JPEG, TIFF,RGB format..
Load the image into a paint
package such as PaintShop Pro and then choose GIF format when
saving it.
Should I include the
UKBanners strip in my logo.
No, we do that for you.
My banner is always
greater than 10K, how can I reduce it's size.
Usually this is because your
banner has too many colours. Try and get it below 32 colours. If
you have PaintShop Pro open the banner, pull the Colors
menu down, choose Decrease color depth, then select
32.
Can I have more than
one banner ?
No, UKBanners only allows each
account to have one banner.
What's an animated banner
?
An animated banner is a GIF image
that consists of several frames of animation such as
scrolling text.
How do I create an
animated banner ?
Create individual images using
a paint package (such as PaintShop Pro), then merge them into
one GIF using a product such as Animagic.
UKBanners HTML CODE
What code do I need to
include in my webpage ?
Login to your account, and click on the HTML Code link.
Open your webpage in an editor, and copy & paste the UKBanners
HTML text into your webpage.
Can I have multiple pages
with the UKBanners HTML code ?
You may include the UKBanners HTML
code on multiple pages on your website. You should modify the
HTML code, changing the "page=" value to
"page=2" for the second page carrying UKBanners, and so
on.
Can I make my page/UKBanners
refresh ?
No. That would artificially
raise the credits your account earned. Your account would be
suspended.
The UKBanners system periodically checks the validity of member
accounts.
Can I refresh my page with
a banner on ?
No. Your account will be
deactivated if it is found that you are doing this..
Can I have multiple UKBanners per
page ?
No. Your account will be
deactivated if it is found that you are doing this..
NOTE: You can only carry one banner from any of our exchanges
per page.
(e.g you cannot carry UKBanners AND EuropeanBanners on the
same page.)
ACCOUNTS
I've lost my password, help
!
Don't worry. Visit the UKBanners
homepage and click here and fill in your account and E-mail address. If
the E-mail address we have for you matches the one you enter,
we will send your password to the E-mail we have on record.
I want to change my
password..
Login as usual and click on
the Change Account Details link. You can change your password
in there.
What is a credit ?
Credits are the number of
exposures of your banner you have earned. This includes the
exposures that have already happened and those yet to happen.
You earn a credit for 8 out of 10 banner views on your site.
This compares favourably to most other sites that only give
you 5 out of 10.
What is an exposure ?
An exposure is your banner being
shown on another members site.
What is a click-thru ?
A click thru happens when
someone sees your banner on another site and clicks on it to
visit your site.
What is a click-thru
ratio (CTR) ?
It is a ratio of the number of
times your banner is shown on other sites compared to the number
of times people click on it.
E.g a CTR of 3% means that for
every 100 times that your banner is shown, 3 people click on it
and visit your site. (1.5% is the industry average).
How can I improve my
CTR ?
Practice. Practice. Practice.
Keep changing your banner and see what changes improve it.
However, in our experience the following is true:
- Animated UKBanners do better
than non animated UKBanners.
- UKBanners which include a CLICK
banner do well.
If you include your product
name in your banner, people will remember it, even if they don't
visit.
I have numbered my
pages 1 - 1000, but it's only recording stats for 1-99,
what's wrong ?
We only record stats for the
last 2 digits of a page number, eg:
Page 4 is recorded as
Page 4
Page 34 is recorded as Page 34
Page 234 is recorded as Page 34
Page 1204 is recorded as Page 4
But your stats ARE recorded,
merely grouped into 1 of the 100 slots available (0 -
99)
The reason for this is simply a numbers game. We have to
record stats for
x 96 days worth of data
x 3 data types (impressions, exposures, clickthrus)
x 24 hours
x 99 page numbers (only impressions are recorded by
page number though)
x 30000 accounts (over 8 exchanges and climbing)
= as many as 20,528,640,000 data elements !
But don't worry, you DO get credited for page numbers above
99.
I would like to suspend my
account for a while and keep my credits, can I do this ?
No, sorry.
I don't want a particular
site shown on my site. What can I do about this ?
Login in to UKBanners, and click on
the "modify account" link. In the field
"banned" you can supply a comma separated list of
web site accounts that you don't want to see on your site.
You can list up to 30 sites. E.g B150,B942,B323 will mean
that you will not see UKBanners from those accounts on your site.
To find what account number a given site is, go to their
website, find their UKBanners logo, and right-mouse click on the
banner. This will show you what account they are.
I've lost my HTML
Code, where can I find a fresh copy ?
Login as usual, and click on
the HTML Code link. This page details exactly what you need
to include in your pages.
Where can I see my banner shown on other sites ?
