Frequently Asked Questions about Christian Banner Exchange Network

We've put together this faqs (frequently asked questions) page for you. The information below will help you to better understand the workings of CBEN and will also help you to start your account. If you haven't signed up as of yet, there is a link at the bottom of this page that will take you to the signup page.

Table of Contents

Introduction


Back to top

  1. What is The Christian Banner Exchange Network?

    The Christian Banner Exchange Network is a web site advertising network for Christian web sites only. The Christian Banner Exchange Network is a great way to promote your web site and get the message out to the Christian community. The Christian Banner Exchange Network offers an opportunity for Christian web sites of all sizes to advertise across our network of member sites. Every member earns free advertising on the network, but we also provide a host of advertising packages for paying advertisers. Contact us for more information.

  2. What does CBEN hope to accomplish?

    Our mission is to help Christians promote their web sites at a low cost. The Christian Banner Exchange Network members show ads for other members and paying sponsors, in return for in-kind advertising and a host of additional services.

  3. Is CBEN free?

    Yes, the basic membership is FREE! For more exposures, see below.

  4. Can I purchase more exposures?

  1. Yes, you can. You can upgrade your membership advertising campaign by purchasing one of several very affordable packages starting at $40. You can also purchase "Mini Banner" packages too. Find more information HERE

  2. How do I earn credits?

    Credits are obtained each time you display a CBEN banner on your site. After inserting the HTML code we give you into your web pages, you gain 1/2 credit each time that banner is displayed. When you get one full credit, your banner gets displayed on another member's site one time. So... the busier your web site is, the more credits you'll get.

    WARNING: Do not attempt to artificially INFLATE hits on your site. Sites which exhibit an unusually high increase in Displays on their site will be suspended pending further investigation. Please don't jeopardize your account status by artificially inflating your hits.

About Banners

Back to top

  1. What kind of banner can I have?

    Your banner must be a .GIF or .JPG  file, exactly 468x60 pixels, and up to 15K in size.  You may use an animated banner, but it must still be under the specified size.

  2. I don't have a banner. What do I need to do?

    Any graphics package that saves to .GIF or .JPG format will do. There are several shareware and commercial graphics package around. Two of our favorites is Paint Shop Pro & PhotoImpact. Neither of these are free. Paint Shop Pro is shareware and Photoimpact is a normal purchase for under $100.00. Make sure that the file complies with the our Terms & Conditions.

  3. What's a Banner URL? I type c:\images\banner.gif and my browser says "No File Found". What's up?

    In order for us or anyone else to see your banner on the web, we need the URL of that banner. Just like when you give the URL of your web page, the URL of your banner might be something like http://www.yourdomain.com/yourpage/banner.gif. First, upload your banner to your web site. Put it in the same directory as your index.html page. Then, test the URL. Once you've confirmed the correct URL, got back to the Member Page to submit your banner to us.

  4. Why do you not accept .JPG banners? Gif's are less quality. Now, I either have to withdraw or go to the trouble of converting & uploading again. 

    We are now accepting both .GIF and .JPG. So there are no more problems for those that only have a .JPG banner image.

  5. Where should I place the banner on my page?

    We suggest you place the CBEN banner near the top of the page, so the banner gets loaded faster. You don't earn credits until after the banner has displayed. If you have the banner lower on the page, below many graphics, then the CBEN banner may not even load, thereby earning you no credits. Place the banner near the top of the page for the most effective exposure.

  6. I have a banner at the top and bottom of my page. I saw a cute small one to your page. Do I have to keep the large banner at the bottom on at all, or can I make it the small one I have?

    To earn credits on CBEN, you must use the HTML code you received when you signed up. Any other banner linking method back to The Christian Banner Exchange Network will not earn you credits.

  7. My banner is over 15K. How do I make it smaller?

    Try GifWizard. It's a pay-for-use product for commercial purposes, and free for non-profit purposes. We also have free banners for our members here. If you have trouble submitting your banner, please email us with your banner as a file attachment and we will upload it for you.

