Advertizing Banners - The Dos, Donts and whatfors.

Advertizing Banners

Ok, so you've see them on just about EVERY website you've ever visited. You probably even have clicked on a few when they caught your eye or advertized something you had some interest in. You may have even asked yourself what are banners, how are they made and how can I make one for my site?

What are Advertizing Banners?

Advertizing banners are a simple graphic, (usually 468 x 60) that advertizes goods, services or a website. Sidebar banners are usually 120 x 120 or even 120 x 400. They are usually placed at the top of a page, but can appear just about anywhere. When you click on the graphic, you are redirected to another page or website. While most banners are static JPG or GIF images, they can be animated flash programs, contain all sorts of code or even input boxes.

How can I make my own Banner?

Banners can be made with just about any graphic manipulation program. I use one called "The Gimp" that is an open source (IE - FREE) program. You can download a version of that program here at Stcgservices.com in the downloads section, or visit thier site here. There are some other programs out on the net, and its usually a matter of personal preference what you use. There are also sites on the net where you can make banners "live". A real good one I found is 3DTextMaker. You can make simple animated GIFs with this one, and its like 2 steps to have something up. I would suggest making static nonanimated ones to start, them working your way up. Watch what you do though, as animated GIF files can be somewhat jerky an amaturish looking if not made properly.

How do I save my banner and then upload it?

Just about any graphic you see on the web can be saved to your harddrive. Take your mouse, place it on the graphic and click the right mouse button. A menu will appear with the option "Save Picture As..". Select that, and give your graphic a unique name in whatever directory you have setup to save graphics in. I would highly suggest creating a new directory directly off of your C drive just for this purpose. The default directory will probably be your "My Pictures" directory off of your "Documents and Settings" directory. This is all well and good, but can be a bitch to find when you need it. These graphics can then be modified and added to whatever you like.

Uploading is simply taking a file from your local harddrive and placing it on a webserver where it can be used by websites. Different providers have different rules for uploading, so you may have to contact support to find out what you need to do. Once uploaded, the file can be shared with anyone in the world.

Have any tips for getting started?

I think the biggest one would be to start simple. Unless you plan on investing all sorts of money, time and energy, I wouldnt bother with purchasing a high end program like Paint Shop Pro. Dont get me wrong, thats a great program and well worth the money if you plan on making this your living. If you just want to crank out a few simple banners to advertize your club or small business, I wouldnt recomend it.

Please feel free to email me at winslow@delmarvabikers.com if you have any questions.

How to Defrag Your PC

One of the most important things you can do to keep your PC healthy is to defrag. Defraging is the process where your PC "reorganizes" the parts that make up the files on your hard drive. Over time, your PC will spread files out over a drive, writing it in small peices called "fragments". Defragging takes these fragments and lays them down in a line all together so that your hard drive can read them more easily and more quickly. This can be a MAJOR source of slowness in any PC.

What you need to do:

1. Close all open programs inclusing any AntiVirus software.
2. Turn off any screen savers that may be running.
3. Open up "My Computer".
4. Right click on the "C" drive and select "Properties".
5. From the properties page, locate the "Tools" tab at the top of the page and click on it.
6. You should see 3 options, "Scan for Defects", "Backup" and "Defrag", click on "Defrag".
7. Follow the prompts to run the program.
8. Defragging can take anywhere from 1 minute to several hours depending on how bad the system is. Let it run all the way through and then reboot. You should see a noticible increase in performance.

There are two possible problems you may encounter. First, the system may tell you that you need to run scandisk first. If so, run it then come back and defrag. Second, defrag may "restart" over and over never finishing. This commonly happens when programs are still running in the background. Reboot your system, double check that nothing else is running and try again.

Good Luck,
Steven Winslow

stcgservices

Advertizing Banners - The Dos, Donts and whatfors.

How to Defrag Your PC