Advertise your site FREE on Zone: 0 from 27th August to 2nd September!
Wednesday, 8th August 2012, 9:04pm (UTC), 16 Comments
I mentioned last time that my final guide addition would be joined by something else that would hopefully appeal to other site owners, and generally anyone creative, looking to get their handiwork noticed in the Sonic community. I'd like to announce that during the week of the final update, the last week of August, Zone: 0 will be kicking off an advertising program, beginning with an offer of completely FREE advertising for your website or content page (which can include blog, Youtube channel, deviantArt profile, potentially anything like that) throughout the site, for that one week only!

For those of you not familiar with what I've been up to here, Zone: 0 is a Sonic the Hedgehog fan project that's been in the works for eight years and online for five. Its range of information may be specific within the huge Sonic universe, but it makes up for this in its extreme detail, covering complete guides for the original Mega Drive/Genesis games, including thorough written notes, tonnes of screen shots and most popular of all, the kind of maps you really don't get anywhere else. Popularity and visitor numbers have constantly increased, the site's won community awards for its design and content, and so far this year over 100,000 visitors have passed its gates! Not only that but its wealth of content has them flicking through multiple pages and getting lost for ages in its libraries, and always coming back for more too!

Sadly though, it's a big site and therefore comes with a bit of a hosting price tag, one that's getting harder to afford in my current situation, so it would be nice if the site could start paying for itself, at least in part, using banner ads. To start the ball rolling and gather interest, I thought I'd offer the first week completely free! There are honestly no strings attached to that, if you own a site, you can submit a banner and have me put it up just for that week and that week only - no money, no link back to me, that's fine! However, if I could tempt you to carry it on into the following month for a small cost, on which I'm open to negotiations and deals, then I think you'll consider it worthwhile!

What types of sites and pages are applicable?

What no one really wants though is for this site to be covered in intrusive banners for products that have little or no relevance to anyone and don't match with the type of users we have here (that means you, gambling and porn sites). I want banners on here to be reflective of sites and services that visitors would actually conceivably be interested in, so they're actually useful and not annoying. I found my hosting company through a random ad banner for example, so it doesn't even have to be directly related to Sonic or gaming specifically. I may have to turn you down if your site isn't appropriate, but other than that, my ideas for partners are pretty broad. I would say my visitors typically range from pre-teens to twenty or thirty somethings, often young free and single, yet I've also had lovely messages from Mums and Dads who enjoy the site with their young children too. As such, the types of sites best placed to appear in banners here would be:

- Other Sonic and SEGA fan sites (a no brainer really)

- Other game fan sites (either games in general or particularly Sonic-like games, be they popular kids or classic franchises)

- Other types of gaming sites; reviews, strategy guide sites, etc (and when I say gaming, I DON'T mean gambling)

- Sites that offer online gaming, be it free little flash games or larger ones

- Commercial sites for toys, technology, or anything "geek" related!

- Building a game or some other cool software as a mobile phone app? Advertise it here!

- Don't have a site, but got a Sonic blog, youtube channel, deviantArt account or a page on another type of creative online service? Got something special on there that you've been working hard on? Why not be a part of this as well!


I'm open to all suggestions, so just run your site/page/whatever past me and I'll let you know if I think it has potential to get a few clicks on here!

Where do the banners go?

Banners will go in places where they don't detract too much away from the content, so users can enjoy the site as easily as they always have, but noticeable enough that they're not simply ignored. I have three places in mind, each a different size.

1. Top header banner, 468 x 60 pixels, sitting strikingly at the top of the home page and also any of the individual blog pages. Most visitors will arrive on the main page first, and the blog section remains popular. Your site here will be extremely noticeable! Click here to view.

2. Side square banner, 250 x 250 pixels, sitting to the side of the home page, just beneath the top two stories, and on the side of all blog pages, where it can afford to be the biggest of the three! Click here to view

3. Side square banner, 125 x 125 pixels, positioned alongside all game guide content pages - though this is the smallest banner, it'll catch the eye of the user most frequently as they peruse the many pages of the game guides! Click here to view

During the free week, I can only accept a banner for one of the above spots per site, but if you're desperate, you could buy one or both of the other spots as well for $3 each, for that week. Banners on all three spots will appear on rotation, so a new one will pop in on each load. Therefore, going for less used spots may prove prudent as you might just get more views! Note that if I receive lots of banner requests, the two types of side banner spots may extend to hold more than one banner at a time.

What do I have to do?

- Prepare a banner of exactly the dimensions listed above for your chosen banner spot. It can be an image (jpeg, animated gif or png format), or a flash banner of .swf format.

