Mini-banners part 5

These are the latest mini-banners that have rolled of the production line so far as part of the free mini-banner exchange scheme.
I received a little criticism of my designs from someone who had a blog with a grand total of one post on it - the criticism said:

You throw a border, a gradient overlay, and different color text into a rectangle and call that a mini banner?!

For your information YES of course ? What else do you expect (for free) to get in something which is 80 by 17 pixels....dancing dogs? performing geese?? a running AVI file??? I freely admit that all these things are outside of my scope. So if you are looking for something more than just gradients, overlays, borders, and tiny logos along with coloured and textured text, you might have to give me a clue.....
Anyhow for those who have been more gracious and have joined in - many many thanks, I will continue to grow this to see how far it can go.

Please take a look at the original post for rules and the banners that I am asking you to host.

What have you got to lose? Nothing...

What have you got to gain? Free guaranteed link and a fresh new banner that you can use to promote your site or blog.

So here is the roll of honour so far...

I have also created a few larger banners like the one promoting this scheme at the top of my side bar, so if you want me to put my mind to something different, but in a similar vein (sadly limited to gradients, overlays, borders along with coloured and textured text) then just leave me a comment...

Related posts:

free mini-banners - part 2

free mini-banners - part 3

free mini-banners - part 4

Mini-banner update - Part 4

These are the mini-banners that have rolled of the production line so far as part of the free mini-banner exchange scheme. I am freely offering to design something like the banners above for you, if you will host any two of my exisiting banners and their URL hyperlink on your blog or site. If this idea appeals to you (includes guaranteed link on the next update...), please take a look at the original post for rules and the banners that I am asking you to host.

What have you got to lose? Nothing...

What have you got to gain? Free guaranteed link and a fresh new banner that you can use to promote your site or blog.

I have also created a few larger banners like the one promoting this scheme at the top of my side bar, so if you want me to put my mind to something different, but in a similar vein then just leave me a comment...

Related posts:

free mini-banners - part 2

free mini-banners - part 3

Free mini-banners - part 3

So far three new Munny4Hunny mini-banners have been commissioned, take a look at these banners and let me know if you would like a free banner for your website or blog:



Along the path of production, a couple of alternatives were produced before settling on a final finished product. I will show you those too, just to give an idea of the processes that go into making the banners...



If you would like something similar custom-made just for you, then drop me a comment - see the original post for rules of engagement! See the follow-up post to find out how to implement the banner.

Related posts:

mini-banner update - part 4

Free mini-banners - part 2

Following on from an earlier post, this is the post which addresses the HTML code for inserting a mini-banner or any other picture with a hyperlink into a blog or website. I usually use a WYSIWYG web designing package (Dreamweaver) which allows you to easily access the code for your pages, but you might say why would you need to even look at the code. The reason is this: If you have to carry out a repetitive task, it is sometimes easier to copy and paste the code than it is to use the WYSIWYG interface. I find myself using the code and just changing the URL and the 'src' (source) elements when I am displaying a list of mini-banners, you can also do the same with 'alt' and 'title' tags (for SEO) and usually this is quicker than using the main layout interface. HTML code is also required for pasting into interfaces such as the 'blogger' dashboard that I use here.

Now, I can't just type in the code here as it won't display, so I am going to use a graphic with the code which you can copy out. Another way of getting this code would be to go to my sidebar and lift the code for my mini-banner and then adapt it with your own parameters. Don't be put off by the length of it, I will attempt to break it down to make it simple...

All this code, just for this little banner: - OK then, to break it down, the URL after 'href' is where the banner points to if someone clicks on it.. using '_blank' as the target ensures that the webpage opens up in a new window. The title is an SEO-friendly tag, good idea to use a keyword here, border indicates pixel-size of a surrounding border for the image 0=no border. The 'alt' tag displays if the image cannot be seen (ie. if there is a problem at the hosting server, or your browser settings do not allow the image to be shown). Width = width of image (pixels), the URL following 'src' indicates where on the world wide web, the image is actually stored (uploaded) - and height = height in pixels.....simple really!

border, width, height, alt & title tags are optional, but recommended.

Thanks to 'J' of for being the first to take up the challenge...you have the choice of two free mini-banners!

Related posts:

free mini-banners - part 3

mini-banner update - part 4

Mini-banner exchange

I have spent far too much time lately playing with Adobe 'Fireworks' software and making small-scale banners for websites and blogs. These mini-banners are very popular in the world of social bookmarking for 3 main reasons:

1. Good publicity - a mini-banner offers more functionality that a mere text link


2. Publishers like them - bloggers and webmasters are happy to host them as they are neat, compact and generally quite appealing


3. They look good - it gives a positive impression about how you want your site or blog to be integrated into the internet community

The specifics are that they can be made up from .gif .png or .jpg files (no doubt other format will work, but these are the three types I have used) and in in general around 80-82 pixels long and 15-17 pixels high. I have used MSpaint (at the beginning) and fireworks (more recently) to ceate them, but you can use any graphics software that will allow you to manipulate the size, colour and text content.

I have recently completed six of these which I will paste here as examples:

I have the beginnings of an idea for a link exchange - If you host (any) two of the banners above on the sidebar of a blog or anywhere in a website - I will make a banner for you.....

So here are the rules: You must carry two of these banners complete with the hyperlink to their respective website - you can copy and paste the banner from here or link the 'src' code to their current 'home' on one of my sites.

Leave me a comment or send me an email and I will not only create a unique mini-banner for you (I'll even host it if you like), but I will paste the banner linked to your website in a update post on my blog. I retain the right to reject an application from a site that has questionable content... If you are not sure how to use HTML to insert these banners into your website, this will be addressed in my next posting....

I'm not promising artistic miracles since I am not at all talented in this area, however I will do my best, you can obviously dump it if you don't like my puny efforts...

Follow-up posts:

free mini-banners - part 2

free mini-banners - part 3

mini-banner update - part 4