You have probably heard of exchanging ads. And this is basically a spin off of the link exchange idea. I'm not a fan of exchanging links. ... Not even close! (Buy me a beer sometime, and I'll tell you about it.) But, what about exchanging ads? This way you are telling more about your site, and your ad is on the home page, instead of some out of the way page that very few people go to. This still needs some work, but it could go like this: On the bottom of your home page, create a section that stretches all the way across, from left to right. Give each Website owner a few lines of ad space. You could have, for example, two rows of about 7 different categories, such as web hosting, freebies, clothes, funny sites, dating...., going horizontally. You would then have 14 categories. In each category put the appropriate ads. To draw more attention to the section, on the top of it give it an eye-catching title and picture. I don't have one, but I'll use my URL as an example. The main title could be: "TheList.FM's Coolest, Most Kick-Ass Friends." with the subtitle underneath, "The Coolest, Craziest, Cheapest, Most Informative, Funniest, and Sometimes the Dumbest Sites You Just HAVE to See!" Then get them to bookmark your homepage so they can come back later to click on some of them every now and then. You could say something like...."A REAL Time Waster You Just Have To Save!"  Next step is to then use http://www.trafficestimate.com/results.asp to see, roughly, how many monthly hits a site gets. I know, I know, this thing ain't accurate, but it still gives you an idea. If it looks pretty good, send them an e-mail, pitching the idea of exchanging ads. Show them what you have done on your home page, and ask if they would like to do the same. All they have to do is to put in a box that will hold all the ads, with a nice-looking light gray border around that section. pop up the same pic and title of it. They don't have to do much work.     Get X number of sites, and it might add up for you, and for the ones advertising on your site, too. It, MIGHT produce one sale for you every day. Who knows. If you can get, oh, say, 500 hits, do you think you could get a sale???  NOTE: When looking for sites in a search, start on, oh...page 7. That way you know they aren't getting any traffic from the engines, thus increasing your odds in getting them to try the idea. Well, providing they aren't advertising all over the place. Ok, ok, maybe you are thinking that there would be a big mess of links down below. Not if you do it right. Put each ad in its own category, make the ad exchange box appealing to the eye, and give it a snazzy title. Also, keep in mind that section will be down on the bottom of the page, out of the way of your content. The visiotrs don't have to look at it if they don't want to. ... Right? Now, your goal is to NOT get as many sites as you can to exchange with. You do that, well, then, you WILL have a big mess, that will go alllllllll the way down the page after a year of doing this. The first year you don't have to worry about it, as this takes time to get so many sites to exchange with you. Your goal is to get just enough to where you can make around $100 a week. How many sites do you think that will take? Math time... Let's say you sell a product, like a book, like I do. Exchange ads with 100 sites. Every day each site sends you, say, ohhhhh, 5 people. Yes, just 5! Let's get realistic here, ok? That's 500 visitors a day, 3,500 a week. You make one sale out of every 500 visitors. Providing you do it right, that is. Your book is $20. At the end of the week you make 7 sales. 7 times $20, is $140. But, let's say you can get only one sale out of every 1,000 visitors. That's $70 a week. Chicken feed? Okay, look at it like this...that's $280 a month. What bills could you pay with that? How many ads can you buy with that? What extras for the house, or for yourself can you buy with that? How many more times a month can you and your little fuck muffin go out? And don't forget, boys and girls, that is just part of your advertising campaign. Add it to everything else you are doing, well, ya think you can pay your rent, then? Too low for you? Okay, exchange ads with more sites, or sites that have over a hundred thousand hits. But, do not get greedy. The larger the ad exchange box, the odds of people looking through all of it goes down. Plus you have more competiton. Relate this to the other site owners. Make them see the possibilities of this, and to not get greedy. Create your own small advertising network where you can all make a few extra bucks a week. Of course this is just thinking out loud, but, is it possible??? Hmmmmm.... Now, the real challenge is to get other site owners to think outside the box to do this. Always a catch, huh? Before you print this out, tack it on the wall to throw darts at it, it still needs work. Perry TheList.FM - When you just don't know what to say at that exact moment. TheList.fm/Marketing-Advertising.shtml - Advertising & marketing, the SMART way.