How to Add Affiliate Banners to a Website

If you own a website you probably realize there is a lot of potential for income from the web pages you publish, and you probably know that adding affiliate banners is just one way to turn that potential into real dollars.Adding affiliate banners to your website might appear easier said then done, if you are not familiar with HTML. The good news is, you only need to learn the basics, to add an affiliate to your website. You should know how to identify certain areas of your website, like the top of the page, the content areas and the bottom of the page, because you will be pasting HTML code into your website pages. This article will show you in detail how to add affiliate banners to a website and start earing money from your Internet domain.

Things You'll Need

• Computer
• Internet connection
• Basic knowledge of HTML
• Basic understanding of JAVA
• Affiliate account with one or more online stores or publishers

Instructions

How to Add Affiliate Banners to Your Website

1. Decide which affiliate you want to add to your website. You can add several affiliates to different pages on your website, or you can simply paste one affiliate banner on one web page. Once you decide on an affiliate, or group of advertisers, it is time to add your banner.

2. Select the banner you want to add to your website. If you have an affiliate account with a merchant, they will most likely send you banners with the HTML or JAVA code for that banner, which you need to paste into your web pages. This HTML code draws the banner image from the affiliates' servers and displays it on your website page. You should not have to download images, or add any more files to your website server to add an affiliate to your website. A typical piece of JAVA banner code looks like this: <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="http://www.linktobanner.com/your_tracking_code?target=_blank&mouseover=Y"></script>A typical piece of HTML code looks like this: <a href="http://www.link.to.banner/image/your_trackingcode"><img src="http://www.tqlkg.com/image-999999-999999" width="468" height="60" alt="Airaid Intake" border="0"/></a>

3. 

   Copy the HTML or JAVA script code by placing your cursor at the beginning of the code, left click and hold down the mouse button, and then drag the cursor across the entire piece of code. It will become highlighted in blue, right click, then select "copy" from the menu that appears on your screen.

4. 

   Open the file for the web page where you would like to insert the code on your FTP server, or computer. Paste the HTML or JAVA code into the web page, where you want the affiliate banner to appear. To do this, download the HTML file of the web page to your computer, from your FTP server, using an FTP client, (or your website hosting account's FTP connection) and open it in notepad. Paste the HTML code or JAVA script code into the HTML code, where the banner should appear. If your page uses a table, create a new row and insert the code, or place it accordingly in the first row. The banner is handled just like an image by your browser.

5. Upload the website page to your domain using your FTP client and server in the directory it came from, and click overwrite page, of prompted to by the FTP client. View your page and make sure the banner is in the right place. If not, move the entire piece of code until the affiliate banner appears where you want it to appear.

Tips & Warnings

• Affiliate banners are handled like images by most browsers, so pasting the code directly into text, or in table rows or columns is perfectly acceptable.

• The images for the banner are stored on your affiliates' servers, the browser pulls the images from those servers into your website, using the HTML or JAVA script code, which tells the browser where the banner should appear on the page. You should not have to download any images, or create new directories for the affiliate banner.

• If you want to create a separate row or column for your affiliate banner on your website, simply use the <tr><td> tag for a new row, or a <td> tag for a new column. Use the appropriate <colspan=#> attribute so other rows will span across the new column.

• Be sure you have enough room on the page for the banner. Each affiliate banner will tell you how many pixels long and high the banner is. For instance 468x125 is a long, thin banner, 120x120 is a small banner box. This tells you the length and width of the banner. Do not paste a banner into a page if there is not enough room.

• When you create a new column for a banner with the <td> tag inside a row, use the <colspan=#> attribute on other rows in that table, otherwise the other rows in that table will adopt the two column format and become squished together on the page.

• Java script may not run in your web page depending on the browser used. You may need to insert a command to allow the script to run. In this case, just use the HTML code to add the affiliate to your website.

• Always be certain you have copied the code exactly and in it's entirety or the banner will not work!

• Check all your banners, only once, to be sure they work.

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• Commission junction affiliate program