Web Advertising

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How Web Advertising Works

by HYPERLINK "http /computer .howstuffworks .com /about-author .htm " \l "brain " Marshall Brain

You have probably noticed that across the Web , two different things are happening right now

More and more sites are asking you to pay a fee to subscribe to all or part of the Web site

Advertising is becoming more and more "in your face " There are now pop-up ads , ads that play music and sound tracks , ads that swim across the screen , and so on

The second

trend is true of nearly all commercial Web sites . There are many new forms of Web advertising , and they are more and more obvious Many Web users have questions about all of these new ad types . For example

Why do Web sites have so many ads now

Why do Web sites allow pop-up ads that open new windows (Many people hate closing them all

Why do Web sites allow these floating ads that cover the content so I cannot read it

How can I make all these ads go away

In this article , we will look at all the different forms of Web advertising in use today , as well as the economics that are driving them , so that you can have a much better understanding of how Web advertising works . Whether you are a casual surfer or someone running your own Web site , you will find this article to be a real eye-opener

In the Beginning : Banner Ads

When the Web first started being a "commercial endeavor " around 1997 or so , thousands of new sites were born and billions of dollars in venture capital flowed into them . The sites divided into two broad categories

E-commerce sites - HYPERLINK "http /computer .howstuffworks .com /ecommerce .htm " E-commerce sites sell things . E-commerce sites make their money from the products they sell , just like a brick-and-mortar store does

Content sites - Content sites create or collect content (words pictures , video , etc ) for readers to look at . Content Web sites make their money primarily from advertising , like HYPERLINK "http /electronics .howstuffworks .com /tv .htm " TV stations , HYPERLINK "http /electronics .howstuffworks .com /radio .htm " radio stations and HYPERLINK "http /people .howstuffworks .com /news .htm " newss

In the beginning "advertising " on the Internet meant "banner ads " -- the 728x90-pixel ads you see at the top of almost all HYPERLINK "http /computer .howstuffworks .com /web-page .htm " Web pages today (including this one . In 1998 or so , HYPERLINK "http /computer .howstuffworks .com /banner-ad .htm " banner advertising was a lucrative business . Popular sites like Yahoo could charge 30 50 , even 100 per thousand impressions to run banner ads on their pages . These advertising rates provided fuel for much of the venture capital boom on the Web . The idea was that sites could start up and increase their page impressions to make easy money from banner ads . If a site could generate 100 million page impressions per month , it could make 3 million per month with banner ad rates at 30 per thousand...