In a previous article, the importance of providing an ample range of graphic banner sizes to allow for the different approaches of affiliate marketers was discussed. To be creating banners in the right sizes is not, however, enough in itself to guarantee success.

If one wants to do well in any arena, it makes sense to put in an initial investment of time and effort, or to pay others to do so. Knocking up three or four shoddily-made banners and half a dozen phrases that read as though they had been intoned by the local funeral director or, conversely, thought up by the director's four-year-old in one of his sillier moods and spelled with just about the same level of seriousness, is not really a recipe for results.

One wouldn't approach marketing in that manner offline, so why expect it to work online? Having said that, one or two merchants will always get away with it but marketing is not about getting lucky and selling in spite of ones' sales campaign!

Producing a dull-looking banner that says "Sprang-o-matic.com - Click Here" is probably much easier than creating a tasty image of a 'sprang' and making it sound attractive in four words or less, but it isn't likely to be anything like as effective unless, of course, 'Sprang' is a household brand name or object, when, again, the merchant may be able to get away with it, but that is still taking too much for granted.

Serious affiliate marketers are unlikely to rejoice at the sight of a merchant's URL (website address) taking precedence over whatever it is that is actually being sold. Visitors having 'Sprang-o-matic.com' imprinted on their brains may be convinced that they will remember it and not bother to click on the link banner, choosing instead to click on someone else's banner that does not impart the URL. It is not desirable to have visitors window-shop the banners instead of the stores behind them!

Later on, those visitors may, indeed, visit the merchant's site, by typing 'sprang-o-matic.com' into the address bar in their browsers or into search engines, thus unwittingly robbing the affiliate of the opportunity to receive the commission expected in return for making the introduction. This may suit some greedy merchants, of course, but it is noticeable that many of the most successful merchants do not put their URLs on their banners, preferring to use the name by which they are known on the street, so to speak, or a tantalizing image, and allowing their affiliates to gain their just dues. This encourages an affiliate to work harder at being an efficient marketer.

Less is more, when it comes to banner content. Including a line of text that requires a magnifying glass to decipher it is pointless and looks messy. Lime green may be 'this year's black', or your current passion, but it may also clash horribly with half of the affiliate pages your banners are supposed to appear on, so do try to give a choice of schemes. Imagine bright pink in some of the departments at LWA US Shopping Mall - http://www.linnetwoods.com/us-mall/ - for example! At least one alternative in a neutral tone should be made available in any given sales campaign.

Animation should be used with great care. Your graphics designer may have lightning reactions but most of your visitors, or at least the ones with money to spend, are likely to be slightly less rapid of eye and will resent animated graphics that change too fast to be read - partly out of annoyance at not being able to acquaint themselves with your message and partly because they fear you are trying to use subliminal advertising and they don't like anyone trying to take them for a sap.

If you are selling products that have nothing to do with sex beware of describing them as 'sexy' on your banners or in your text links. They will not knowingly be given space on family-friendly websites and you will be restricting your potential for success needlessly. If, on the other hand, your products have everything to do with sex, beware of cloaking them beneath a veil of respectability. Once caught, you may find yourself in a world of trouble.