Your banner is shown in proportion to your traffic. So if your site has 1000 page impressions a day, your banner will be shown 800 times around our network. UKBanners serves over 1 million banners per day, so the chances of 1000 impression-a-day site seeing their banner at any given moment on another site is 800/1000000 = 1 in 125,000. So, don't be surprised if you don't see it, but it IS being shown. Take a look at the advertisers on UKBanners, click on their banners and you will see just how many sites are in the network.
COOKIES
What is a cookie ?
A cookie is a device used to remember what banner ad a user has
been shown.
That way, when the user clicks on the banner we know where to
redirect them to.
Must I accept them ?
Yes, if you want UKBanners to work.
Can they damage my system ?
No, they're harmless. Besides, if you're not sure, you can
look at the contents of them as they are served to you.
Enabling Cookies on
your browser :-
Using Internet
Explorer
Select the Tools > Internet
Options menu item
Select the Security tab
Select the Custom level button
Enable "stored"
+ "per-session" cookies.
Press OK
You will need to close all
Internet Explorer sessions for this to take effect.
Using Netscape
Select the Edit >
Preferences menu item
Click on the Advanced item
(top level)
Click on "Accept
only cookies that get sent back to originating server"
You will need to close all
Netscape sessions for this to take effect.
TROUBLESHOOTING
I've lost my password,
yoiks !
Go to the UKBanners front page and
click on the "Lost it?"
link next to the login fields and follow the instructions.
I'm using Frontpage
and the banners don't show
Try this:
1. Open your HTML document
2. Place the Insertion Point at the location you want your
link or where you would like to enter your UKBanners HTML code
3. Select INSERT from the menu bar.
4. Select HTML MARKUP
5. Enter your UKBanners HTML code (exactly as supplied)
NOTE: You must type in the UKBanners code manually (you cannot Copy
and Paste)!
Press OK
I've lost the HTML
Code, help !
Login, then scroll the page
down to the HTML Code section and click on the banner. This page
will show you the HTML code you need.
I have the HTML Code
in place, but I don't earn any credits, huh ?
This could be caused by one or
more of the following:
- Your banner has not been
approved. Login and see if this is the case.
- The HTML code is wrong.
Login and download a fresh copy.
I've never seen my banner
on other members' sites. Why ?
Due the the sheer number of
UKBanners we show, it's highly unlikely that you'll ever see it.
CONTACT
TERMS & CONDITIONS
- By using UKBanners, members agree
to be bound by the following conditions:
- Splut Ltd reserves the
right to modify these Terms and Conditions. It is the
responsibility of the member to keep current with changes
in the Terms and Conditions. Changes to the Terms and
Conditions apply to ALL registered members.
- Member's banners must not be
misleading.
By misleading we mean any banner which:
a) Makes no reference to the site it represents or any
indication of it's content
and/or
b) Has been designed with the purpose of looking like an
integral part of the webpage/desktop it's displayed on,
rather than the site it represents. (This therefore
includes system error type messages)
(e.g a banner containing solely "click here" or
"Next / Previous" will not be allowed)
- UKBanners will reserves the right
to reject any website from using it's service.
Particularly those containing:
Pornography/Nudity/Sexuality
Spam
Racist Content
Copyright infringement
Illegal activities
Illegal Software/Hacking
- UKBanners also reserves the right to refuse any site that is:
A URL which is a referral/affiliate account for a parent site
A Get Rich Quick site
A Casino/Gambling site
A site containing popups
A site that resizes the browser to fullscreen
- UKBanners will periodically visit
each members website to ensure the UKBanners text is correct.
If errors are found, the members account may be suspended
until corrected.
- UKBanners may deactivate an account
if it felt that a member is gaining excessive credits
using page-refresh methods, or including more than one
UKBanners banner.
- Members agree that their
information (stats, company name etc) may be used by
Splut Ltd. In accordance and within the terms of the
Data Protection Act.
- Members agree to insert the
provided HTML code for displaying banners on their web
site. The supplied code may not be modified in any way
without our express permission.
- UKBanners banners must be displayed on
the page such that the banner is easily visible and within
the main body of the web page
- A member must not display
UKBannerss on sites other than the one to which the account is
configured for, unless written permission is given.
- Splut Ltd will keep
members information confidential and will not be
distributed to other parties.
- Splut Ltd. cannot be held
liable for any damage or loss of information that may
occur from the use of the UKBanners services.
- Members use UKBanners at their own
risk and Splut Ltd makes no guarantee regarding the
accuracy or reliability of the UKBanners service
- Should a members account be
suspended/terminated for whatever reason, no
refund/compensation will be given for any unused banner
credits lost.