  8. My banner doesn't seem to be attracting people. How do I get them to click on my banner more often?

    Try a banner with eye-catching colors, or 3-D effects. Try an animated banner or one with a cool, but still readable, font. If your web site is marketing a product or service, put some indication that it is Christian owned right on the banner. The banners that just say "hey - buy my product" are rarely clicked on. If the background of the banner is white, put a border around it. A banner with a white background up against someone's web page that has a white background gets washed out. Also, make sure that your banner can be seen and read easily on monitors that display 256 colors or less. Designing a beautiful 16 million color banner that you can see on your SVGA 17" monitor, but cannot be read by someone on a VGA 13" monitor, is not good.

About Credits


Back to top

  1. How do I earn credits?

    Credits are obtained each time you display a CBEN banner on your site. After inserting the HTML code we give you into your web pages, you gain 1/2 credit each time that banner is displayed. When you get one full credit, your banner gets displayed on another member's site one time. So... the busier your web site is, the more credits you'll get.

    WARNING: Do not attempt to artificially INFLATE hits on your site. Sites which exhibit an unusually high increase in Displays on their site will be suspended pending further investigation. Please don't jeopardize your account status by artificially inflating your hits.

 

About my Account


Back to top

  1. Do I have to have the small images under the banner?

    Yes! Any images under the banner are for advertising and promotions. You would need to edit the html code in order to remove these links and images and since this may be used by a paying member, it can not be removed. We are not using the button image to the left of the banner as many do. We've decided to do it this way since we're using the larger (468x60) banner so that the banner width will be about the same as a banner with the button to the left.

  2. I still don't get it. How is the banner "clickable" to go to that banners' URL? Is that something done on your end, or must I do something.

    Our script handles all that. Our database contains the location of a member banner on our server and the member's URL. When a request is made to the server to serve up the next CBEN banner from your web site, our script:

    1. adds one display to your account,
    2. adds half a credit to your account,
    3. determines if the next banner in the rotation has any credits remaining, if so displays that banner,
    4. reduces that member's credits by one,
    5. and adds one to that member's impression count.

    You don't have to do anything at all. Just make sure that you placed the HTML code we gave you exactly as you received it and prominently display it on your web site. The more often the CBEN banner is displayed on your web site, the more credits you earn.

  3. It's been 24 hours. How come my account has not yet been activated?

    There is a waiting period up to 48 hours after registering your account. During this time, we verify your web site and your banner to see that they comply with the Terms & Conditions. We also verify that you have the CBEN banner properly installed on your web page. Then, we verify that you are in agreement and compliance with the Terms & Conditions. If all the qualifications are met, then you will be notified that your account has been ACTIVATED.

  4. What percent of the time does the CBEN banner display a link advertising for itself? I think the other banner services advertise themselves WAY too much.

    It's not a fixed percentage. Each CBEN FREE member gets one display of their banner for every two banners displayed on their site. The other displays are for Paid Sponsors and CBEN. The CBEN banner gets displayed when there is an error somewhere.

  5. Can I display other banner exchange programs' banners?

    Yes you may. Although you might want to have CBEN at the top, so others know that you believe in Jesus!

  6. Are there other banner exchange programs we can participate in?

    Yes, there are. You might want to take a look at our affiliate Christian Banner Exchange

     

  7. What does it mean when "credits remaining" hit zero? Is it important to have credits remaining? I am a bit confused.

    When credits remaining hits zero, it means that your banner is not going to be displayed on other member site until you earn more credits. Each time the CBEN banner is show from your web pages, you earn 1/2 credit. When you earn one full credit, your banner displays on another member web site. You earn more credits by having people visit your web page. Also, implementing the page numbering feature (http://www.cben1.net/pagenumbering.html) will help increase your credits.

  8. I have a banner ad on my web site and while visiting my site saw a banner ad for a vacation for $500. When I went to the site it was a site for submitting web sites to search engines for a fee. I tried it another time and it went to a midwifes page. What's the deal?

    The situation you described above can happen in two ways:

    1) We're seeing on occasion that a member site has a banner that originally made sense with what one would see on the web site, but may not now. Occasionally, they would modify the banner and forget to modify the URL to which that banner will now point. Or... they would modify the URL, but forget to modify the banner they have displaying for their account. Or... it could be done intentionally. We try to limit that but cannot catch all of the incidences (even though there very few).

