As a web designer, you usually fall into one of three categories...

The Good: Those webmasters who see no need to make any money off of their endeavors - they make pages for the pure fun and joy of doing so.

The Better: Some web sites, however, may stumble into large numbers of hits or money and become capitalist pigs almost overnight. But in order to to keep their page fresh and attractive while charging exorbitant prices for precision-placed banner ads, they make sure to work their ads into the overall design of the site.

The Ugly: Somewhere in between the Good and the Better, we have those who think that they're going to make lots of money from their page, but in fact make hardly anything. People who think that their newly-learned basic HTML skills will combine with their idea of a Devo fan page comprised mainly of JPEGs stolen from other sites will reward them with wealth beyond their wildest imagination. Of course, they know things might appear slow at first, with only ten hits a day, and seven of those by the designer himself. But it's easy to defeat that that ugly fact - you can simply put five ad banners on it. This may seem like a good idea until someone actually tries to view the page. Someone like me, hungry for information about Devonshire, England, who happens upon the page in question. So I click to check it out and sit for ten minutes, watching the ads load one by one, each taking its dear old time, being on another server. Once each banner has finished cluttering up the page, you can see each ad and its wares. One for pillows, two for porn, another for Visa cards, and the omnipresent LinkExchange banner. Who would want to return to this page, let alone click on the ad. So the ads are dooming the page to never earning any money.

No page is going to make money right off hand, especially if no one can view it without going through five advertisements. If you want to jump directly from the good to the Better, take a few common-sense precautions.First, build up an audience before trying to sell ads. Having a banner on your page isnıt going to do you any good if no one comes. Having one LinkExchange doesnıt hurt the download time or design much, and can really help you build an audience. However, donıt think that it will instantly triple your hits. An average clickthrough rate on a banner is about one click for every forty viewers. LinkExchange gives you one banner ad for every two visits to your site. You can make that number better with a knockout banner, but the real key is having a site that will keep the new visitors coming back again and again.

Once you start getting a steady thousand hits a day, at least, then you can start thinking about replacing the LinkExchange banner with a money-making ad. When you do, make sure you donıt ever disobey one of the most important rules of web design: No more than two ads to a page. One is okay, and there are sometimes when you need to have two up there. When this happens, be sure to place one at the top and the other at the bottom.

Finally, you come to the hard part: getting advertisers. You could go with some of the well-known banner networks, but donıt expect big payoffs: the real money comes from getting ads direct from sponsors. The easiest way is to simply point out at the bottom of the page that youıre open to advertisers and link to a separate page with rates. Be careful, though: when setting rates for different sorts of ads, be sure to be flexible. If you donıt offer what the sponsor wants for a good price, theyıre not going to buy it, no matter how many hits you get. Aside from a tagline at the bottom of the page, you could also advertise your advertising page through an equal-sized banner proclaiming how you could buy that space, or a small icon next to each banner. No giant flashing text or monstrous graphics - you need to look professional, now that you are one.