OK, you've followed all of our advice and built a pretty substantial place for yourself on the Web. You've swept the floor, cleaned your gifs, hung out a welcome sign, and now... you wait. Where are the people? By God, it's your worst nightmare: You're throwing a Web party and no one's coming! What to do?

One way that many homepage builders are finding an audience is through something called banner networks. What's a banner network? A banner network gives structure to a consortium of member sites by giving smaller site producers the opportunity to promote themselves (usually free of charge) across the network, and to receive a piece of the overall advertising pie. Homepage producers like yourself can join these networks and — in exchange for allowing the network to place an ad frame on your site — you receive credits good for advertising your site on another member's site, or a percentage of cash received from advertisers. Whew! Relax, it's not as complicated as it seems.

Tripod has recently become partners with SmartAge, a company which offers advertising opportunities for Web page builders. SmartAge provides SmartClicks, an easy to use banner exchange program. Together with SmartAge, Tripod has introduced Smart Ads, a new banner exchange program for Tripod members.

Banner networks may be right for you if you're looking for an economical way to advertise your site and gain more traffic. Once you have decided to join the SmartAge banner exchange network through Smart Ads, there should be very few obstacles to your being able to enjoy increased traffic and promotion. Good luck!