One of the subjects that has been thrown around a lot lately is branding. I guess it is something that I have done for years without realizing it. Yet once I really started thinking about it, I realized that it is something too many people spend no time or money doing.

The large companies spend millions doing nothing but getting their name in front of customers. I have not had a television in years but the normal routine of people has probably not changed. A commercial comes and people are off doing the dishes, off to the bathroom or finish filling out your list of things to do for tomorrow.

Even though the mind set of people is to other things while the commercials are on, advertisers still spend huge money to get their name mentioned in a 30 second spot. Why? Even though a lot of people are doing other things, they still hear Drink Pepsi or Coke is the one.

Sure these people want you to watch the commercial and by running it over and over, they hope to accomplish this. But the real branding here is for you to hear or see their name. The more you see it, the more likely you are to remember it when you are making a decision on what to spend your money on.

When banner ads stopped producing the kind of response they once were, prices for them started dropping. If you need to pay bills this week, it is not the method of advertising that you would want to choose but for branding it is great.

A few hundred thousand banner impressions can do wonders for your name recognition. And today, with a little shopping around, you can get them very cheap.

I keep a constant watch on Ebay for banner impressions. Watch a few auctions and get a feel for what kind of prices they are going for. Then start watching for some good deals.

There are a lot of places that will put your banner on their site with unlimited impressions for a month, two months or even more.

There have been a few companies lately offering unlimited banners for the life of their site. Banners may not be the road to getting rich if you are trying to sell them but they sure can be a nice way to get a little name recognition for the advertiser.

A little word of caution here. Check out the person who is auctioning off the product. Ebay allows feedback on every transaction and you can get a pretty good picture of what kind of person you are dealing with. Make sure you check before bidding.

Here is a link to the section that has banner auctions.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&satitle=banner+ads

So many people think they have to get a return on their advertising investment today. You will find those who are very successful are always looking towards tomorrow.

Start thinking about the long term when spending money on advertising. A little money on branding yourself each month will go a long ways towards assuring your business success in the future. Think beyond today and start branding your future.