The Details

"What's a Banner?"

A banner is a small graphic - a piece of art - advertising a particular product or service. When we display your banner on one of our webpages, we attach code to it which takes a reader to your website if he clicks on the banner. For instance, here is a sample of banner art:

Technical Specifications: All banners must be no more than 750 pixels wide, and no more than 100 pixels in height. Art files in .bmp, .jpg, and .gif formats are acceptable for submission. Recommended maximum file size is 80K (we'll accept larger sizes, but readers might not wait around for them to download...).

If you need help coming up with art for a banner ad, we might be able to help. We're not graphic artists, but we can do simple tasks such as scanning art, changing sizes, and converting between file formats.

"Who Will See My Banner?"

We "filter" our banner ads so that they only appear on webpages which are appropriate for that advertisement. While readers like ads, WWII gamers often don't want to see banners advertising orcs and dragons, and science-fiction gamers may have little interest in the American Civil War! We rate each banner ad as to whether it is appropriate for the following categories:

• fantasy
• ancients
• medieval
• renaissance
• 18th Century
• Napoleonics
• American Civil War
• 19th Century
• World War One
• World War Two
• Modern
• science fiction
• toy gaming (plastic soldiers, stuffed animals)

Our webpages are also rated by the same categories. This means that a banner ad for Napoleonic figures will appear on an article about Napoleonic cannon (for instance), and not an article about spaceships.

Some of our webpages are rated as "general," meaning that they are of interest to all miniature gamers. All banner ads qualify to appear on general webpages. For example, our Manufacturers Directory is rated as "general interest," so all banners qualify to appear on those webpages.

Your banner ad has a chance of appearing on any webpage that belongs to the same category, as well as a chance of appearing on all of the "general interest" webpages.

"What Types of Advertising Do We Accept?"

Our General Rule is: "If we think our readers will be interested in it, then that's an acceptable advertisement."

For instance, we know our readers like:

• miniatures
• rules
• paint and craft supplies
• game-assistance software
• painting services
• military books and game-related fiction
• game conventions and shows
• fantasy, science-fiction, and military-themed computer and video games
• fantasy, science-fiction, and military-themed art
• game clubs
• wargaming websites and blogs
• auction sites that handle wargaming items

This website is visited by gamers of all ages. Therefore, we prefer ads that are appropriate for all age groups. We do not accept advertisements for "adult" or "erotic" miniatures.

"How Often Will My Banner Be Seen?"

Over the past week, we displayed an average of 41700 banner ads per day. The number of times your banner ad is displayed is known as the number of Impressions it has made.

Your banner ad has a chance of appearing whenever someone reads a page of a matching category. Therefore, how often your ad will be viewed is partly a function of how popular its categories are.

Impressions By Category
category	per day	percentage of total
General	13032	31%
Fantasy	4309	10%
Historical - Ancients	3235	8%
Historical - Medieval	2486	6%
Historical - Renaissance	2956	7%
Historical - 18th Century	3150	8%
Historical - Napoleonics	4437	11%
Historical - American Civil War	2136	5%
Historical - 19th Century	3861	9%
Historical - WWI	3031	7%
Historical - WWII, Land	5658	14%
Historical - WWII, Sea	1809	4%
Historical - WWII, Air	1359	3%
Historical - Modern	4286	10%
Science Fiction	5477	13%
Toy Gaming	1378	3%
Data taken from past week. Since pages often belong to more than one category, the percentages will add to more than 100 percent.

Viewership also depends on how many banner ads qualify for the same categories that your ad does. Each time one of our webpages is displayed, it is as if a "drawing" is held to determine which banner is to be shown. For example, let's say that the page is about WWII, and that there are 50 banners available that advertise WWII-related gaming products. Your banner has a one-in-fifty chance of appearing whenever a WWII-related page is viewed.

Advertisers may choose to increase the odds of their banner being seen by purchasing a multiple for any banner. For instance, a multiple of "2x" means that the banner counts as if it were 2 banners when the random selection process picks a banner to display, roughly doubling your chances of being seen.

The following table shows how our advertisers are making use of multiples. For instance, the current banner with the highest multiple has a value of 15x, and there are 122 banners in the system with the lowest multiple (1x).

The next table shows how many banners each of our advertisers has:

And finally, how many multiples each advertiser has:

We reserve the right to limit manufacturers to a maximum number of banners and/or multiples, so that all advertisers have fair access to our readership. The current maximum, which is based on the total size of the advertising pool, is 44 multiples per advertiser.

"How Effective is a Banner Ad?"

The effectiveness of an advertisement depends on a wide number of factors, including graphic appeal, relevance to the readers, how compelling or fresh it is, and so forth. One measure of the success of a banner ad is its click-through rate - that is, out of all the times the banner is shown, how often do readers click on the banner in order to go to the advertiser's website?

The average click-through rate for all of our banner ads is 0.52% - that is, one click-through per every 192 impressions. The best advertisement in the system has a click-through rate of 1.69%, while the least successful is at 0.07%.

"How Long Will My Banner Run?"

Once you place an order for an advertising banner, we will run that advertisement until you ask us to stop or replace it.

"How Will I Know How My Banner Is Doing?"

Each advertiser has access to a private webpage where they can view the statistics for all of their advertisements. Total impressions, total click-throughs, and current charges are displayed for each banner. At the bottom of the page is an account summary. An automatic invoice can be requested via email through your account page at any time.

"What Will It Cost Me?"

We charge 15 cents (U.S.) per day per banner, which works out to be just under US$5 per month per banner. If you buy a multiple for your banner, the cost increases proportionately - if your multiple is "3x," then your cost will be tripled. The cost of a banner has no relation to the number of categories it qualifies for.

Payment is required in U.S. dollars. Invoices are sent at the end of the month for all accounts with a balance of US$30 or higher. (You can also request an automated invoice at any time, through your personal advertising webpage.) We prefer to send invoices via email. If you need to receive a written invoice, we charge a US$2 fee per invoice for processing. Payments sent directly to us must be in the form of a check or money order.

Alternately, payment may be made using the PayPal system. This allows you to pay for advertising using a credit card, and - for the benefit of our non-USA advertisers - avoids the onerous charges associated with international banking.

There is a US$5 per month "late fee" charge for unpaid balances.

"How Do I Start?"

Click here to place an order for advertising. You will be asked to fill out some basic information. When you are done, our advertising system will send you an automatic email to confirm the order. Respond by attaching the art for your banner advertisement, and we'll handle the rest!