After working with tens of thousands of dollars of BlogAds across hundred of different blogs for a number of different clients, I started to realize that part of the reason I saw such better response (as an advertiser) from BlogAds as compared to other advertisements (even on other blogs) was the format of the ads. Freed from the constraints of official banner sizes and given the flexibility of "mixed elements," we consistently saw BlogAds over-perform for us if you found ways to make the most of those potentials.

As the publisher of indieWIRE, I'm wearing the opposite hat – I want you as an advertiser to have all of those same advantages when you're advertising with us. The lessons we learned across so many BlogAd placements about how to make the elements perform the best ended up being the same kind of advice we give indieWIRE advertisers: you're talking to a close knit community of regular readers.

That was one of the biggest reasons for indieWIRE switching to the BlogAds format: it lets you provide richer information in a way that doesn't scream for that attention. In fact, it's a tremendous opportunity to start a dialog with our readers (which is the best way for your ads to interact with our audience in any format) – many of you are providing information about opportunities our audience is already looking for.

This means thinking about your BlogAd a little differently than you've thought about other ads you've placed online – if you duplicate the strategies you've used in banner bars, you'll find your response rate is just about what you've grown (grudgingly) used to from other banner bars. There are much better ways to use these ads, and we have a vested interest in seeing our advertisers make the most of their budget.

I thought it might be useful to share six simple tips for making a good BlogAd based upon what we've found as fellow buyers of BlogAds as well:

1. Use All Three Elements! You've got a headline, an image, and a block of text that you can make all work together: design your ads to make the best use of all three. Rather than using the image to bring words along, move that content to the text that follows. It might even be helpful to think of your ad as a text newsletter ad plus an image and a headline.

2. Use HTML in the Text! Because is this the Web, you can make sections of your text bold or italic to improve the quick readability of a complex message. The Web is full of skim readers, and simple markup can help your message pop the important words that might attract the right readers' attention.

3. Use Hyperlinks in the Text! Believe it not, you'll increase your click-thru rate on the ads overall (we, in fact, try to find 2 or 3 detail pages to link to from the text of our ads.) Why not bold and hyperlink the word "submission deadline" directly to your submission page and let that word pop out as important in your ad?

4. Use provocative images! Your poster or your book cover is seldom the best image to use in your ad (although elements of those two might be.) People's faces, shots of locations, even production stills are frequently better source material. Logos, rendered text, and even too much detail work against letting that image tell part of your story.

5. Less can be more! The sizes that BlogAds give you are the maximums – but you could choose to do shorter images or no images at all, or a single line of call to action text or a bulleted list. Flexibility is one of the beautiful things about the format.

6. Change it up! With an online interface, just because you bought a week's slot doesn't mean you have to run the same ad for a week. For best results, try changing the creative message every few days (you'll find your click-thru rate goes up again after the change.) Every reader every day will see your see your ad: if they didn't click on after seeing it 10 times in one day, they probably won't click it tomorrow either. Find ways for a series of ads to tell a more complex story (while always linking them on to you for more information.)

You might not have noticed that the BlogAds above on this page aren't real – they are examples (thanks J.D. and Justice!) of the difference between a "bad BlogAd" and a "better BlogAd" following some of the tips above. There is also a gallery of ads (and critiques) over at BlogAds.com worth looking at (you'll find a few of our ads tucked away in there.)

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