- If you're going for a flash banner, make sure you make the whole thing clickable, and it links to your site. I can apply the link to an image file, but not a flash file. You'd need to do that yourself. Also, no sounds in there please, they'd probably be quite annoying!

- Please aim for a file size no larger than 100kb for any one banner. A few k over might be ok, but anything significantly bigger might be rejected and in which case you'll be asked to make it smaller!

- Email me your banner and site link, please don't just leave it in a comment on this post or any other method of contact you may have for me, as I may miss it. Send your emails to ads@soniczone0.com

- If you're interested in purchasing space for more than one banner spot, for $3 each, let me know. I can only accept payment through Paypal though!

- The free banner week runs from Monday 27th August to Sunday 2nd September. You can submit your banner at any time between now and the end of that Sunday, but all free banners will be taken down after that time, regardless of whether you were there for the whole week!

What happens after the free banner week?

I'll be accepting paid banners for durations, typically, of one month, in the same banner spots as listed above. Please contact me for pricing though, as there are plenty of deals to be made with multiple banners, and there may be discounts on offer if you're a non-profit site such as a fellow fan site! I'm open to negotiation so please get in touch! I'll be asking any of those who have submitted banners for the free week if they would be interested in extending their time into September for a very reasonable price, but you're under no obligation to do so. If you're interested already, you can contact me now for banner placements in September and beyond, on the email address above.


I think that's pretty much everything! Hopefully I've made it clear enough that it is not my aim to bombard this place with sleazy, annoying ads to make a tidy profit. Acquiring banners for sites and services that are actually potentially useful to my visitors is my main aim here, along with raising enough money to cover hosting bills, so we can all benefit from this! You can help by getting the word out as much as you possibly can, and letting any site-owning or particularly creative friends know about this opportunity to get more hits their way, particularly if they're in need of them! Though I've already said that there will be no new guides after Sonic & Knuckles completes on the 30th August, more ads mean that Zone: 0 is much more likely to continue to exist and branch out into whole new areas as yet unexplored! Stay tuned, and don't forget to give a click to any banners that appeal to you!

Hope to hear from you soon,
LiQuidShade, site owner.
Comments   16 Comments have been posted.
#1. Comment posted by Brady Meyers on Thursday, 9th August 2012, 2:20am
As a regular visitor to soniczone:0, I'm very suprised & pleased of you continued commitment to the unofficial sonic site of the decade. Thumbs up, LQS!
#2. Comment posted by Peenut2k7 on Friday, 10th August 2012, 3:33am
Wait... advertising on MY Zone: 0? Now RetroGamer can get it's grubby little hands on the ultimate Sonic resource! D:
#3. Comment posted by Adam Unknown on Friday, 17th August 2012, 1:08pm
LiquidShade, are you psychic? Me and a few friends started up a gaming-news website/blog not too long ago (reviews, news etc.), and I've been eyeing up temporary, free (or cheap) advertising. What do I have to do to be applicable? :)
#4. Comment posted by Adam Unknown on Friday, 17th August 2012, 1:10pm
Edit - just saw the extra 'What do I have to do?' bit
#5. Comment posted by Adam Unknown on Friday, 17th August 2012, 1:23pm
The main figurehead, Sam, is away for a bit I think, but I know he'd approve! :D
#6. Comment posted by LiQuidShade on Friday, 17th August 2012, 6:37pm
Perfect! Just send a banner when you're ready :)
#7. Comment posted by Adam Unknown on Monday, 20th August 2012, 11:48am
Ok, I've just sent you a banner. We'd like to take the 468 x 60 one, please.
Thanks!
#8. Comment posted by Brady Meyers on Friday, 24th August 2012, 2:42am
It's my 20th birthday today, August 24
#9. Comment posted by Gemster312 on Monday, 27th August 2012, 4:46am
Not often do i comment here but ive been here at Zone 0 for quite the long long time. A few years. Huge fan though, secretly admiring ;)
Anywho i will be posting a submission soon of my little company i have started up, Crystal Arc Studios. My friend will probably post up the submission. Very happy to see you are doing some free advertisement :D
#10. Comment posted by Dan on Friday, 19th October 2012, 7:45pm
Congrats on finishing. Except that sounds like an understatement.
Your site is nothing short of legendary. Great work on sticking to it all these years, the final product is an incredible, huge, excellently presented package.
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#13. Comment posted by http://en.audiofanzine.com/Inklen/medias/ on Wednesday, 20th February 2013, 6:07am
Except that sounds like an understatement.
Your site is nothing short of legendary.
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#16. Comment posted by thomas on Monday, 6th May 2013, 9:24am
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