yeah they all say 'click here' too ...
stupid uncreative designers
Designers (& program owners) seem to lose all marketing knowledge when it comes to designing banners - especially for webmasters & webmaster boards. I've been thinking about this a bit lately so forgive the long post ;-)
Its a trend that's stuck since the old pay per click days where us designers had to make banners that pre-qualified surfers. ie, all the info on the banner including the price, so nobody clicks unless they are already mostly sold.
The adult industry seems to have clung onto this for absolutely no reason ... although some sponsors still make their banners this way so click-thru rates aren't too high (making conversions lower).
I like to think of banners like bill boards on the road side ... they have to smack you in the face.
This banner below is an old ugly one - it has a really high clickthru, but not great conversion because it arouses curiosity but answers no questions ...
This one had an average click thru but good conversion because the surfer only clicks on it if they are really interested in what they've already read.
There's some really amazing graphic designers on this board & some of the banners are aesthetically beautiful, but they don't follow any of the basic principals of marketing so they aren't really helping any of us.
>>I did however just see a sponsors who's banner enticed me to join...
Sicone, which one was that? Just curious ... ;-)