    2) Our exchange software runs a maintenance routine for about ten seconds every two hours, and when we run it manually. During the beginning part of this time, banners stop displaying briefly, but yet when you click on the empty spot it takes you to a member web site. Then, our software begins displaying banners again, but has not yet synchronized with the URL with which they are associated. You may end up on a site that is not related to the banner. If you reload/refresh the web page once or twice, you should start seeing the banners synched back up with the URLs.

About HTML


Back to top

  1. I use AOL's Personal Publisher. I can't get the CBEN banner HTML code to work properly on my web page. What's the problem?

    Some web page "publishing" software takes the line breaks in the CBEN HTML code and inserts the <BR> tag. This is HTML for "line break". So, you end up with extra line breaks where you're not supposed to have any. In most cases, it breaks proper HTML standards.

    If this is happening to you, try this code, which has the line breaks taken out. Note: REPLACE the xx with your CBEN account number.

    Or, rather than "copying-and-pasting" the HTML code we give you, type it in by hand into your publishing software. Always check the page locally in your browser before you upload the file to your web site. If you have the CBEN banner installed properly, you'll see our message telling you so. After you've verified that the banner loads up fine locally, then upload the modified page to your web site.

  2. The CBEN banners on my page are displaying "broken images". What's the problem?

    Some web page "publishing" software takes the line breaks in the CBEN HTML code and inserts the <BR> tag. This is HTML for "line break". So, you end up with extra line breaks where you're not supposed to have any. In most cases, it breaks proper HTML standards.

    If this is happening to you, try this code, which has the line breaks taken out. Note: REPLACE the xx with your CBEN account number.

    Or, rather than "copying-and-pasting" the HTML code we give you, type it in by hand into your publishing software. Always check the page locally in your browser before you upload the file to your web site. If you have the CBEN banner installed properly, you'll see our message telling you so. After you've verified that the banner loads up fine locally, then upload the modified page to your web site.

  3. Is there any modification needed to place the code on more than one page? I have thirty pages or more, and I'd like to place the code on each page, with credit received for each page. I know that other banner exchanges have page number variables added to the code for each page.

    One account is good for the entire web site. All the pages under that URL are allowed to have the same account number. So, you can place your HTML code on as many pages as you want. All you have to do to make each page different is when you get your code for the first time you will see an option at the bottom of the page to "generate HTML for multiple pages". All you need to do is the page number you want and click okay and our script will create the proper code for as many pages as you wish up to 99. Our script will replace the 'p1' variable with a different page number. So, if you have 99 pages within your web site that display CBEN banners, the changes will be made for each code you create. 

    What you can't do is use the same account for a different web site. That would be a violation of the Terms and Conditions for membership. 

  4. Where should I place the banner on my page?

    We suggest you place the CBEN banner near the top of the page, so the banner gets loaded faster. You don't earn credits until after the banner has displayed. If you have the banner lower on the page, below many graphics, then the CBEN banner may not even load, thereby earning you no credits. Place the banner near the top of the page for the most effective exposure.

  5. I copied and pasted the code that you sent me to place in the html window of my web page. Is there supposed to be a banner that I see? Or do I have to insert my account number or URL banner address somewhere.

    Everything you need is in the HTML code we emailed you and on the confirmation screen when you signed up. If you take that code, YOUR account number is already built in. You gain 1/2 credit each time that section of code is processed on your web page. We suggest you place the HTML code somewhere near the top of your web page so that the banner gets loaded before the page visitor clicks on any other object on your web page that will take him/her off that page. If the banner doesn't load, you can't get credit.

  6. Also notice some CBEN banners don't display at all on members pages.

    It could be that the member site has not installed the CBEN banner HTML code properly. You might want to let the site owner know, so they can fix it. Or let us know and we'll look into it. Also, the server might be down at the time and cannot serve up the member's banner.

About Page Numbering


Back to top

  1. Can I skip pages when I number my banners? Say, if I label a section of my site using p2... then another section using p6... ?

    Sure, no problem. Just keep the numbers under our maximum of 99. If you exceed 99 pages, the stats for those pages will be added to the stats for page 1. Therefore if you need more than 99 pages per account, you will need to open a second account with CBEN if you desire to maintain separate stats history for those other pages on your site. More page numbering info.

If you're ready to join The Christian Banner Exchange Network

ENTER

Return to Main Page

Join Christian Banner Exchange Network Today!