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Banner Advertising – Holiday Affiliate Link Banners Should Sparkle and Shine
The Holiday season is fast approaching but you would hardly know it from the latest batch of affiliate newsletters flooding into in-boxes around the world. Oh for goodness sake! Where is the enthusiasm, the excitement, the anticipation that belongs to the period before Christmas?
As the owner of a chain of online department stores, otherwise known as shopping malls, it is usually with pride and pleasure that I think of the more than 1400 merchants showcased on my websites, from those whose sales actually pay the bills to those from whom I have never received a dime, and perhaps never will, but am happy to include.
Right now, however, I am dismayed at the apathetic half-baked attempt being made by the vast majority of merchants to whip up any real enthusiasm for the Holiday season. Oh, sure, some are making a fantastic effort but most are sending out newsletters containing the most unexciting-looking link banners I have ever seen!
Not a trace of gold or silver relieves the funereal purples, no merry red ribbons or bows adorn the sombre browns, purples and blues – Santa is nowhere to be seen. There has been total deforestation in the Holiday banner image creation industry – not a Christmas tree anywhere! Where is the sparkle, the glitter and the shine that belongs in advertising at this time of year?
It is true to say that the special offers of free shipping, free gifts and dollar or percentage discounts on orders over quite low amounts, are mostly generous and designed to cheer up an ailing economy but how the visitor is expected to be attracted by such drab images as those most recently uploaded to affiliate networks and copied to affiliate newsletters is quite beyond me!
In desperation I have started making my own banners, yet again, and submitting them for approval, thick and fast. So far, none have been rejected but some of the approval messages have had a weary tone to them that, reading between the lines, translates as “Oh, go on if you want to but you’re wasting your time.”
Frankly, for various reasons, I am only likely to be able to vamp it up for Christmas at my US online department store, there probably won’t be time to do anything much in the other shopping malls this year – it’s a long story and I won’t bore you with it – but I don’t care what anyone else is doing, I am determined to deck at least some of the halls with boughs of holly and give my visitors a temporary respite from the muted look that seems to be pervading much of the rest of the Internet.
Let’s face it, many of us are wondering just how merry a Christmas we dare afford ourselves and yes, most of us will be spending less than during the boom period that we have just enjoyed. This is not to say that we will not be spending anything at all!
Come on commerce! Even if you have been reading too many newspapers and are convinced that the outlook is all doom and misery, for goodness sake stir yourself from gloom and torpor and act as though you expect people to have fun, forget their worries for a short while and even spend a little money with you. Don’t let your sorry-looking banners turn your fears into a self-fulfilling prophecy!
On the first day of December, the Christmas Annexe of the L.W.A. US Shopping Mall at my website will be opening to visitors and you may rest assured that anyone who needs cheering up can be certain of a healthy dose of proper seasonal cheer there. You never know, perhaps even some of our grouchier merchants will perk up and remember how to have a little fun!
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onBanner Advertising – Holiday Affiliate Link Banners Should Sparkle …Here’s a quick excerptAs the owner of a chain of online department stores, otherwise known as shopping malls, it is usually with pride and pleasure that I think of the more than 1400 merchants showcased on my websites, from those whose sales actually pay the … [...]