It seems every day some newfangled ad unit is being rolled out.  We’re not knocking experimentation, but leasing tweets or splashing branded wallpaper across a site is not a for everyone.

If all you really need is a banner ad in front of your target audience, why reinvent the wheel?  Try a service called PointBanner.   They’ve got one of the cleanest sales pitches we’ve heard in awhile – custom banner advertisements, 3 revisions, 48 hours, $49.

Unlike 99designs and Crowdspring, this service is strictly banner ads and all design work is performed by PointBanner’s staff.  No competitions with mystery contestants; no you-get-what-you-pay-for business model.   Because you get 3 design revisions, you can actually work with your designer to get it just right.   Point Banner also promises 100% custom work, so you’re not paying a pricey design firm or freelancer from Craigslist for templates.

Here’s how it works:  Submit a design request through PointBanner’s online system. You can choose a bundled package or pay the $49 fee for a single size.   Choose from rectangle, square, leaderboard, skyscraper, or full banner sizes (minimal upcharge of $5 for animation).  Then, give PointBaner your ad text, URL, and any special instructions.  Finish off by uploading your logo.  Within 24 hours, you will receive access to your PointBanner account (where all your ads are stored) and your first design iteration.

For local businesses or cash-strapped firms, this is pretty good deal.  You’re not paying for design services you don’t need or treking into unchartered advertising territory.

Video is becoming more and more popular all across the web, but the question that always bubbles to the surface is “How do I make money off of this?”

Sure, Google and YouTube have been serving up video advertising for awhile now, but with little control over who buys ad space and how those ads appear, web publishers are looking for a better way to sell their digital real estate.

Enter LongTail AdSolution, the first self-serve video advertising platform (well, technically it’s part ad network, part video plug-in). LongTail gives you the ability to embed a variety of video advertisements in your own website media player. It just so happens, LongTail Video makes one of our favorite open source video solutions, the JW Media Player, but favorites aside, you can install LongTail AdSolution on any media player, just by changing a few player settings and adding a line of JavaScript.

LongTail maintains proprietary relationships with many top ad networks (e.g. Google Adsense), so you can easily integrate and manage your existing advertisers/campaigns. Simply cut & paste your ad tags (snippets of Javascript and/or HTML that  launches creative from an outside server) into LongTail’s Dashboard and choose a video ad format (pre-roll, overlay mid-roll, and post-roll ,as well as traditional text and banner advertising). It’s that easy.

Overall, LongTail is a great solution for anyone looking to capitalize on their website video content. It’s totally flexible and easy to integrate, so why not give it a try. Just let us know what you think.

We usually discuss the positive aspects of customer feedback tools and how you can harness them to promote your brand or business on the web.  But what do you do when the reviews are in, and they are less than hot?

One avenue is Yelp for Business.  Yelp, if you’re not familiar, is a popular feedback forum where people give unsolicited reviews of local businesses.  Until now, it’s been consumer-oriented and businesses have been powerless to combat negative or false reviews left on the site.   After hearing merchants’ cries (and a few lawsuits), Yelp decided to give business owners a chance to respond to the naysayers and repair the damage to their reputation.

First things first, you’re going to have to fill out an online submission form and claim your business on Yelp.   We had to wait a few days, but once our account was approved, we were able to log in and create a business profile page.   This includes information about our services, images, and a section to publicize offers and announcements.  These features are a great way to personalize, as well as advertise, your business to Yelp users.  However, the real offering lies in the reviews and messaging tools that come with Yelp for Business.   These gives merchants the option of starting a private dialogue with the reviewer (sometimes, all they need is a personal connection or explanation) or they can post a response directly after the Yelp review.

Yelp for Business is free, so if nothing else, it’s a good precautionary measure.  Even if you don’t receive a single review, your profile will serve as your representation on the site.

Social media and blogs have changed the game of online advertising.  Traditional display ads are easily lost in the long-scrolling format of a blog and in general, users expect bigger, richer interactive experiences with brands.

The same creative heads behind the VideoEgg (an idea we discussed in Put an egg in your shoe), are rolling out a new ad vehicle called Twig.  Twig AdFrames are designed specifically for blogs and long webpages to provide constant ad exposure.  Twigs appear as thin bars at the top or bottom of the page, framing site content and staying in place, regardless of a user’s on-page movements.

Twig doesn’t obstruct or compete with site content; it just works a little harder to get noticed.   If a user chooses to interact with a Twig ad, the bar expands and becomes a full window, complete with rich media and user interactions.   Check out the demo here.

Like VideoEgg, Twig runs on a cost per engagement model (CPE), where you only pay when a user engages with your ad.   There isn’t a lot of information on Twig and it’s pricing yet, but VideoEgg is requiring publishers submit an application and maintain a minimum of 1,000 active daily visitors to be considered.

With new platforms and online experiences, you can’t expect the same old tricks to work.   Twig will hopefully be the first of many ad units catering specifically to blogs and the people who want to advertise on them.