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  Introduction
  How do I join an ad network?
  How do I display the ads?
  What’s CPM?
  What’s CPC?
  Which is better?
  How will they pay me?

Additional information…
Ad Networks
Standard Banner Sizes

Introduction
As one of the oldest, and less intrusive, ways to advertise on the internet, banner advertisements can become an important source of income for a website. The first step to beginning to earn money through displaying banner advertisements is to join an ad network which will ‘serve’ the ads that their advertisers pay for. Once you join and are accepted by an ad network there are 2 ways to earn money by displaying, also known as publishing, banner advertisements from the advertising network: CPM and CPC.

How do I join an ad network?
You have to apply to join one.
Just a heads up, in your application they usually require your SSN (Social Security Number) for tax reasons. It’s standard practice but be cautious if the company isn’t well known.
A lot of the networks which pay more on average have stricter requirements to joining, such as requiring a certain number of visitors per month. So, don’t be discouraged if you’re rejected, their loss. When looking for an ad network to join, try going to a bunch of webmaster forums and see which networks the other people have joined and find out their experiences. Also don’t lie on your applications, you could get in trouble later on if they accepted you because you over stated something.

How do I display the banners?
Your ad network will give you the necessary code to display the banners on your page. Usually all you do is just cut and paste, no effort needed. Also depending on which ad network you join, some will give you the option of choosing individual advertisements to display while others just serve up a random advertisement from their bank of clients. No matter what, you usually don’t even ever have to edit the code.

What’s CPM?
CPM means cost per thousand, so the CPM of the advertisement that you’re showing is the amount of money you’ll get for every thousand impressions (times the advertisement is show). So if you show an advertisement with a CPM of $0.19 a hundred times, you’ll earn $0.019. The CPM of an advertisement can be as low as a few cents or it could be more than 10 dollars. It all really depends on if your site’s users are the exact type of people that the advertiser wants to advertise to. If the advertiser is targeting people almost exactly like your visitors, they’ll probably pay more. Generally, however, most newer sites will probably be lucky to get a CPM of $0.30 on a banner ad. However, established websites can usually earn a lot more with better targeted advertisements.

What’s CPC?
CPC means cost per click, and when ever someone clicks the banner that you are publishing you get a chunk of the CPC. Like CPMs CPCs vary quite a bit from a few cents to a few dollars. Most, though, will be less than $0.15.

Which is better?
It really depends how well you or your network targets the advertisements. In many ways it’s safer to display CPM advertisements because no one has to click them for you to get money. However, if you can get people to click the CPC advertisements, they usually will have a higher payout compared to CPM advertisements.

How will they pay me?
Usually they’ll send a check once you earn a pre-set amount of money. Some require you to earn as much as $100 before they’ll cut you your first check while others only require you to earn over $10. Also keep in mind if you earn over $400 from one of the networks in a year, you’ll probably have to pay taxes. If you have to pay taxes on the income the network will usually send the form to you.

Various Ad Networks
In no particular order (Note: this is in no means a master list):
ValueClick
Mamma Media
Double Click
FastClick
Burst Media
Tribal Fusion